The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-02-14
MANUFACTURING CANDLES.
ADVANCES THAT HAVE BEEN MADE IN
THE INDUSTRY.

y
an estimate OF the consumption in the
United States places it at $4,000, GOO
pounds annually. Candles are still
the staple Illuminating medium for the
poor of large cities and for all classes
in small towns and villages where there
are either insufficient or no gas works.
Country hotels and taverns are large
consumers, and the preference of many
people for candles over lamps, as port
able lights keeps up a constant de-
mand in all sections. Candles like
wise are the true aristocrats among IL
luminators, and the renaissance in art
taste which holds no illuminating me-
dium to be quite so beautiful and ef-
fective as the candle for dinner tables
and party and ball rooms calls
for an extensive manufacture of
high grades.
The mines of the far west share
with the boudiors and salons and din
ing rooms of the east in the consump-
tion of the best of these candles. A
very large proportion of the finest
grades goes to Nevada, Colorado and
other mining states and territories OF
the Pacific slope, the high tempera-
ture of the mines demanding a very
hard and pure candle.
The stearic acid candle which is now
the principal candle Of trade, repre-
sents the high water mark OF the pro-
gress in candle making which began
seventy years ago. Unlike its primi-
tive predecessor, the tallow dip, it is a
product of scientific study, and one Of
many triumphs Of philosophic chemis-
t1y. The movement which effected a
complete revolution in the industry,
and ran rapid growth after once it
was started, was the outcome of the
discoveries of NJ. E. Chevreul, the
French chemist, published to the world
in 1928. In it lies the foundation of
all the present knowledge of the chem
istry of fatty oils, and this knowledge
is the starting point of modern candle
making. Chcvreul established the
scientific fact that, as rule all fatty
oils, both liquid and solid, are natural
compounds Of glycerine and the social
ed fatty acids. In candle fats the Sc
acids are stearic and oleic.
Stearic acid is a crystalline sub
stance, unctuous to the touch, but not
greasy. 1t mo'ts ut temperature of
a little short OF l5O degrees and when
burned through wick gives white
and clear light. Oleic acid is liquid at
common temperature, and was the
cause of the melting of the old tallow
candles at temperature of 30 degrees
lower than is withstood by pure stear-
ic acid. The glycerine base caused
them to burn yellow and to smoke
with an offensive odor. The discov-
cry of the chemical properties of these
constituent clements of the candle fat
led with single step to the fundamen-
tai idea of the improvement in candle
making; oleic acid and glycerine
are deleterious, and must he removed;
and the steps since lakeland they
followed hard on the heels of the first
have looked to the doing of this in
the most expeditions and cheap man
ner, and the perfection of the mould
ing machinery. Naturally the first
processes were chemical, but they put
a great obstacle of costliness in the
way of tue way of the manufacturer,
which almost proved fatal. The early
indurtry, after surmounting this diff
Guilty by combining mechanical means
with chemical in separating and purl-
flying the fats, again came near suffer-
ing shipwreck from another cause. 1t
was found by tbs chambers, to whom
belong much credit for developing as
we'll as originating the modern method,
that the stearic acid on cooling in the
mould crystallized, and the candles be.
came unsightly, brittle and uneaven OF
combustion. The romedy appeared to
lie in breaking the grain of the acid,
and this was done by the introduction
of powder.
Unfortunately, white asrenic was
the powder chosen, and tue result was
so noticeably injurious to health that
Chevreul's discoveries were brought
into lisrepute, and the early art OF
stearic acid candle making was almost
annihiliated. Better study found a
simple AMI harmless remedy to lie in
lowering the temperature of the acid
before pouring it into the mould and
in heating the mould to receive it..
improvements were also successfully
made in the methods of preparing the
fat, and when, finally, American in
gcnuity was brought to bear on the
mechanical side of the problem, a ma
chine was developed out Of Sieus de
Brez's last-century mould that has
marvelously simplified and cheapened
the manufacture Of candles. The puri-
tication of the fat had done much to
improve the combustion, and the smoke