a cylindrical or slightly conical rod of solid fatty or waxy matters, in the centre of which is a wick formed of cotton fibres which are parallel, twisted, or plaited.
Until of late years, candles were solely manufactured from bees' wax, spermaceti, or tallow. The application of scientific chemical research, however, to this branch of art, coupled with the withdrawal of the vexatious excise supervision, which prevents improvements in every trade which comes under its influence, has so improved the materials used, as well as the manufacture itself, that all the best candles are now made from the pure solid and crystallizable margaric and stearic acids. These are freed from the fluid oleic acid, and from glycerine, which exist in combination with them in ordinary tallow, as well as from other analogous substances, as from paraffine (a carbo-hydrogenous substance resembling spermaceti, prepared from tar and peat), the stearic and margaric acids of the cocoa-nut oil and the palm oil (Elaeis guineensis), besides the old substances spermaceti, and wax both vegetable and animal.
Only the coarsest description of candles are now made from the tallow of the ox or sheep; but as the illuminating power of these candles is small as compared with the improved candles, while their rapidity of combustion is much greater, they are absolutely dearer as articles of consumpt than the candles of improved manufacture. The tallow, cut into small pieces, is melted, when the membranous portions, called the cracklings, rising to the surface, are skimmed off, and freed from their adhering fat by being subjected to pressure. The liquid tallow is then strained through a coarse sieve, and boiling water is mixed with it. The water carries down certain impurities to the bottom of the vessel, and, after settling, the melted tallow is lifted out and is ready for use. In making dip tallow candles the cotton wicks are arranged on sticks on a frame corresponding in size to the dipping cistern, and each frame is suspended from cross-arms which project from an upright beam turning on pivots. The workman turns these arms round, and as each frame comes over the dipping cistern, he presses the frame down so that all the wicks on it are immersed in the tallow. This coats the wick with one thin layer of tallow. The arms are then turned round, and each frame as it successively arrives over the cistern is treated likewise. The layer of tallow added in the dipping becomes consolidated before its turn arrives to receive a second dip, and the arms are turned round, and the candles dipped again and again, until all have acquired the desired thickness and weight, which is known by a counterpoise fixed to the arm.
For ordinary moulded candles, a certain proportion of sheep tallow is melted along with ox tallow, and run into moulds made of pewter finely polished inside. These moulds are not quite cylindrical, but taper slightly towards their point, so as to admit of the more easy removal of the candle. From ten to eighteen of these moulds are fixed by the larger extremity to a kind of trough, their taper points projecting downwards. The wick is then fixed in the centre of the mould, by being drawn through an aperture at the point of the mould which forms the upper end of the candle, and is retained in its place at the open extremity within the trough by means of a wire or other contrivance. The melted tallow being then poured into the trough fills all the moulds, and as soon as it is solidified the redundant tallow is removed from the trough, and the candle drawn out of the mould by means of the end of the wick which has been held by the wire.
The discovery by the celebrated French chemist Chevreul, that fats were composed of three highly inflammable bodies, stearic and margaric acids (solids), and oleic acid (a liquid), combined with a comparatively uninflammable body, glycerine,—has led to the creation of the great new manufacture of stearic and composite candles; the importance and growth of which will be understood when we state, that while in 1833 the new candles were unknown in England, and the quantity manufactured in France amounted to only twenty-five tons annually, a single London house (that of E. Price & Co.) manufactured last winter (1854) more than that quantity of stearic and composite candles daily, and employs in this business above 900 hands, and a capital of nearly three-quarters of a million.
The old process for making stearic acid may be thus described:—Tallow is boiled up with thin cream of lime, which causes the fat acids by superior affinity to forsake their glycerine and combine with the lime, the glycerine dissolving in the water; this combination is then broken by means of sulphuric acid, which, seizing on the lime, sets free the fat acids; these are then separated (the liquid from the solid), by means of pressure. This process of making fat acids is called "lime saponification." The hard matter remaining in the press is stearic, or a mixture of stearic and margaric acids, and the candles made from it are called stearine, or more properly stearic candles.
In 1840 it was discovered in England that by combining stearic acid with the solid matter, or stearine obtained by pressure from cocoa-nut oil, good candles not requiring snuffing might be made at a considerably less cost than stearic candles. These were called by the inventor "composite." The trade in these composite candles is now immense.
Since 1840 numerous great improvements have been invented, which have resulted in the present manufacture of candles having all the good qualities of the old stearic, while they are sold at prices little exceeding that of tallow candles.
The present improved process is this:—Palm-oil or other fatty matter is exposed at a high temperature to the action of concentrated sulphuric acid, which changes it into a mixture of fat acids of a very dark colour, with a high melting point; this is then distilled in an atmosphere of steam. The distilled material is either used for making the cheaper descriptions of composite candles, or is subjected to hydraulic pres- Candle.
sure, first at the temperature of the air, and then at a high heat; the result of pressure being the material used for making what are known as "Belmont sperm," corresponding with stearic candles.
It is a common fallacy to suppose that the capability of a candle to give a good light without requiring snuffing depends more upon its wick than on its material: the same piece of plaited wick which in a stearic candle would give a large good light, would in ordinary tallow give but a feeble glimmer; while a wick suited for common tallow would in stearic material flare away almost like a torch. Arsenic was formerly employed in the manufacture of stearic candles, in order that by its disturbing crystallization it might give a compact uniform appearance to the candle. Happily the modern process of pouring the candle material at so low a temperature into the moulds that crystallization cannot take place, attains the object quite as effectually. The use of arsenic has, therefore, for some time been entirely discontinued.
The mode of making moulded candles by machinery which is employed in the great manufactories, is as follows:—Each frame has a box attached to it, containing a bobbin for each mould; the same movement that expels the one set of candles from the mould uncoils a sufficient length of wick for the next; this is separated from the finished candles by means of a knife travelling on a rack; a set of forceps then holds each wick over the centre of its mould, which is now passed along a railway through a closet heated by steam pipes, by which it is raised to the required temperature by the time it arrives at the filler; having received its charge, it passes on till the material is sufficiently cooled to allow of the forceps being withdrawn without disturbing the position of the wicks. A little further on the superfluous material is scraped off; the mould is then passed across by means of a travelling truck to a parallel line of railway; by the time it has traversed the length of this and arrived at the drawer, the candles are sufficiently cold to be removed. Each machine has on an average 200 moulds, each mould contains 18 bobbins, and each bobbin, when first cottoned, 60 yards of wick.
Wax candles do not appear to have participated in the improvements which have attended the manufacture of the improved stearic or composite candles, and they appear to be still chiefly manufactured by hand. They are made of a cotton or flaxen wick, slightly twisted, and covered with white or yellow wax. Of these there are several kinds: some of a conical figure, used to illuminate churches, and in religious processions, funeral ceremonies, &c.; others of a cylindrical form, used on ordinary occasions. The first are either made with a ladle or the hand. 1. To make wax-candles with the ladle: the wicks being prepared, a dozen of them are tied by the neck, at equal distances, round an iron circle, suspended over a large basin of tinned copper, full of melted wax. A large ladleful of this wax is poured gently on the tops of the wicks one after another, and the operation is continued till the candle arrives at its destined size; with this precaution, that the three first ladles are poured on at the top of the wick, the fourth at the height of three-fourths, the fifth at one-half, and the sixth at one-fourth, in order to give the candle its conical form. Then the candles are taken down, kept warm, and rolled and smoothed upon a walnut-tree table, with a long square instrument of box, smooth at the bottom. 2. As to the manner of making wax-candles by the hand, candle-makers begin to soften the wax by working it several times in hot water contained in a narrow but deep cauldron. A piece of the wax is then taken out, and disposed by little and little around the wick, which is hung on a hook in the wall, by the extremity opposite to the neck; so that they begin with the big end, diminishing still as they descend towards the neck. In other respects the method is nearly the same as in the former case. However, it must be observed that, in the former case, water is always used to moisten the several instruments, to prevent the wax from sticking; and in the latter, oil of olives, or lard, is used for the hands, &c. The cylindrical wax-candles are either made as the former, with a ladle, or they are drawn. Wax-candles drawn are so called because they are actually drawn in the manner of wire, by means of two large rollers of wood, turned by a handle, which turning backwards and forwards several times, pass the wick through melted wax contained in a brass basin, and at the same time through the holes of an instrument like that used for drawing wire fastened at one side of the basin.
Flame has been defined to be a luminous bubble of gaseous matter; it is not, however, necessarily luminous, for the flame of pure hydrogen has but little illuminating power, although its heat is great. If, however, we project into the hydrogen solid matter in a minutely divided state, such as charcoal dust, the solid particles become white hot in passing through the flame, and greatly improve its luminosity. In the flame of candles hydrogen supplies the heat, and minutely divided carbon the light. A candle is a simple but ingenious contrivance for supplying the flame with as much melted material as it can consume without smoking. The fibres of the wick act as a congeries of capillary tubes, which convey the fluid fat into the flame, where, being exposed to a high temperature, and sheltered from the air by the outer shell of flame, it becomes subjected to a dry distillation. The inflammable vapour thus produced rises, and by constant combustion diminishes in quantity, and constantly in diameter, until at length it entirely disappears in a point. We have spoken of flame as a luminous bubble or shell, because it is in fact a hollow body, the exterior only being luminous, where the contact with the air produces perfect combustion. A current of air set in motion by the heat of the flame, causes fresh air constantly to stream up from below; the oxygen of the air, aided by the high temperature, decomposes the inflammable vapour of the fat into hydrogen and carbon; the hydrogen burns, or, in other words, unites with the oxygen of the air, and forms vapour of water; the carbon at the same moment is set free, becomes white hot, and imparts luminosity to the flame; but it does not disappear from the scene of action until it gets to the exterior of the flame, where the oxygen of the air seizes it and forms with it carbonic acid.
The flame of a candle consists of four tolerably distinct portions. 1. The dark interior, containing unburnt combustible vapour. 2. Around this the brilliant part of the flame, or the flame properly so called, where the hydrogen is united with the oxygen of the air, and the carbon, not having yet done so, is in an incandescent state. 3. Beyond this, another film or casing, where the oxygen of the air unites with the carbon. 4. The blue portion at the bottom of the flame, where the inflammable vapour undergoes perfect combustion, and no solid carbon is deposited to afford light. In a well-made candle, the hottest part of the flame is just at the top of the luminous cone where combustion is perfect, and the air not sufficiently in excess to carry away the heat so quickly as at the sides or in the blue part at the bottom.
For a long period tallow candles were subjected to an excise duty of one halfpenny per pound, wax and spermaceti candles to a duty of threepence halfpenny per pound. This was repealed from the 1st of January 1832.
Candle, Medicated, the same with Bougie.
Candles, Rush, are made of the pith of a rush peeled, except on one side, and dipped in grease.
Candle, Sale by inch of, an old kind of auction, at which persons were only allowed to bid while a small piece of candle continued burning; the moment it expired the commodity was adjudged to the last bidder.
Candle, Excommunication by inch of, is when the of- Candlemas fender is allowed time to repent while a candle continues burning; after which, he is excommunicated.