Messrs. Mattewson, candle manufac turers of Baltimore, have introduced a new English patent machine for making candles, which is both ingenious and possesses uncommon merit in an econo mical point of view.
It consists of a number of moulds, holding 18 each, which are furnished with a bobbin to each mould, holding wick for over 100 candles on each bobbin. At the commencement, the first mould is threaded by hand. It is then placed on a railroad and brought under a cistern from which it is filled with tallow ; it is then shoved along to a carriage, which, when it has received its load, is convey ed by rail outside to an open shed in the yard, where it is allowed to cool. When that operation is completed it still con tinues its circuit on the railroad, until it arrives at the machine, upon which it is placed, and a stroke of a lever ejects the whole 18 candles, at the seine time threading the moulds for a fresh charge; a revolving saw-knife cuts off the wicks as quick as the hand can move it across the machine ; the ends of the wicks are seized by pincers, which grip each of them as a person would with the finger and thumb ; it is again placed on the rail and continues its course to undergo the same operation. On their way over the rail they are interrupted by a person who removes the pincers and trims the butt-ends of the candles.
Mr. A. L. Brown of NewHaven, Conn., took out a patent in October, 1849, for an improved moulding - - - apparatus. The im provement in this apparatus consists in constructing the mould with a screw on the upper part, about two inches from the end, for ad 4usting and secur ing it in the frame, and a shoulder near the upper end to support the tallow table, and a hole to admit the wire which supports the wick also in attaching all the wires which sup port the wicks to a slide worked by a Comte 10/ 11 l7 .1...
die, and governed by a guard, so that all the wicks may be evened by one motion of the hand, and then be all centred by another motion ; also in using a smooth tallow table, level with the tops of the moulds, to allow the tallow to be easily scraped off and the whole kept clean.
Fig. 1, is a side-view of one of the moulds, showing the screw by which cities of light and the duration of dif ferent candles : it is to be adjusted and secured in the frame; the shoulder on which the tal low table rests, and the hole through which the wire passes. Fig. 2, is a sec tional view of one of the moulds, show ing the wick when in the mould, as supported by the wire.
Great care is requisite in selecting the cotton for the wicks of candles, which should be of such a nature as to leave no ash, or scarcely any, when burned. The wick is occasionally impregnated with different substances, and sometimes 'so platted as to curl out of the flame. The following table contains the results of some experiments made by Dr. Tire, with a view of ascertaining the relative mitten In reference to the above table, it ap pears from Dr. Ure's experiments that one-eighth of a gallon of good oil, weigh id,g 6,010 grains, or 13 and 1-10th ounces avoirdupois, lasts in a bright argand lamp 11 hours 44 minutes. The weight of oil it consumes per hour is equal to four times the weight of tallow in candles eight to the pound, and 3 and 1-7th times the weight of tallow in candles six to the pound; but, its light being equal to that of five of the latter candles, it appears from the above table, that two lbs. weight of oil, value one shilling (sterling), in an argand lamp, are equivalent in illuminati ing power to 3 lbs. of tallow candles, which cost about three shillings, sterling. The larger the flame in the above candles, the greater the economy of light. In re ference to the comparative cost of coal gas, oil, tallow, and wax, it appears that the cost of a lamp fed by gas, and giving the light of about seven candles, will be about one penny sterling per hour ; of an argand lamp, fed with spermaceti oil about threepence, of mould candles about threepence-halfpenny, and of wax candles about one shilling. Ninety cubic feet of good coal gas, value about one shilling sterling, will produce the light of about ten wax candles for one hour.