TropoVEMENTS IN CANDLES
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Alexander Lyttle, of the Grove,
-
Hammersmith, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the
Invention of "TropoVEMENTS IN CANDLES”
Sealed the 7th February 1873, and dated the 10th December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Alexander
Lyttle at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th December 1872.
I, WILLIAM ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in the
County of Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CANDLES," to be as follows:-
I make the candle in any of the well known ordinary ways as regards
its combustible materials; and I attach to it a false butt end consisting
of plaster of Paris, unglazed pottery biscuit ware, wood, or any other
solid material, natural or artificial, which will adhere firmly to the fatty
or other combustible material of the candle. This false butt may be of any
desired length and configuration, and it may be tapered slightly or made
conical for readiness of fit when set in a candlestick. It may also be
attached either by simple adhesion to the lower end of the candle aftèr

page_text: the candle is made, an intervening film of the melted material of the
candle serving as the soldering medium, or it may be provided with a
hole through its midst longitudinally, so that the wick may be passed
through it when the wicks are set in the moulds. In the latter case the
false ends are set upright as soon as the melted waxy or fatty matter is
filled in, so as to act as stoppers to the ends of the candle moulds, and
then when the candles are cold the false end and the remainder of each
candle form one solid piece.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Alexander Lyttle in the Great Seal Patent 1
Office on the 9th June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ALEXANDER LYTTLE, of the Grove, Hammersmith, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 1
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Alexander Lyttle, Her special
licence that I the said William Alexander Lyttle, my executors, adminis- 2
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Alexander
Lyttle, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great 2
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CANDLES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the g
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be
performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
I make the candles in any of the well known ordinary methods of
producing such articles by means of moulding apparatus, either those
known as hand moulding frames, or moulding machines, and when the
candles are cold and ready to be raised out of their moulds I attach to
their butt ends false butts of plaster of Paris, unglazed pottery ware,
wood, or other solid material which will absorb and so adhere firmly to
the melted fatty or other combustible material of the candle.
I am aware that various attempts have hitherto been made to attach
incombustible ends to candles because of the obvious advantage which
would result by not only preventing the burning down of candles into
the sockets of candlesticks, but also by the considerable saving of the
candle ends generally lost in such sockets. The ends thus lost usually
consist of from one sixth to one seventh of the entire length of household
candles. All attempts in this direction however have hitherto failed in
the case of moulded candles, through the impracticability of the con-
trivances, such as pins and screws, by which it was proposed to attach
the false ends; and also through the circumstance that such modes of
applying the false ends must increase rather than diminish the cost of
the finished candle.
Since filing the Provisional Specification of this Patont I have been
made aware that Jesse Ascough in his Letters Patent, numbered 3478,
of 1871, describes the use of such ends as a means of aiding in the
carrying out of his processes for making "dip" candles; but although
he alludes in general terms to the previously well known applicability of
such ends to all other candles, he offers no detailed suggestion upon the
subject, and makes no attempt to "particularly ascertain and describe"
the means by which they may best be attached with economy, and
therefore, public advantage in the case of candles made by moulding.
He alludes generally to the attachment of such ends by "cohesion of the
fatty matter" amongst other modes, but does not say in what stage of
the manufacture of the candle nor by what means such cohesion is to be
effected.

page_text: In giving the following description I therefore wish it to be under-
stood that I claim nothing but new and cheap means of attaching such
ends to candles after the candles are made by moulding, the attachment
being effected by the soldering action of melted paraffine, ozokerit, or
other like candle-making material, and also a convenient means of
attaching to candlesticks the candles provided with such false butts or
ends.
When the ends of the candles on cooling are cleaned off level with the
bottom of the pouring trough from which the candle moulds depend I
place a hot bar of iron along the rows of candle ends for so long a time
as to re-melt the material of the candles down to the depth of about the
eighth of an inch, and the false ends, shaped' as herein-after described,
arc pressed as quickly as possible into the melted material of the candle
ends, and so, on cooling, are firmly soldered thereto. The candles
aro then raised and removed from the machines as at present.
In most cases it will be found desirable to provide the false butts with
a longitudinal tubular passage A, B, Figures 1 and 2, and to render
concave the end which is intended to adhere to the candle.
When the false butt is tapered as shewn in Figure 2, its shoulder C, D,
is a sufficient guide to ensure its being pressed down no more than the
proper depth into the melted candle end, and also to ensure its being set
in a perpendicular position.
When however the false butts are made cylindrical without any ring
round the lower end as a substitute for the shoulder C, D, in Figure 2,
it is obvious that some means must be taken to ensure the proper position
for the various butts in the ends of the moulds. For this purpose the
butts may be threaded on to the pins of a comb-like rack E, F, Figure 1,
the pins of which, N, G, H, are either tubular or solid, and of such
external shape when solid as to leave air spaces longitudinally between
their surfaces and those of the holes in the false butts. This end will bo
attained by fitting round holes with square pins or square holes in the
false butts with round pins.
When the butts are placed upon this rack, being held thereto in
position either by tightness of fit to the pins by side springs L, M,
Figure 1, or by any other convenient means, the rack is inverted and
the several butts are thus at one operation pressed home by means of the
rack into the ends of the candle moulds. In order that this operation

page_text: should be effected with the least loss of time it is desirable that the racks
used with each particular machine should be fitted and numbered as
belonging to that machine. The pins or tubular teeth of the rack on
which the butts are placed may also have a very slight play by being set
loosely in the rack if desired, so as to enable the ends to be inserted in
the moulds individually where there may be any.difficulty in ensuring
the perfect fit of the rack and moulding apparatus. When these ends
are thus inserted into the moulds they may be hot if desired, so as to melt
the candle ends by their contact, and so to dispense with any preparatory
melting of the candle ends as herein-before described. In any case their
insertion displaces a small portion of the melted material of the candle,
which rises into the end of the false butt and into the vertical tubular
hole A, B, Figures 1 and 2. As this fatty or waxy matter cools it is
also absorbed to a certain extent by the material of the false butt, and
this shrinkage is made good. by the downward settling of the melted
candle matter in the central vertical tube. Without either thoroughly
saturating the end of the false butt with paraffine or other candle
material before inserting it in the melted matter of the candle end, as
above described, or providing by means of the excess of candle matter
rising into the tubular hole for the absorption of such matter by the
false butt, the soldered joint between the butt and the candle would be
generally faulty from the existence of 'intervening blank spaces.
In Figures 1 and 2 the false butts are shewn in section.
Another arrangement of the lower end of the false butt is shewn
at S, T, Figure 3, where the end of the butt is made convex and solid
with a groove R, up which the displaced candle matter can escape at one
side of the top of the mould when the butt is inserted therein. In this
figure the end of the candle from the false butt to P, V, is shewn in
section. This figure also serves to shew how a long false butt can be
employed in the foregoing way for the manufacture of cheap candles for
ecclesiastical purposes, the lower part of each candle for any desired
length being made of the incombustible plaster, wood, or other material
suitably coloured and shaped for the purpose. In setting these long butts
in the candle moulds for the purpose of soldering them to the melted
candle ends they may be either pressed such a distance down into the
mould as will cause the mould to keep them perpendicular, the melted
fatty or other matter of the candle being displaced through a sufficiently
long groove provided for that purpose up the side of the butt on the

page_text: principle shewn at R, Figure 3, and each butt being stopped at the
proper point by a projecting ring round each or other convenient stop,.
removable if desired when the candle is finished, or they may be set in
position and inserted into the moulds by means of the split clamp or
rack shewn partly in side elevation at W, Z, Figure 3, and partly in plan
at Figure 4. When the false butts are arranged in this clamp and
tightly secured therein they can all be set in the ends of the candle
moulds together, or as many as may be required, and this same arrange-
ment of clamp will also answer for the short butts instead of the rack
shewn at Figure 1. A clamp similar to the candle clamp now generally
used in raising candles from moulding machines will answer with the
necessary alteration of dimensions to suit the size and shape of the
false butts.
These racks. or clamps herein-before described should be fitted by
means of suitable guides and rests attached to the candle-moulding
apparatus, so that they may be level and stand at the proper height
when set in position.
In attaching the false butts to stearine or other brittle candles it is
desirable to dip the junction ends of the false butts in melted paraffine or
other like tough candle material, by means of which a stronger joint is
obtained. In the case of such candles, owing to the shrinkage which
takes place in the stearine or other composition on cooling, it is possible
to make the moulds of the candles almost if not quite cylindrical, and in
that case it may be arranged that the pistons of the candle moulds shall
admit of a drop of about the sixteenth part of an inch after the candles
are moulded and cold. By this means the false butts in a nearly cold
state can be made to press down the candles to this depth in the moulds,
and melted paraffine, ozokerit, or other like candle matter can be poured
down as the soldering medium between the end of each candle and the
lower end of each false butt, a tubular funnel shaped pin being provided 3
in the rack for each butt, as shewn at G, Figure 1. When these false
butts are made of wood it is desirable that the ends which are to be
soldered to the candle as herein-before described should be roughened as
much as possible, such as by concentric scoring in process of turning, or
by being struck by a branch of needles clamped together for the purpose
in a die, and having their points arranged so as to suit the shape of the
jointing or soldering end of the false butt. This end may be of any
desired shape. The object of thus roughening or indenting the end of

page_text: the butt is to render it more absorbent of the fatty or other soldering
matter which unites the butt to the candle, and thus to ensure a stronger
and more perfect joint. The central or axial hole in these false butts
furnishes a ready and convenient means of attaching such candles upon
candlesticks for use, because if the candlestick is made without a socket
and with merely a perpendicular pin of proper thickness projecting
upwards from its top, the candle with the false butt can be fixed thereon
in a perfectly perpendicular position. If such pin is made with a very
slight taper and fine screw thread it will on slightly turning the candle
as it is pressed down more securely and steadily hold the candle in
position.
Ordinary candlesticks can be adapted to take advantage of this mode
of attaching these candles by having a plug of any hard material
provided with the required perpendicular projecting pin fitted into the
socket, the plug being of such a length as to raise the pin above the top
of the socket, and upon this the candle can be fixed.
Another arrangement for this purpose is shewn in Figure 5. It
consists of a circular or other shaped tablet or dish A, B, from the centre
of which rises the pin C, D, which is to carry the candle F, G, and
beneath this tablet there projects perpendicularly downwards a shank or
stem C, L, which can be fitted into the socket R, S, T, of the candle-
stick either by means of a collar of india-rubber tubing, or by being
wound round with paper, cloth, cord, or yarn, or it may be fixed into
the socket permanently by cement, or in any other desired way.
The false butts herein-before described may be made plainly
cylindrical, or of any desired shape, for convenience of fitting into the
sockets of ordinary candlesticks, such as by being tapered with longi-
tudinal fluting, or with a screw thread provided upon the outer surface.
Such incombustible ends can however be readily fitted to the sockets of
candlesticks by wrapping them with paper, because as such candles
cannot burn down into the paper the latter is not likely to take fire
when the candle is burned out.
When the false butts are made to be fitted to candlesticks exclusively
by means of the pin arrangement above described, and not to fit into
sockets, the butts may be cast or formed in highly ornamental shapes,
and may be coloured, varnished, or otherwise beautified, as may be
desired.

page_text: Having now described the nature of my Invention and the best means
known to me for carrying the same into effect, what I claim is,—
Firstly. The manufacture of moulded candles with false butts
attached thereto by hot soldering after the combustible portion of the
candles is formed.
Secondly. The manufacture of candles upon this principle, the false
butts of which are provided with. a central hole so as to be capable of
use by attachment to candlesticks by means of a pin passing into the
axial or central hole in the false butt..
In witness whereof, I, the said William Alexander Lyttle, have 1
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineth day of June, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
three.
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