Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume III.djvu/708

 698 CANDLE ted piece of statuary is the mausoleum of the emperor Louis IV. at Munich. CANDLE, a small cylindrical body of tallow, wax, spermaceti, or other futty substance, form- ed on a loosely twisted wick, used for a port- able light. Although in the English translation of the Bible we find occasional mention of candle- sticks, it appears that these were really lamps for burning olive oil, and not the supports for what we now call candles. Nor did the ancient Greeks and Romans possess any nearer ap- proach to these useful inventions than the rude torches prepared by dipping strips of papyrus or rushes into pitch, and coating them with wax. In the middle ages, according to Fos- broke, this kind of candle was in use, some of them being of 50 Ibs. weight, and containing a twisted tow wick. The tallow prepared from the fat of animals afterward came to be used for the manufacture of candles, and at a still later period the similar product, called sperma- ceti, of the fluid fat of the whale. The vegeta- ble kingdom, too, has been largely drawn upon to furnish from its oils, as those of the palm especially, and of the cocoanut, a solid mate- rial for this same use. The mineral kingdom, at last, has been made to yield from the bitu- minous coals, in the substance paraffine, an- other excellent material for candles. Common dipped candles have long been made by intro- ducing wicks of cotton yarn into warm semi- fluid tallow, and, when they have become satu- rated, taking them out and suspending them by one end till the tallow cools ; they are then dipped again, and again cooled, and so by each dipping accumulate more tallow, till they attain the required size. A mixture of mutton suet and beef fat is preferred to either alone. In- stead of the old-fashioned method of dipping by hand, a simply contrived machine has been devised, consisting of an upright revolving post, which carries 12 horizontal arms, at the end of each of which is attached a frame of six rods ; from each of these hang 18 wicks, mak- ing in all 1,296. As the post is turned round, each arm comes in succession over the reser- voir of tallow. The frame upon it is arranged so that the wicks can be let down into the tal- low. Thus one set after another receives an application of tallow, and is cooled as it re- volves around, before its turn comes for anoth- er dip. When the weather is not very warm, the whole can be completed in about two hours. An improvement upon the dipping pro- cess was the substitution of cylindrical moulds of the size of a candle, made of tin or pewter, and a number of them arranged in a frame : moulds of glass have recently been substituted for those of metal. A wick is secured through the centre of each mould, the tallow is poured in, and the wick being stretched tight, they are set away to cool. Wax is often added to tal- low, to give it greater hardness ; and it is also at times introduced first into the moulds, and by turning these round made to line them en- tirely, leaving a smaller cylindrical cavity, into which the tallow is afterward poured ; the can- dle is thus made to have its exterior part of wax. The greatest improvements in the manu- facture of tallow candles have resulted from the investigations of M. Chevreul into the com- position of animal and vegetable oils and fats. In 1813 he announced the discovery that most of these bodies consist of a number of com- pounds of different acids with one base, which he called glycerine. Combined with stearic acid, it forms stearine ; with oleic acid, oleine ; and with palmitic acid, palmitine. These bod- ies are called glycerides. Oleic acid is a fluid oil, which, according to its proportion in com- bination with the other solid acids, gives fluidi- ty to the mass, and the tendency to run in the candles. Glycerine, the base, is a sweet sirupy substance, which adds little to the inflamma- bility of the stearic and margaric acids with which it combines. By removing it from these acids, and then expressing from them the oleine, an excellent material for candles is obtained, hard and firm, and almost equal to those made of spermaceti. The best candles in general use in this country are made of spermaceti. This substance, which is fluid in the whale, becomes when taken from the animal a white crystalline mass, composed of a liquid oil and a solid matter, which is the pure spermaceti. The oil is removed by first straining off so much as will pass through the bags used as filters. The sperm is next placed in hempen bags and subjected to machine pressure. After this the substance is reduced to powder, placed in other bags, and pressed much more powerfully than before. The spermaceti cakes are next melted and boiled with a soda ley, just sufficient in quantity to form a soap with the oil in the sperm, without acting upon the solid matter. The soap floating upon the surface is skimmed off, and the sperm is set to crystallize in moulds ; only, however, to be again ground, pressed, boiled with an alkaline ley, washed with water, and moulded into blocks. From these blocks the candles are moulded as may be convenient. The moulds require to be heated to the tem- perature of the melted sperm, and slowly cooled after filling to prevent crystallization of the material, and the same precaution is required with stearic acid candles. The English are in the habit of adding about 3 per cent, of wax, which answers the same purpose of preventing the material from assuming the brittle, crystal- line structure. They, and the French also, sometimes introduce coloring matters into the candles, in so small quantity as not to destroy their beautiful transparency, nor to affect the brilliancy of their light. Gamboge gives to them a yellow tint like wax ; chromate of lead is used in France for this color, carmine for red, and Prussian blue for blue. Wax candles are now little used compared with the other kinds. They are made by dipping, and by pouring the melted wax over the wicks. The shape is given during the process and at its close by rolling the candles between marble