AN IMPROVED METHOD IN COATING OR FORMING A HARD SHELL ON A CANDLE AT THE TIME OF MOULDING THE SAME, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Stainthorp, of the City of Brooklyn, in the
County of Kings, and State of New York, in the United States of
America, now at 67, Gracechurch Street, London, England, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED METHOD IN COATING OR FORMING A HARD
SHELL ON A CANDLE AT THE TIME OF MOULDING THE SAME, AND IN APPARATUS
CONNECTED
Sealed the 19th September 1860, and dated the 22nd March 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Stainthorp at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd
March 1860.
I, JOHN STAINTHORP, of the City of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, and
State of New York, in the United States of America, now at 67, Gracechurch
Street, London, England, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVED METHOD IN COATING OR FORMING A HARD SHELL ON A CANDLE
AT THE TIME OF MOULDING THE SAME, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH,"
to be as follows:-
The first part of the Invention consists in a new article of manufacture, viz.
a cast or mould candle having an exterior cast shell of wax, adamantine,
stearic acid, or other photogenic material, suitable for the exterior of a hard
candle and a filling of cheaper material, or material differing in colour or
character from the exterior shell, the shell being of sufficient thickness to
preserve the character of the candle as a hard candle, and perfectly united to
the filling, so that the whole is a complete cast or mould candle possessing the
external symmetry, and inviting appearance peculiar to mould candles; this

page_text: is effected by combining with the material immediately surrounding the wick,
and which forms the interior or body of the candle, a cast or moulded shell, or
external covering of a definite and determined thickness, and of material
differing in colour, character, or quality from the material of the interior
or body of the candle, substantially in the manner herein-after described.
The Inventor is aware that moulded candles have been coated with a film
of white material by dipping them, but they have the unsightly appearance of
a dip candle.
The Inventor is not aware, neither does he believe that a mould shell
candle has ever been made in Great Britain such as herein described, or in any
way or of any kind having a shell of different colour, quality, or character of
material from the interior or filling.
The second part of my Invention consists in certain improvements in machi-
nery for making mould candles adapted for making shell candles with facility,
but which do not interfere with the capacity of the machine for making
ordinary mould candles by a different mode of operation.
My said improvements are applied to that class of candle-making machines
wherein pistons have formerly been employed to force the candles in a vertical
direction from the moulds.
The first improvement consists in substituting in place of the ordinary
hollow piston rod, of comparatively small diameter, having a tip mould of
diameter corresponding with the diameter of the candle mould, which is
mounted on the end of it, a long hollow sliding core of cylindrical form, or
very slightly tapering from the lower to the upper end, in which is a mould
for the greater part of the tip of the candle, the core being as much less in
diameter than the internal diameter of the mould as is necessary to leave an
annular space corresponding with the thickness of the shell of the candle
between the surface of the core and the surrounding mould. The core is
smooth and polished, and made of tin, or plated with metal, such as is usually
used for candle moulds. It is fitted to and slides in a neck, which is also a
guide to center the core in the mould. The lower end of the core passes
through a hole made for it in a lifting board common to all the cores in the
machine, and is secured to the board by a screw nut on each side of the board,
no longitudinal play being allowed other than sufficient to permit lateral
motion, which the hole should be large enough to allow.
The second improvement in the machine consists in the use of two tip bars,
one on each member of the clamp rack opposite each other, instead of the
single tip bar formerly used to sustain the previously drawn candle within the
clamp in a vertical position over the moulds, for the purpose of holding and

page_text: centering the wick for the succeeding candle. For convenience, two rows of
moulds are usually secured in the bottom of the shallow trough, in which the
melted candle stock is poured to pass into the moulds.
The third improvement in the machine consists in a fender to prevent the
melted material from running over the part of the trough between the two
rows of moulds, it is most readily made by securing a flat board to the middle
of the trough of about three-quarters of an inch in thickness, extending from
end to end of the trough, and wide enough to overlap the orifices of the
moulds about two-thirds their diameter. Grooves or segmental notches are
cut in the edges of the board corresponding with the orifices of the moulds,
so that the candles may be raised. These grooves may be lined with smooth
metal. This arrangement enables the operator to pour different kinds of stock
for the shell and filling without mixing the surplus, which would otherwise
occur on account of the necessity of allowing the clamp rack to remain over
the moulds with the previously drawn candles until the next set are completed,
which prevents scraping surplus stock from between the two rows of moulds
until the clamp is removed. Now it will be evident to those using the
machines as formerly constructed, that when the cores are drawn down to the
position about to be indicated, a mould candle can be cast in the ordinary
manner, and lifted up by the cores into the clamp rack, and held there to center
the wick for the next succeeding candle, and that the alterations to fit the
machine for shell candles have not impaired its value for the common mould
candle.
The third distinct part of the Invention consists in a process or mode of
operation by which the shell candle is made, and is as follows:-At the
commencement of the operation the moulds are usually dirty, and it is
necessary to cast a set of candles in the ordinary way in order to clean them,
which is done by drawing up the wicks through the cores into the moulds,
and making a knot on each, so that they cannot slip down through the hole
in the tip moulds. A set of candles without wicks, except in their tip ends,
is then cast with the cores in the position hereafter shown. This set of
candles when sufficiently hardened are lifted up into the clamp rack by the
cores, and the clamp rack closed, the notches in the tip bars taking against
opposite sides of the upper ends of the cores, and may be held in that position
by the pawl. The moulds and cores being thus arranged, sufficient melted
candle stock, suitable for the shell, is poured into the trough to fill the annular
space between the cores and moulds. When the shell is sufficiently hardened to
permit the cores to be drawn down without injury, and the surplus stock scraped
away, the cores are-lowered to their position, being about a quarter of an inch

page_text: below the top of the candle mould if it is desired to form the tip of the same
material as the shell. The melted stock for the tip is now poured into the
trough, and runs down into the inside of the shell, filling the tip mould and
the space
in the shell above it. The surplus is again scraped away, and the
cores immediately lowered to their position on the bottom of the moulds. The
melted stock in and above the tip mould follows the core down, uniting with
the shell at the bottom of the moulds, and forming a perfect tip. As the
melted stock follows the tip it coats the insides of the shell and wick as with a
liquid brush, and warms and prepares it for the operation of moulding the
filling, so that it will unite with it. The filling is now poured and suffered to
harden sufficiently, at which time the wicks of the preceding candles are cut,
and the candles removed from the clamp racks.
opened, and the candles in the moulds thrown up
clamp racks closed, and the operation repeated.
The clamp racks are now
into them by the cores, the
If the tip is to be cast of the
same stock as the filling, the pouring may commence when the cores are
lowered to the bottom of the moulds.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Stainthorp in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd September 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
STAINTHORP, of the City of Brooklyn, in the County of Kings, in the State of
New York, in the United States of America, now at 67, Gracechurch Street,
London, England, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of March, 1860, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Stainthorp, Her special licence that I, the said John Stain-
thorp, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said John Stainthorp, or 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 "THE IMPROVED METHOD IN COATING OR FORMING A HARD SHELL ON A
CANDLE AT THE TIME OF MOULDING THE SAME, AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED

page_text: THEREWITH," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Stain-
thorp, 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 John Stainthorp, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The first part of the Invention consists in a new article of manufacture, viz.,
a cast or mould candle having an exterior cast shell of wax, adamantine, stearic
acid, or other photogenic material suitable for the exterior of a hard candle of
a definite thickness, and a filling of cheaper material or material differing in
colour or character from the exterior shell; the shell being of sufficient
thickness to preserve the character of the candle as a hard candle and perfectly
united to the filling, so that the whole forms a complete cast or mould
candle possessing the external symmetry and inviting appearance peculiar to
mould candles.
The second part of the Invention consists in certain improvements in
machinery for making such candles with facility and at the same time not
interfering with the capacity of the machine for making ordinary mould
candles when constructed in accordance with the Invention communicated by
me and secured by Letters Patent granted to John Talbot Pitman, of the
American and European Patent Offices, No. 67, Gracechurch Street, London,
under the Great Seal of Her Majesty Queen Victoria for the United Kingdom
of Great Britain & Ireland, &c., bearing date on the Sixth day of October,
A.D., 1857, and number 2556, entitled "Improvements in Apparatus for.
making Candles and other analagous Manufactures," or other machines, where
pistons are employed to force out in a vertical direction the candles from the
moulds.
The third part of the Invention consists in the process by which the shell
candle is made.
In describing the said improvements, and the mode and process of operating
the same, reference is had to the Drawings hereto annexed, and, in
which the same letters indicate the same or similar parts in the several
Figures.
:
· Figure 1 represents a front elevation; Figure 2, a transverse section on

page_text: line X, X, of Figure 1; Figure 3, a plan view; Figure 4, a horizontal section
of the machine; Figures 5, 6, & 7, represent detached views, representing
the candle and machine in different positions in the process of manufacture.
Letters A represent the frame of the machine; B, B, B, candle moulds let
into the bottom of a shallow trough C, and secured to the bottom board C¹ by
screw nuts C2 or other device; letters D, D, represent pistons or lifters, which
in the present case perform also the office of cores or internal moulds for the
purpose of moulding the exterior or shell of the candle when in the position
shown in Figure 5. The lower ends of these lifters pass through holes in the
lifting board E, whose ends projecting through openings in the side of the
frame are attached to the rack F, moving in guides F', to be moved up and down
by pinions F2, F2, on shaft F³, by means of crank F. F is a pawl to sustain,
when necessary, the lifting board & pistons in an elevated position; G repre-
sents a fender for the purpose of preventing the melted material from running
over the surface of the trough between the two rows of moulds and also for
centering the pistons or cores; letter H represents the clamp rack for the two
rows. In Figures 1, 2, & 3, this is shown opened in proper position to receive
the candles thrown up by the lifters, and is closed by turning the handle
attached to the flat bar H at right angles to its present position; H³, H³,
represents tip bars on each member of the clamp rack, placed there for the
purpose of sustaining the candles in the rack when the lifters are withdrawn,
and also of assisting the lifters in the centre of the candle moulds when raised
up in the position shown in Figure 5, for which purpose they are slightly
notched at intervals corresponding with the position of the pistons; I, I,
represent spools or bobbins from which the wick is supplied continuously to
the moulds as required; K, K, the apparatus for drawing down the wick.
It will be necessary, in addition to the foregoing, to describe those parts of
the machine, which differ from the machine above-mentioned as secured by
Letters Patent, dated October 6, A.D. 1857, and for which I now make claim
as improvements in the apparatus. In place of the ordinary hollow piston rod
in that machine described with its tip mould corresponding in its diameter with
that of the lower end of the candle mould, a long hollow sliding core D of a
cylindrical or slightly tapering (from the lower to the upper end) form is sub-
stituted of a diameter which will with the internal diameter of the mould leave
.sufficient annular space to form the shell of the definite thickness required. It
is fitted sufficiently close to the neck of the mould, which neck is mode suffi-
ciently long to serve as a guide, so as to be held in the centre when lifted up,
and is surmounted by the tip mould; the passage-way for the wick in the
vicinity of the tip-mould should be contracted sufficiently to give to the wick the

page_text: requisite tension. The core should be smooth and polished, and of tin or
plated with the usual metal.
Another improvement consists in the employment of two tip bars H², H²;
instead of one, for the purposes above mentioned.
A third improvement is in the introduction between the two rows of moulds
in the trough C of the fender G, for the purpose above mentioned. It may be
about three-quarters of an inch in thickness, and extends from end to end of
the trough, and is composed of two longitudinal pieces connected by hinges, so
that the sides next the moulds may be raised up by turning on the hinges out
of the trough when necessary, but when in, it is wide enough to overlap the
orifices of the moulds about one half their diameter, but corresponding with
these orifices are segmental grooves or notches lined with smooth metal. For
the purpose of centering the upper part of the piston with more exactness than
may be done by the tip bars alone, each groove is made tapering, so that its
diameter at the top will fit exactly the half of the piston next to it, while the
other half is acted upon by the outer tip bar. As it may be necessary during the
process after the pistons have been drawn down, and as the candle when raised
from the moulds, could not pass into the clamp rack, if the fender remained
on the trough, its sides are raised as above mentioned, so as to be out of the
way during these operations; but at all other times it is kept in the trough.
This
arrangement enables the operator to pour different kinds of stock for the
exterior and interior of the candle without mixing the surplus, which would
otherwise occur, because the clamp rack interferes with scraping between the
two rows of moulds, and in the operation of the machine remains over the
moulds supporting the previously made candles, so as to hold the wicks for the
succeeding set of candles in the centre of the moulds until they are sufficiently
set and hardened. Beneath each row of pistons two sliding bars k, k, are set on
bearings, each having holes corresponding with those in the pistons, and through
which the wick is passed. By a suitable device, one is made to slide enough
upon the other so as to bite the wick & hold it fast. The bars are then
revolved, and winding around them the wick draw it down through the half
hardened candle until the severed end is brought below the orifice of the mould,
they are then made to resume their original position, leaving the wick to pass
freely through the holes.
I am aware that moulded candles have been coated with a film of white
material by dipping them, but they have the unsightly appearance of a dip
candle; but I am not aware that a mould shell candle has ever been made in
this country, having a shell of definite thickness, and of different quality, colour,
or character of material, in the manner and by the process herein described.

page_text: A candle of somewhat similar character has been made by chilling candle
moulds filled with melted material to form the exterior. When a film or crust
is formed, the fluid part is poured out, and the moulds filled with such matter
as is to form the interior; the exterior coating is necessarily of indefinite or
varying thickness dependant on the judgment of the operator and temperature
of the cooling agent and melted material.
The mode of operation is as follows:-Wick from the spools is drawn
through the pistons up into the moulds and knotted about two inches from the
end, so that it cannot draw back; the pistons being in position shown in
Figures 1 and 2, the moulds are filled making a set of candles with wicks
only in their tip ends. The clamp racks being open and placed over the
moulds as in Figure 2, the operator raises up the candles by means of the
pistons into their appropriate recesses in the clamp racks, bringing the upper
end of the pistons within the clamp rack, and secures them at that elevation
by engaging the pawl with the rack pinion on the crank shaft. He then
closes the clamp racks, the notches on the tip bars taking against the sides of
the pistons and assisting to hold them in a vertical position in the centre of the
candle moulds. The candles previously cast, the clamp racks, the pistons or
lifters, the wick, and the moulds, at this stage of the operation, are in position
indicated in Figure 5. The melted material for the exterior of the candle is
now poured into the shallow trough and flows into the mould, filling the
annular space between the pistons and the moulds. As soon as the material
hardens sufficiently to preserve its figure the surplus is scraped away, and
the pistons are drawn down into the moulds, and within the shell just moulded
until their upper ends are from an eighth to a quarter of an inch below the
orifices of the moulds, or about the position shown in Figure 6. Sufficient
melted material is now poured to fill the tip moulds and a little above them,
and the pistons are immediately drawn down to the bottoms of the moulds, so
that the tip in hardening will unite with the shell already moulded. This is
only done when it is desired to have the tip of the same material and appear-
ance as the shell, and is illustrated by Figure 7. The shell tip being thus
united the melted material for the interior or body of the candle is poured and
suffered to harden sufficiently when the wicks connecting the previously made
candles are cut, the candles removed on the racks, the sides of the fender are
removed out of the way, the wicks drawn down below the surface of the trough,
and the surplus material scraped away or "topped," the butts of the candles
will be left rough and hollowing when a coating of the first material may be
poured on or otherwise applied, thus encasing the whole interior; this having
sufficiently hardened, and the racks adjusted, the new candles are lifted up into

page_text: the racks as before mentioned and shewn in Figure 5. The sides of the fender
are then brought down to their place and another set commenced. The com-
plete candle thus made is shewn in section in Figure 5, letter J. The pistons
should not be suffered to become cold, and if the temperature of the room be
not sufficient to keep them warm enough to draw easy, a warm air bath may be
used by inclosing the lower part of the machine, and using radiated heat from
steam pipe, hot water pipe, or other suitable means.
The sides of the upper
part of the machine may also be enclosed so as to use hot and cold air or
water baths as mentioned in the Specification to said Letters Patent above
mentioned.
Having now described my Invention and the manner of its operation, what
I claim and desire to secure under the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is,
1st. The use and application of pistons, as within described, for the purpose
in combination with the moulds, of making the within described candles.
2nd. The use and application of opposite tip bars (in contradistinction to
the single tip described in the Specification to said Letters Patent of October
6, 1857) whether the same be employed in the herein described machines
or others.
3d. The use and application of the fender for the purposes herein described
or others substantially the same.
4th. The application and use of an apparatus, substantially as described,
whether to this or other similar machines where the endless wick is used for
saving the wicking material.
5th. The construction and use of a candle formed by combining with the
material surrounding the wick a shell or exterior covering of a regulated thick-
ness, the interior and exterior surface of which is made by a mould substan-
tially as described.
6th. Also the mode substantially as described of moulding the shell and tip
and uniting them preparatory to pouring the melted material for the interior
or body of the candle.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Stainthorp, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, on this Eighteenth day of August Anno Domini
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
JOHN STAINTHORP.
(L.S.)