IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF: PARAFFIN CANDLES
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Henry Johnson, of 47,. Lincoln's Inn Fields,
in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF: PARAFFIN CANDLES."-A communication
from abroad by Augustin Etienne Person, of Paris, in the Empire of
France.
Sealed the 13th October 1865, and dated the 9th May 1865..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Henry Johnson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th May 1865.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of
Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PARAFFIN CANDLES," a communi-
cation to me from abroad by Augustin Etienne Person, of Paris, in the Empire
of France, to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the manufacture of what are known as
paraffin candles, and consists in the employment for that purpose of the
following process:-Into any suitable receptacle or vessel are introduced, say,
15 gallons of water, to which are added 5 pounds of chloride of lime and
2 and a half pounds of sulphuric acid. The whole is well stirred several times
during 24 hours, and when dissolved and well combined is allowed to clear;
500 pounds of residuum of petroleum are then heated in a boiler or tank by
the aid of dry steam to about 155° Fahrenheit, and when so heated there are.

page_text: added under constant stirring 10 gallons of the mixture first above named.
The whole is now allowed to boil about 10 minutes, when the steam is
turned off, and the whole allowed to rest until perfectly clear; when clear
this mixture is run into tin pans of the capacity of, say, 5 pounds each, and
left to cool and harden. When hard the cake or piece is removed and placed
in strong woollen or linen bags of the size or capacity of the cake or piece,
and then subjected, to bydraulic pressure equal to about 600 tons, and pressed
until no more oil can be extracted. When thus pressed it is removed, and
about 300 pounds of it are placed in a boiler or tank heated by dry steam, the
steam being turned on until the compound is melted; when melted the
following ingredients are added under constant stirring, namely, 3 gallons of
the preparation first above described, 6 pounds of agua ammonia, 6 pounds of
lump alum. The whole is then boiled without discontinuing the stirring for
10 minutes, when the steam is turned off, and the mixture is left in the boiler
or tank to clear. It is then run into tin pans holding about 5 pounds each,
and left to cool and harden. When hard the cake is removed from the pans
and placed in strong linen or woollen bags of the like capacity of the cake or
piece, and subjected to hydraulic pressure of 1,000 tons. until no more oil or
liquid can be extracted; it is then taken out of the bags and placed in a
dry steam heated boiler or tank, and when melted there are added to it under
constant stirring about 6 gallons of white naptha of 65 or 75 degrees of
strength, the whole being then boiled for about 15 minutes, and then run into
When thus pressed it is
tin pans, repeating the process of pressing as before.
taken out of the bags and placed in a boiler or tank heated with dry steam to
from 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, 5 per cent. of animal charcoal being added
whilst under constant stirring for the space of about half an hour.
this is well mixed, I then add, resuming the stirring, 5 per cent. of whitening,
and when well combined I add 10 per cent. of caustic soda lye of 10 per cent.
strength by Beaumé's bydrometer. I mix the whole well, then turn off the
steam, and let it stand until the animal charcoal and whitening has settled to
the bottom. This compound will then present a white appearance, and the
clear composition is drawn off into a copper boiler heated with moist steam.
I then add thereto 12 per cent. of stearine, or I increase the quantity of
stearine according as the candle is to be made more or less hard. I then
turn on the steam, and allow the whole to boil 4 or 5 hours, after which time
the composition emits no odour. This completes the process of preparing the
material. To make the candles therefrom, I take, say, 100 pounds of the mix-
ture or composition thus made, and place it in a kettle or tank, and introduce
dry steam, raising the heat to 200° Fahrenheit. I then heat the tin or compo-
When

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Henry Johnson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th November 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County of Middlesex,
Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the 28th year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Henry Johnson, Her special license that I, the said John Henry
Johnson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Henry Johnson, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-1
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF PARAFFIN CANDLES," a communication to me from abroad
by Augustin Etienne Person, of Paris, in the Empire of France, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Henry Johnson, my exe
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
should particularly describe and ascertain the 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Henry Johnson, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say:-
The said Invention has for its object the manufacture of what are known as
paraffin candles, and consists in the employment for that purpose of the
following process:-Into any suitable receptacle or vessel are introduced, say,
fifteen gallons of water, to which are added five pounds of chloride of lime
and two and a half pounds of sulphuric acid. The whole is well stirred several

page_text: times during twenty-four hours, and when dissolved and well combined is
allowed to clear; five hundred pounds of residuum of petroleum are then
heated in a boiler or tank by the aid of dry steam to about one hundred and
fifty-five degrees Fahrenheit, and when so heated there are added under
constant stirring ten gallons of the mixture first above named. The whole
is now allowed to boil ten minutes, when the steam is turned off, and
the whole allowed to rest until perfectly clear; when clear this mixture
is run into tin pans of the capacity of, say, five pounds each, and left to cool
and barden. When hard the cake or piece is removed and placed in strong
woollen or linen bags of the size or capacity of the cake or piece, and then
subjected to bydraulic pressure equal to about six hundred tons, and pressed
until no more oil can be extracted. When thus pressed it is removed, and
about three hundred pounds of it are placed in a boiler or tank heated by dry
steam, the steam being turned ou until the compound is melted; when melted
the following ingredients are added under constant stirring, namely, three gallons
of the preparation first above described, six pounds of aqua ammonia, six
pounds of lump alum. The whole is then boiled without discontinuing the
stirring for ten minutes, when the steam is turned off, and the mixture is left
in the boiler or tank to clear. It is then run into tin pans holding about five
pounds each, and left to cool and harden. When hard the cake is removed
from the pans and placed in strong linen or woollen bags of the like capacity
of the cake or piece, and subjected to hydraulic pressure of one thousand
tons until no more oil or liquid can be extracted, it is then taken out of the
bags and placed in a dry steam heated boiler or tank, and when melted there
are added to it under constant stirring about six gallons of white naphtha of
sixty-five or seventy-five degrees of strength, the whole being then boiled for
about fifteen minutes, and then run into tin pans, repeating the process of
pressing as before. When thus pressed it is taken out of the bags, and
placed in a boiler or tank heated with dry steam to from seventy-five to
eighty degrees Fahrenheit, five per cent. of animal charcoal being added whilst
under constant stirring for the space of about half an hour. When this is
well mixed, I then add, resuming the stirring, five per cent. of whitening, and
when well combined I add ten per cent. of caustic soda lye of ten per cent.
strength by Beaumé's bydrometer, I mix the whole well, then turn off the
steam, and let it stand until the animal charcoal and whitening has settled at
the bottom. This compound will then present a beautiful white appearance,
and the clear composition is drawn off into a copper boiler heated with moist
steam, I then add thereto twelve per cent. of stearine, or I increase the
quantity of stearine according as the candle is to be made more or less hard,

page_text: I then turn on the steam, and allow the whole to boil four or five hours, after
which time the composition emits no odour. This completes the process of
preparing the material. To make candles or blocks of paraffin therefrom I
take, say, one hundred pounds of the mixture or composition thus made, and
place it in a kettle or tank, and introduce dry steam, raising the heat to two
hundred degrees Fahrenheit. I then heat the tin or composition moulds, and
pour the composition therein, after which I expose them to an atmosphere of
one degree below zero for about half an hour, when the candle will be perfectly
hard.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine myself
to the precise proportions of ingredients herein-before specified, as they
may be varied more or less without departing from the essential feature of the
Invention; but what I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim
as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,
First, the manufacture of the peculiar compound herein referred to, sub-
stantially as and for the purpose herein-before specified.
Second, the application and use to and in the manufacture of candles or
blocks of paraffin of the within described peculiar compound, substantially as
herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Henry Johnson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Ninth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-five.
J. HENRY JOHNSON. (L.S.)