AN IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES USED FOR AFFORDING LIGHT
Year: 1847

page_text: WILLIAMS WIRE, of Saint Swithin's Lane, London, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS in consequence of a communication made to me by a certain
foreigner residing abroad I am in possession of a new Invention, being "AN
IMPROVED MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND OTHER LIKE ARTICLES USED FOR
AFFORDING LIGHT," and whereas Her present most Gracious Majesty Queen
Victoria, by Iler Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Fifteenth day of December, in the eleventh
year of Ier re'ga, did, for Herself, Ier heirs, and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said David Williams Wire, Her especial licence that I, the
said David Williams Wire, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said David Williams Wire, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark,
and Man, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, the
said Invention; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said David Williams Wire, by an instrument in writing under my
hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause
the same to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within

page_text: six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
David Williams Wire, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
to consist in the introduction of a large proportion of resin into fatty or oily
substances for the purpose of manufacturing candles and other like articles
used for affording light, and which I am enabled to do so effectually as to
produce a very superior candle at a comparatively very cheap price. And in
further compliance with the said proviso, I, the said David Williams Wire,
do hereby describe the manner in which the said Invention is to be performed,
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
I should observe that there are two ways of introducing the required
quantity of resin to form the compound material of which the candle is to be
made; one being with the addition of chlorine, and the other without that
medium); but as various experiments which I have made have convinced me
that the compound, of which I manufacture my candles, is equally good when
chlorine is not used, and the process is then more simple and less expensive,
I will confine myself to a description of the latter process, which is as follows:-
A certain proportion of resin, generally from twenty to thirty per cent., is added
to any suitable fatty, or acid fatty or oleaginous substance, and when melted
together a quantity of strong acid, such as concentrated sulphuric acid, is intro-
duced in very small quantities at a time, and the whole submitted to a degree of
heat sufficient to cause the evaporation of sulphurous acid gas. The operation
will require from twelve to eighteen hours; but needs no further description,
as it is well known, having been long applied to fatty substances for the manu-
facture of candles when not combined with resin. When the evaporation is
complete, and the compound substance is cooled, it will then have a dark brown
and crystaline appearance. This compound substance is then submitted to
distillation by the well-known means adopted for the distillation of fatty, or
fatty acid, or oleaginous substances, either by means of heated steam, or
heated steam and vacuum combined; these modes also being too well known
to require further description. The compound substance thus obtained is then
pressed to separate the liquid from the solid part, and the latter may in
that state be made into candles, tapers, mortars, and such like articles for
affording light.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that what I claim as the
said Invention is, only the combination of resin and suitable fatty, or fatty acid,

page_text: or oleaginous substances in such manner as to form a suitable and partly
resinous compound substance for the manufacture of candles and other like
articles used for affording light, whereby I am enabled to produce such
articles at a much cheaper rate than heretofore.
And the said Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief
entirely new, and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey,
Alderney, Sark, and Man, as also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same,
and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth comply in all
respects fully and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent contained; wherefore I hereby
claim to maintain exclusive right and privilege to the said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Williams Wire, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-eight
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fifteenth day of June,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid David Williams Wire came before
our Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Fifteenth day of June, in the year above written.