CANDLE. 



375 



Candle, form, wax candles arc sometime! made of a conical 

 figure, and are intended chiefly to illuminate churches, 

 ;o be used in processions ami funeral ceremonies. 

 'I'll.' pyramidal form is given them, by pouring the 



upon the wicks at different heights: the i 

 first ladles are poured on at the top of the wick ; 

 the fourth ladle at the height of three- fourths ; the 

 fifth at one half; and the tixth at one-fourth. Can- 

 dies of this shape, after being rolled and smooth- 

 ed, have their big end cut off, and a conical hole 

 made in it to receive the point in the candlestick. 

 There is still another kind of wax candle, or taper, 

 -aid to be the invention of Pierre Blnssimmere of Pa- 

 ris, and brought by him from Venice about the 

 middle of the 17th century. The process consists in 

 making a wick, of some yards in length, pass several 

 times through a brass bason of melted wax, and at 

 the same time through the holes of an instrument 

 like that used for drawing wire, by means of two 

 rollers of wood turned by a handle. 



We shall now give an account of the different im- 

 provements which have been suggested upon the ma- 

 nufacture of the common candles, and mention some 

 of those substances which have been proposed as sub- 

 stitutes for tallow and wax. It will be necessary, 

 however, previously to explain the process of burn- 

 ing in candles, and to state the comparative advan- 

 tages of the two substances usually employed. 



The wick of the candle being always a combusti- 

 ble substance, readily catches fire upon the applica- 

 tion of a flame. The heat thus produced fuses a 

 portion of the tallow, or wax, which immediately 

 rises through the fibres of the wick by a kind of ca- 

 pillary attraction. The melted matter, as it ap- 

 proaches the flame, is gradually volatilized and set 

 on fire ; a new portion of melted tallow, or wax, as- 

 cends in the same manner, and is, in its turn, heated 

 and burned : and in this way a constant combustion 

 is maintained. A candle differs from a lamp, chiefly 

 in the circumstance, that the tallow, or wax, is melt- 

 ed gradually, and in small quantities, and is retained 

 in a cup formed by the solid part of the candle. As 

 this cup must obviously be of very small dimensions, 

 it is of the last consequence that the quantity of 

 matter melted never exceed the power of the wick to 

 absorb it, otherwise the candles will gutter. The 

 size of the wick, therefore, must always be propor- 

 tioned to the fusibility of the substance employed ; 

 the more fusible substance obviously requiring the 

 larger wick. Of the two substances commonly used, 

 wax is the least fusible. Tallow melts at 9 C 2 of 

 Fahrenheit, spermaceti at 133, and bleached wax at 

 155. The flame of wax is less brilliant than that of 

 tallow, which is supposed to be owing to the wax 

 being already combined with a portion of oxygen. 

 This disadvantage, however, is more than compensated 

 by its being less fusible ; by which means a smaller 

 wick may be used, which not only affords the ad- 

 vantage of a clear perfect flam , but, in consequence 

 of its flexibility, it naturally falls to one side, and, by 

 thus coming in contact with the air, is burnt to 

 ashes. The wick of the tallow candle being much 

 larger, preserves its position in the centre of the 

 llame, which is less perfect, from its internal part not 



being completely exposed to the action of the air. Candle. 

 As the burning proceeds, the wick lengthens, and, 

 consequently, the distance between its top and tUe 

 point of the flame diminishes ; from which it fol- 

 lows, that the oil which issues from the extremity of 

 the wick, having a smaller portion of flame to put 

 through, will be less perfectly burnt, and will pass 

 off partly in smoke. The wick soon rises above the 

 top of the flame ; but, owing to its size, and the 

 quantity of .ul which it contains, it is not converted 

 into ashes, and dissipated, as in the cabe of the wax 

 candle. On the contrary, the half decomposed oil U 

 converted into a kind of coal, or soot, which gra- 

 dually accumulates upon the top of the wick, and 

 assumes the appearance of a fungus. In order, there- 

 fore, that a tallow candle may burn with any degree 

 of clearness, constant snuffing is requisite. 



From the above statement, it appears, that the 

 chief difficulty in improving the burning of the tal- 

 low candles, aribes from the great fusibility of the 

 tallow. Several attempts have been made to remove, 

 or at least to lessen, the evil, but none of them have 

 completely succeeded. If it were possible, by means 

 of some chemical agent, to produce such a change 

 upon tallow, as to raise its melting point several de- 

 grees, and there is reason to believe, that some such 

 change is produced in wax by the absorption of oxy- 

 gen ; this, certainly, would be the most direct me- 

 thod of removing the evil. Several chemists, and, 

 among others, Mr Nicholson, have engaged in expe- 

 riments with this view ; but we are not aware that 

 their success has been in any degree equal to the 

 importance of the object sought after. As a substi- 

 tute for this desideratum, it has been proposed to 

 strengthen the cup by covering the tallow with a 

 thin coating of wax. A candle of this kind, called 

 .lobchock, is known at Canton in China. Mr Nichol- 

 son informs us, that he attempted to imitate this 

 Chinese candle, by pouring a quantity of wax into a 

 mould, and immediately pouring it out again before 

 running in the tallow. In this way he covered the 

 tallow with a thin film of wax ; but owing, perhaps, 

 to the wax naturally contracting more than the tal- 

 low in cooling, or to the sudden cooling of the wax 

 before the tallow was poured in, he found, upon 

 drawing the candle, that it was cracked longitudi- 

 nally on its surface. At any rate, it is not at all 

 likely, when we consider the additional labour and 

 expence connected with the manufacture of this spe- 

 cies of candle, that it will ever become an article of 

 general use. 



The next expedient employed, was to make an ar- 

 tificial cup ; which, in fact, is nothing else than burn- 

 ing the tallow in a lamp. With this view, a hollow 

 brass tube is attached to the top of a cylindrical 

 piece of tallow, or a candle without a wick. The 

 upper aperture of the tube is partly closed with a 

 ring, in the centre of which is inserted a small me- 

 tallic piece, nearly resembling that part of the com- 

 mon lamp which carries the wick, with which it is 

 also provided. The tube rests upon the upper ex- 

 tremity of the candle, and is so nicely adapted to its 

 size, that it slides gently down as the tallow con- 

 sumes. The flame produced in this way is brighter, 

 and more uniformly intense, than that of a candle of 

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