A HISTORY OF SURREY 



thus first carried out in Surrey.' Lee's map 

 of Wandsworth in 1838 shows this candle 

 factory near the present site of the Royal 

 Paper Mills. Until the year 1840, however, 

 no method had been discovered whereby any- 

 thing but tallow of a good colour could be 

 converted into white fatty acids, the palm oil 

 candles as yet made, though giving a good 

 light, being too dark in colour to become 

 (xjpular. Hempel and Blundell's patent was 

 afterwards assigned to the proprietors of the 

 firm of Edward Price & Co.,' and it is at 

 this stage in the development of the art of 

 candle-making that we must take up the his- 

 tory of this company. 



In 1830 the business of Edward Price & 

 Co. had been established by Mr. William 

 Wilson and his partner, Mr. Lancaster, ' for 

 the purpose of working an acquired patent for 

 the separation of cocoa-nut oil into its solid 

 and liquid constituents, with a view of utiliz- 

 ing the former, cocoa-nut stearine, as a sub- 

 stitute for tallow, and the latter, cocoa-nut 

 oleine, as a lamp oil.' In consequence of 

 the difficulty of obtaining regular supplies of 

 cocoa-nut oil, Edward Price & Co. established 

 first a branch house in Ceylon for the pur- 

 chase of the oil, and ultimately steam mills 

 for crushing cocoa-nuts, in order to extract 

 the oil as the raw material for their London 

 works. More capital being required for their 

 operations in Ceylon and for other purposes, 

 Mr. Lancaster sold his share to three capi- 

 talists, Messrs. Cockerell, Brownrigg, and 

 Larpcnt, and with these as sleeping partners, 

 with the addition of Mr. Brice Pearse, in 

 1845, Mr. Wilson continued to carry on the 

 business until it was acquired by Price's Patent 

 Candle Company in 1847.* It 's to the 

 efforts of this Company that is primarily due 

 the feet, that * while the discovery of the 

 constitution of fats and its first application 

 were made in France, to England belongs 



> See art. 'Slavery, Candles and War,' in 

 Chamber^ s Journal, May 1854, P- ^79- I am in- 

 debted to Cecil T. Davis, Esq., for this informa- 

 tion. 



> In 1845 the partners in this company dis- 

 claimed all that part of the patent of 1836 which 

 related to the obtaining certain products from 

 animal &t or tallow and applying them and bees- 

 wax to the making of tallow, as this part of the 

 invention had not proved beneficial (Close, i8i.c 

 pt 139, No. 9). ^^' 



• The patent in question was that Uken out 

 by James Soames, a Spitalfields soapmaker, in 

 1829, for 'a new preparation or manufacture 

 of a ceruin material produced from a vegetable 

 subsunce and the application thereof to the 

 purposes of affording light and other uses' (Pat 

 ef Invention, Nos. 5842, 5863). 



the honour of introducing those developments 

 by which fatty acid candles have been brought 

 within the reach of all consumers.' 



The first solid success of the Company was 

 attained in 1 840, by its production of a candle 

 suitable for the illuminations in honour of the 

 marriage of Queen Victoria. In endeavouring 

 to attain this end, Mr. James P. Wilson, who 

 subsequently became one of the managing 

 directors of the new company, — 



took advantage of the new stearic acid to harden 

 the stearine from cocoa-nut oil which Edward 

 Price & Co. had been making for some time, and 

 made a mixture of equal parts of the two bodies. 

 He also availed himself of the plaited wick which 

 had been patented in France in 1825 by Camba- 

 ciih. By the use of this wick the need for snuff- 

 ing candles is obviated, for during combustion the 

 wick becomes untwisted so that the lighted end is 

 bent outside the flame, and meeting the air is 

 completely consumed. Utilizing these materials, 

 cocoa-nut stearine, stearic acid, and plaited wick, 

 Edward Price & Co. manufactured the first • com- 

 posite ' candles, which gave a brilliant light, re- 

 quiring no snuffing and could be retailed at one 

 shiUing per lb. The new candles came rapidly 

 into notice, and the sales advanced in a manner 

 altogether without precedent. 



During 1840-2, the work of improving the 

 methods of producing fatty acids was carried on 

 earnestly by Mr. George F. Wilson, Mr. George 

 Gwynne, and Mr. W. C. Jones. Mr. Gwynne 

 directed his attention to distillation in vacuo, while 

 Mr. Wilson and Mr. Jones studied distillation by 

 the aid of steam, and the latter method was finally 

 adopted as easily managed and requiring only an 

 apparatus of simple construction. The latter in- 

 ventors turned their attention also to the use of 

 sulphuric acid as a saponifying agent as well as a 

 decolouriser and deodoriser of dark and strongly 

 smelling fats, and found that when applied at a 

 comparatively high temperature it acted so 

 thoroughly that, after the acidified fats had been 

 well boiled with water and then distilled by the 

 aid of super-heated steam, the distillate on being 

 pressed yielded hard, white, and inodorous fatty 

 acids. These discoveries revolutionised the manu- 

 facture by rendering available to candle-makers 

 dark and often malodorous fats, to wit, palm oil, 

 bone, and skin fats and greases instead of the ex- 

 pensive tallow previously used. Then began the 

 growth of an industry which established itself 

 firmly in England and on the continent, and which 

 supplied hard, white, self-snuffing ' stearine ' can- 

 dles in great abundance and at comparatively 

 moderate prices. Thanb to the investigations 

 carried on in their own establishment the business 

 of Edward Price 8f Co. progressed so rapidly that 

 by 1 847 large additional capiul was needed for 

 extensions, and in the summer of that year, in the 

 midst of a commercial panic when money was a 

 scarce commodity. Price's Patent Candle Company 

 was formed with a capiul of ^^500,000.* 



♦ Price's Jubilee Memoir. 

 406 



