CANDLE, a cylinder of wax or fatty matter, with a wick, intended for giving light. Candles are made principally of tallow; also of the solid portion of palm and cocoa-nut oils, bleached wax, spermaceti, and paraffin, and other oily substances found in coal, shale, and gas-tar. They are either dipped, molded, or rolled. " Dips " are made by stretching a number of wicks upon a suitable frame, so that they may hang down at a, distance from each other equal to about double the intended thickness of the C.; these are then dipped in a trough of melted tallow, and hung upon a rack until cooled, then dipped again and again, until the required thickness is obtained. The dipper has a number of frames prepared before commencing, and by the time lie has dipped the last, the first is cool enough to dip again. The tallow in the trough has to be kept only a little above its melting point, for if it were much hotter, it would melt away a portion of the tallow already on the wick, instead of adding to it. Tallow-candles arc much improved by being kept a year or a winter before using.
Molds, or mold-candies, are cast by pouring the tallow down a pewter tube, along the axis of which the wick has been previously fixed. These tubes are well polished in the inside, and several ere fitted in a frame, the upper part of which forms a trough, into which the molds all open: thus, by pouring into the trough, all the molds are filled at once.
Wax-eandles are not molded, on account of the great amount of contraction which wax undergoes in and the difficulty of drawing it from the molds. The wicks are warmed, and suspended over a basin of melted wax, which is poured over them until they acquire the proper thickness; they are then rolled, while hot, between two fiat pieces of smooth hard wood, kept wetted to prevent adhesion.
Great improvements have recently been made in the manufacture of candles, and these are especially interesting from being the direct results of the progress of scientific chemistry—of theory applied in practice. All oils or fats are composed of one or inure fatty acids combined with a base, called glycerine. The fatty acids constitute the com bustible and more solid portion of the compound. Both acid and base are very weak, and it is a general law in chemistry, that a strong base, under favorable conditions, will separate a weaker one from its acid, by combining with the acid, and taking the place of the weak base; and a strong acid will in like manner displace a weaker one. Lime is a strong base, and hieing cheap, is used to separate the glycerine from the fatty acid of tallow, palm-oil, etc. This it does when the melted fat is stirred for sonic hours with a mixture of lime and water. The lime forms a hard insoluble soap, by combining with the fatty acid, and the glycerine remains in solution with the water. This lime-soap is then broken to pOwder; and the weak fatty acid separated by means of sulphuric acid, which combines with the lime, forming sulphate of lime. The whole being heated, the fatty acid floats on the top, is skimmed off, and the candles made from it. These are called composite candles; they give a purer light than ordinary tallow, from being freed from the glycerine, which not only softens the fat, but diminishes its combustibility. Pure stearic acid, or stearine, the chief fatty acid of tallow, is a hard crystalline sub stance, perfectly dry, and free from any greasiness, with a somewhat pearly luster. Its crystalline structure presents a difficulty in the manufacture of candles, for when cast in molds, it contracts on cooling'', and leaves small spaces between the crystals. This has been obviated by mixing a little arsenic with it; but this method is now abandoned, on account of the poisonous gas evolved by the combustion of such candles, and the desired effect is obtained by mixing the stearine with a little wax, and pouring it into hot molds.
To obviate the necessity of snuffing candles, several contrivances have been adopted; iu all of them, the object is effected by causing the \Nick to bend over and its end to fall outside of the flame, and thus, by coming in contact with the oxygen of the air, to be completely burned—for such combustion cannot take place within the flame. See FLAME. This bending over is variously brought about. One method is by the wick with one strand shorter than the rest, which is strained straight while the candles are being cast ; and when released by the melting of a portion, it contracts, and bends the wick. -knottier method is by adding on one side of the wick a paste, consist ing of a mixture of borax, bismuth, flour, and charcoal. Another, by coating one of the threads of the wick with a metallic envelope, by dipping it in fused bismuth; the metal fuses at the end of the burning wick, and forms a small globule, which bends the wick over, and is itself readily combustible at a red heat. These are called volatile wicks. Various other contrivances have been adopted for the same object. Price's manufactory of " patent " candles, as these improved candles usually are called, is perhaps the largest in England. It is situated at Vauxhall, in the neighborhood of London, and its economic arrangements have attracted not a little public attention. Paraffin. (q.v.), a white crystalline body, obtained by distillation from cannel coal, etc., affords a beautifully white and clear material for candles, and having thus in a great degree the properties of wax at a much smaller expense, it has lately been much used for this purpose. Ozokerit is another oily mineral substance used for candles.
Candles were early introduced—with symbolical signification—into Christian worship, and are still so employed in the Roman Catholic church. In the church of England, candles are sometimes placed on the altar; but the practice is a subject of contro versy. The numerous superstitious notions and observances connected with candles and other lights in all countries had a more remote origin, and may be considered as relies of the once universally prevalent worship of the sun and of fire. Numerous omens are taken from them, and they are also used as charms. In Britain, a portion of the tallow rising up against the wick of the candle, is called a winding-sheet, and regarded as a sure omen of death in the family. A bright spark at the candle denotes that the party directly opposite is to receive a letter. Windy weather is prophesied from the waving of the flame without visible cause, and wet weather if the wick does not light readily. Lights appearing to spring up from the ground, or issue out of a house, and traverse the road or air by invisible agency, the superstitious in Wales and else where call corpse-candles. They are ominous of death, and their route indicates the road the corpse is to be carried for burial. The size and color of the light tell whether the fated person is young or old. It is or was customary in some places to light a eandle, previously blessed, during the time of a woman's travail. C. were supposed to be efficacious after death as well as before birth, for placed on the corpse. Th.. object was doubtless to ward off evil spirits, who were supposed to be always on the ;itert to injure souls on entering and on withing the world. See also CA/cum.:3[as.