CANDLES AND CANDLESTICKS. Can dles are commonly made of tallow ; but wax, spermaceti, stearine, palm oil, and other ma terials are also employed. A wick, mostly formed of cotton fibres, passes through the candle. The action of this wick is merely mechanical, serving in the first instance by the heat given out during its combustion to fuse that portion of the tallow or wax to which it is more nearly applied, and then to take up through its fibres tho fluid matter, which is thus prepared by minute division for decom position and combustion. In order to ensure the proper burning of the candle, the wick requires to bear a given relation to the thick ness of the candle.
There are two ways of making candles, which are distinguished as dipped or mould candles, according to the method employed. Dipped candles are made as follows :—Wicks made of spun cotton are selected of a size proper for the intended diameter of the candle, and are cut into the requisite lengths by a simple and convenient machine, being first doubled and twisted so as to leave a loop at one end. Into this loop a smooth cylindrical stick half an inch in diameter and about three feet long is inserted, and several of the cottons or wicks, being so treated and disposed at regular inter vals on the stick, are ready to receive their external coating of tallow. The number of cottons ranged upon each stick varies accord ing to the size of the candles to be made. The tallow, being previously melted and strained, is placed in a kind of trough, into which the wicks are dipped three times for the first ' lay;' after being kept a short time over the trough for the wicks to drain, the sticks are placed on a rack from which the candles hang freely, and are thus allowed to harden. The same process is repeated a second and a third time and oftener, according to the required weight of the candles. Where large quantities are to be made, several sticks are placed together in a kind of frame, and are lowered into the melted tallow and raised again by machinery, a counter-weight being used in order to indi cate when the wicks have taken up the re quired quantity of tallow.
Mould candles are made in cylindrical moulds of pewter, one end of which is smaller than the other to allow of the easy removal of the candles.
From 10 to 10 of these moulds are placed together in a wooden frame, so that their larger ends terminate in a kind of trough ! common to the whole ; the wicks are inserted I and kept firmly in their proper places in the centre of each cylinder by strong wires. The I frame being then placed with tho trough up permost, the moulds are filled with melted tallow and are placed in the air to cool, after which the wires by which the wicks are fixed are withdrawn, the superfluous tallow is re moved from the trough, and the candles are pulled out of the moulds.
The process used in making wax candles is different. The wicks being cut and twisted in the manner above described, a set of them is suspended ever a basin of melted wax, which is taken up by a large ladle and poured from time to time on the tops of the wicks, and the melted wax running downwards ad heres to and covers the wicks throughout their length. This is repeated until a sufficient weight of wax has been gathered upon each. After the candles are sufficiently cooled, they are rolled upon a smooth table in order to give them a perfectly cylindrical form, and they are then polished.
The candle manufacture is distinguished by many interesting features. In most cases the processes are little other than of a handi craft character ; but in large establishments machinery is more and more introduced. At the great soap and candle works in London, and at other establishments of magnitude elsewhere, store or dip candles are made by dipping as at other places ; but a greater number are dipped at one time. Twenty to twenty-four candles, for instance, are hung on one broach or stick ; thirty broaches are ranged side by side to form frame ; and thirty six frames are suspended from a machine which is capable of being brought over the vat of melted tallow. There may thus be twenty to five and twenty thousand candle wicks sus pended from one machine, and all the candles made by one man and a boy in less than a day.