INDUSTRIES 



which was second only to Liverpool. 

 234,000 lb. were made in Wandsworth, 

 but this was exceeded by the produce of the 

 Southwark and Lambeth works.* 



In 1850, as we have seen from the fore- 

 going account of Messrs. Hawes' works, the 

 two industries of soap and candle making, 

 which in earlier times had been quite distinct, 

 had already come to be carried out in the 

 same establishment. This state of aflfairs is 

 so much the case to-day that it is now im- 

 possible to consider the two industries apart. 

 It is due to the classic researches of the 

 French chemist, Chevreul, made between 

 the years 181 1 and 1823, into the nature of 

 fatty bodies and to the increase, consequent 

 on the knowledge we have gained of their 

 chemical constituents, of the range of 

 materials which can be utilized for the 

 production of both commodities. Inasmuch 

 as the first practical and successful application 

 of the new scientific facts to the art of candle- 

 making has been due in the main to the 

 efforts of the two great Surrey firms of Price's 

 Patent Candle Company at Battersea, and of 

 Messrs. J. C. & J. Field of Lambeth, it is 

 fitting and necessary in treating of the history 

 of these two firms ' to notice here the chief 

 changes that have been brought about in the 

 whole manufacture of candles. 



In early times when candles were more of 

 a necessity to our daily life than they are 

 to-day, with our enormous consumption of 

 gas and electricity and other artificial illu- 

 minants, two materials only were used in 

 their manufacture, namely, wax and tallow. 

 The manufacture of each of these two sorts of 

 candles was kept distinct, and so far as Lon- 

 don and its neighbourhood were concerned 

 was superintended by the two city companies 

 of the Wax-chandlers and the Tallow- 

 chandlers respectively. It was not until 

 nearly the middle of the eighteenth century 

 that another candle-making substance was 

 foimd in spermaceti. 



But all this time, and indeed until 1823, 

 when Chevreul had published the results of 

 his researches, it has been said that candle- 

 making was innocent of science, and as an art 



1 Brayley and Britton, Hist, of Surr. v. App. 

 40. 



2 For the following sketch of the development 

 of the candle-making industry and for the more 

 particular accounts of Price's Candle Company 

 and of Messrs. J. C. & J. Field, Limited, the 

 editor is indebted in the main to information 

 supplied by the former company and printed in 

 their Juiike Memoir (29 May 1 897), and by Mr. 

 F. A. Field, the present managing director of the 

 latter company. 



' consisted of little more than taking greasy 

 materials in their natural state and applying 

 to them a means of combustion which had 

 been done even in savage nations from time 

 immemorial." Chevreul proved that oils 

 and fats instead of being simple organic sub- 

 stances, as was previously supposed, consisted 

 of fatty acids in combination with the ele- 

 ments of a comparatively uninflammable 

 organic body, namely glycerine. 'The 

 candle-maker, it was then seen, had been 

 making a great mistake in employing fatty 

 bodies in their natural state, and must needs 

 set about the discovery of the best and most 

 economical means for obtaining from them 

 the hard white fatty acids which Chevreul 

 had discovered. Chevreul himself, despite 

 his better judgment that scientific research 

 was his true work, attempted in conjunction 

 with another distinguished chemist, Gay- 

 Lussac, to solve the manufacturing problems 

 which he had propounded. His endeavours 

 in this line proved abortive, but success came 

 in 1832 to a French manufacturer, M. de 

 Milby, of the firm of De Milby & Motard, 

 who succeeded in producing from tallow by 

 a modification of Chevreul's method hard 

 white stearic acid candles that were sold in 

 Paris under the name of " Bougies de I'Etoile" 

 at IS. 8^d. per lb.' 



Although the practical carrying out of the 

 scientific discovery had now been attained, 

 the difficulty of manufacturing the new 

 candles at a low price still militated against 

 their adoption into general use. For stearic 

 acid required nearly twice and a half its 

 weight of tallow to produce it, and the other 

 product of tallow was a comparatively refuse 

 oil. The manufacture was however soon 

 introduced into England, Messrs. J. C. & 

 J. Field claiming to have been the first 

 makers of stearine, about the year 1835, in 

 this country. Some improvements were 

 made and a patent for making fatty acids from 

 palm oil was taken out in 1836 by John 

 Frederick William Hempel, a Prussian 

 officer of engineers, then residing at Clapham, 

 CO. Surrey, and Henry Blundell of Hull, co. 

 York.* The rights of the patentees were 

 acquired by the firm of Messrs. Blundell & 

 Spence, who set up a factory at Wandsworth, 

 the manufacture of palm-oil candles being 



' Lecture on ' The Stearic Candle Manufac- 

 ture,' delivered before the Society of Arts on 5 

 February 1 85 2, by G. F. Wilson, Esq. This and 

 the following passages in this account quoted in 

 inverted commas are taken from Price's Jubilee 

 Memoir. 



*■ Pat. of Inventions, No. 7184. 



405 



