with Wooden Wicks. 
151 
cotton is wound round the wick by the hand; but in gene- 
ral it is done by means of a reel, which I have not yet 
been able to see. The thin slips of wood are furnished 
to the candlemakers by the country people, and, if we 
may judge from their appearance, are cut into the proper 
form by means of a knife, without the application of any 
machine. They are for the most part somewhat square, 
and not completely rounded. The candlemakers often 
prepare these slips of wood also themselves, when they 
have none ready by them, and for that purpose use pine, 
willow, and other kinds of wood, though they commonly 
employ fir. For making these candles it is necessary to 
have the purest tallow : a pound will be sufficient to make 
six or seven, which cost twenty-five kreutzers. The 
price of common moulded candles with cotton wicks is 
twenty-two kreutzers ; but as the former burn much longer, 
they are on the whole cheaper.” 
Another method of making the wicks is as follows : 
Take shoots of the pine tree a year old, scrape off the 
bark, and when they are become perfectly dry scrape 
them again all round till they are reduced to the size of a 
small straw. When the above wood cannot be procured, 
well dried common fir twigs of a year old, and of the 
same strength, may be prepared in the like manner. 
These rods are then to be rubbed over with wax or tal 
low, till they are covered with a thin coating of either of 
these substances ; after which they must be rolled on a 
smooth table in very fine carded cotton, drawn out to 
about the length of the rod or candle-mould. Care how- 
ever must be taken that by this rolling no inequalities 
may arise on the rod, and that the cotton may be every 
where of equal thickness, though at the upper part a lit- 
tle more of it may be applied. After this preparation the 
wick will have acquired the size of the barrel of a small 
quill; and the more accurately the size of the wick is 
