The Probert Encyclopaedia of Science & Technology

CANDLE

A candle is a solid cylindrical rod of some fatty substance, with a small bundle of loosely-twisted threads placed longitudinally in its centre, used for a portable light.

The chief material traditionally used for making candles was tallow, either in a pure state or in mixture with other fatty substances, as palm-oil, spermaceti, wax, etc. Since about 1900 paraffin (wax) candles have been made in considerable quantities also.

Ordinary tallow candles are either dipped or moulded. The former, generally composed of the coarser tallow, are made by attaching a number of separate wicks to a frame and dipping the whole into a cistern of melted tallow as often as may be necessary to give the candle the required thickness.

Moulded candles, as their name implies, are formed in moulds. These, made generally of pewter, are hollow cylinders of the length of the candle, and open at both ends, but provided at the upper end with a conical cap, in which there is a hole for the wick. A number of these moulds are inserted in a wooden frame or trough with their heads downwards; the wick is then drawn in through the top hole by means of a wire and kept stretched while the moulds are filled by running melted tallow from a boiler into the trough. Considerable improvements were made in the manufacture of candles during the 19th century. One of the most important of these consisted in not employing the whole of the fatty or oily substances, but in decomposing them, and then using only the stearin of the former and the palmitine of the latter class of substances.

Early wax candles were formed by wicks, properly cut and twisted, being suspended by a ring over a basin of liquid wax, which was poured on the tops of the wicks until a sufficient thickness was obtained, when after, the candles, still hot, were placed on a smooth walnut table, kept constantly wet, and rolled upon it by means of a flat piece of boxwood.
Research Candle