HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM 17 



Cat. No. 93479, Tung Cheng, China; same donor; 11 inches (28 cm.) 

 long.) The latter is softer and apparently is of tree tallow. 



Japanese candles follow generally the methods of Chinese manu- 

 facture. It is more than probable that the art of making candles 

 was introduced from the older country. The candles made by the 

 Japanese are more accurately and neatly finished than the Chinese. 

 They are frequently beautifully decorated. The industry also was 

 most carefully organized in every detail. An ingenious method of 

 molding candles in paper tubes was worked out by the Japanese. 



In the Western Hemisphere a number of local or domestic indus- 

 tries connected with wax yielding trees and plants may be noted. 

 The bayberry, Myrica cerifera, of the eastern coast of the United 

 States produces a waxy substance which in the earlier days of the 

 country was made into candles by economical housewives of New 

 England. It is said to have been discovered by a New England 

 surgeon who made it into candles and introduced it into medicine. 

 The Indians made no use of the wax, as stated by Pere Lafiteau in 

 his work of 1724. In Middlesex, west side of the Connecticut Kiver, 

 near Haddam, is Candleberry Hill. There is tradition of the use of 

 the wax from berries here to make candles during the Revolution. 

 The method of extracting the wax was to fill a kettle half full of 

 water, put in bayberries and boil them. The heated mass was then 

 put in a bag over a kettle of water and strained. As the water cooled 

 a film of wax consolidated on the surface. This was the desired 

 wax. The wax was not only used in making candles but wax mixed 

 with tallow to harden the candles made for summer use. The wax 

 was also sold in drug stores. The cylinders employed in the early 

 graphophones were made of this wax. 



Candles were made in Brazil from wax from the Ceroxylon, or wax 

 palm. In northern Brazil the Klopstockia cerifera (cornauba) , pro- 

 duced a useful wax, as does a Myrica in Peru. The Virola sebifera 

 (dari), a large tree growing in Demarara, bears seeds from which 

 candles equal to wax was made. Specimens of bayberry candles 

 from New England are Cat. No. 229926; Alice Morse Earle. Rude 

 candles of myrtle wax, made by natives of Puerto Plata, Santo 

 Domingo, are Cat. No. 29923. (Charles A. Frazer; 12.2-15 inches 

 (31-38 cm.) long.) An account of bayberry wax is found in 

 Scientific American Supplement.* 



Rush candles in the British Isles preceded the candle with textile 

 fiber wick, and followed the fatted rush which was used in the clips 

 described. Rushes were gathered, the cortex peeled off, exposing 

 the pith except a small strip of the outer covering which was allowed 

 to remain to sustain the fragile pith. These were dipped in hot fat 



* Sept. 1. 1883, p. 6385. 



