Scientific News, Accounts of Books, 0c, 475 



Candles with wooden Wichs, 



Profeflbr Medlcus of Heidelberg has given an account of the candles with wooden 

 wicks, which for fome years paft have been manufa£lured and ufed at Munich, from the 

 original inftruftions of Count Rumford, whofe adlive fervices in advancing the comforts 

 of fecial life are fufliciently known ♦. The profeflbr ufed them for a whole winter, and 

 found them fuperior to every other kind of candle in the following advantages : they give 

 the fame quantity of light as a wax candle (bougie) ; they burn with an equal and conftant 

 flame ; they do not fputter, and never run over. 



The only difference between thefe and common candles confifts in the wick. The 

 profeflTor did not know the adtual procefs of the manufadlory in wrapping the cotton round 

 the wood. The editors of the Annales think, that the flake of cotton delivered from the 

 carding engine, and then preflTed between rollers, would be exceedingly well adapted to 

 the purpofe ; and there is no doubt that various methods may be adopted for fo eafy a pro- 

 cefs. Any kind of refinous wood may be ufed, and tallow of the firft quality is applied to 

 this objeft in Bavaria. The candles are fold one eighth dearer; but as it is ftated that 

 they laft one fourth longer, there muft be a confiderable favin^. 



The fize of the wood is about that of a ftraw, and the pieces are dipped in wax or 

 tallow, fo as to have a very flight covering of the material. They arc then rolled up in 

 the carded cotton till they have acquired the fize of a common wick. The covering muft 

 be very equally diftributed. The editors propofe, in order to detach the wick from the 

 reft of the cotton without the ufe of fciflTors, that a fliraight edge of iron fhould be prefl'ed 

 on the place where the feparation is intended, and the wick then drawn away. 



The candles are made in a mould as ufual, taking care to place the wick exadtly in the 

 middle. Some experiments would no doubt require to be made, particularly to afcertaiji 

 the bed dimenfions or proportions of wood, cotton, and tallow, for candles of different 

 fizes. The fnufl^ers would require to be {harper than for cotton wicks. I do not remem- 

 ber how we fnuffed the lob chock at China; but I think we broke off" the charred piece 

 with the fingers, or any convenient implement. 



Ink capable of rejijitng the ABion of Oxygenated Muriatic Acid, 

 Since the difcovery of the bleaching power of the oxygenated muriatic acid, and parti- 

 cularly that of difcharging the traces of common ink, it has become an objeft of ferious 

 inveftigation to form an atramentous fluid, which fhould not be fubjedl: to a treatment fo 



• The account is in Reim's Neue Fortgefetzte Sainmlung Vermifchter OEkonomifchen Scliriften. 12, 

 Th.— I have not this work, but recur to the Annales des Arts et Mapufaftures II. 100. I do not know 

 whether the Count was led to this conftruftion by his own meditations, or from a Icnowlcdge of the Chinefe 

 candle, called the Lob cboci, for an account of which fee ow firft Vol, page 71.,— -N» 



4 obvioufly 



