AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Isaac Austen, of Belmont, Vauxhall,
Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS."
Sealed the 9th November 1855, and dated the 1st September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Isaac Austen at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st September 1855.
I, ALEXANDER ISAAC AUSTEN, of Belmont, Vauxhall, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in applying harder or less
easily fusible materials to the external surfaces of candles and night lights
than that of which the interior is manufactured. Heretofore when manu-
facturing candles with harder materials externally, it has been usual to employ
such harder materials at their natural points of melting, which is objectionable.
Now, my improvement consists of employing a solvent with the harder or
less easily fusible material used, in order to reduce the melting point, and thus
to facilitate its application to candles and night lights, the solvent quickly
evaporating after the casing or external coating has been produced.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Isaac Austen in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
ISAAC AUSTEN, of Belmont, Vauxhall, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alexander Isaac Austen, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander
Isaac Austen, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Alexander Isaac Austen, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter 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 "AN
IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander Isaac Austen, 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
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 Alexander Isaac Austen, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in applying harder or less
easily fusible materials to the external surfaces of candles and night lights
than that of which the interior is manufactured. Heretofore when manufac-
turing candles with harder materials externally, it has been usual to employ
such harder materials at their natural points of melting, which is objectionable.
Now, my improvement consists of employing a solvent with the harder or
less easily fusible material used, in order to reduce the melting point, and
thus to facilitate its application to candles and night lights, the solvent
quickly evaporating after the casing or external coating has been produced.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
I prefer to employ a mixture of stearic acid and white wax, but other hard
candle-making material may be used, combined with a solvent, when carrying
out my Invention.
I mix stearic acid with about five per cent. of white wax, and dissolve these
materials in a proper solvent. I prefer to use about half their weight of ordi-
nary or the methylated spirits of wine. By rapidly dipping candles made of
low-melting materials, or night lights, into this solution, and withdrawing them,
they will be found to be covered by a thin film of hard material, which may be
immediately handled. A similar coating may also be obtained by pouring the
solution of stearic acid and wax or other solutions of candle material into
the ordinary moulds, and then pouring out the solution, so as to leave a thin
casing of the material in the moulds, in like manner to what has before been
done when using hard material in a melted state without solvent, and con-
cluding the formation of the candles or night lights by pouring in an inferior
material, or one melting at a lower temperature.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Isaac Austen, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
ALEX. I. AUSTEN. (L.s.)