ON THE STEARIC CANDLE MANUFACTURE. 
253 
of lime, which causes the acids to forsake the glycerine and com- 
bine with the lime ; the acids are then set free by combining the 
lime with sulphuric acid, and the oleic acid is afterwards separated 
from the margaric by simple pressure. This is the process of lime 
" saponification." A large cake of margaric acid, which had 
been shown by De Milly at the Exhibition, was exposed upon the 
lecture-table. 
The obstacle to the success of this process was its expense, the 
margaric acid requiring nearly two and a half times its weight of 
tallow to produce it. This obstacle was overcome by the firm of 
which the lecturer is a member, who in 1830 became possessed of 
a patent for separating cocoa-nut oil into its solid and liquid parts. 
Tn 1831, the candle manufacture was freed from the excise, and 
received in consequence a great impulse. The success of candles 
made from cocoa-nut oil was however not great, owing to their re- 
quiring snuffing ; but it was discovered by Mr. James Wilson, 
while endeavoring to make cheap candles for the illumination on 
the occasion of the Queen's marriage, that from a mixture of the 
cocoa-nut stearine with stearic (pure margaric) acid, candles were 
produced, which gave a beautiful light and wanted no snuffing. 
These are the well known " composite candles." 
The next step was the purification of the fat acids by distilla- 
tion ; and the first suggestion of a method of doing this was made 
by Mr. George Gwynne, who proposed distilling in a vacuum ap- 
paratus similar to that used in sugar refining. He afterwards, in 
conjunction with Mr. George Wilson and Mr. Jones, carried out 
his idea into practice, by distilling in an atmosphere of steam, 
which gave the same results as the air pump, but without its manu- 
facturing difficulties, which were found to be almost insuperable. 
The process at present employed on the works of the Company is 
briefly as follows : — The raw material (at present palm oil) is ex- 
posed at a temperature of 350° to the action of about one twen- 
tieth of its weight of sulphuric acid, which has the effect of driv- 
ing off the glycerine, and of leaving the fat acids free ; these acids, 
which are of a very dark color, after being washed, are transferred 
to a still, from which the air is excluded by steam. The distilled 
material is subjected to pressure, first at the ordinary, and then at 
a high temperature, and the residue is the material of which the 
Belmont sperm candles are made. The process of distillation was 
