IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the County of Surrey, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourteenth day of
March, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the twelfth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said George Fergusson Wilson, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
George Fergusson Wilson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Fergusson Wilson, my exors, admňors, 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, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES
AND NIGHT LIGHTS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that
I, the said George Fergusson Wilson, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be
enrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: ratent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto bad, will more rully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Fergusson Wilson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
Part of my Invention consists of preparing vegetable tallow by the processes
hereafter explained, in order to such material being rendered more useful in
the manufacture of candles and night lights. Vegetable tallow is a substance
now brought from abroad, principally from China, and melts at a degree of
heat somewhat above tallow, and considerably below that at which vegetable
wax melts. And it should be stated, that vegetable tallow has before been
employed in the manufacture of candles. I do not, therefore, claim the same
generally, but only the subjecting the same to an acid treatment or process, as
hereafter explained, and also the causing it to be distilled, in such manner that
the atmosphere may be excluded from the still used. In carrying out this
part of my Invention I cause vegetable tallow to be acted on by acid in the
following manner :-Into a suitable vessel, capable of containing about nine
tons, I put about six tons of vegetable tallow, which I heat up gradually to
three hundred and fifty degrees of Fahrenheit; I then add gradually one
thousand four hundred and forty pounds of sulphuric acid (1-8). At the end
of about two hours the tallow is to be pumped into a vessel containing water
slightly acidulated with sulphuric acid, and agitated by free steam passing
through it for two hours. The matters are then allowed to repose for six
hours. Both the vessels above mentioned should have covers, with means of
conveying away gases evolved in a chimney. The vegetable tallow is next to
be distilled in such manner that the atmosphere may be excluded, and this
is best done by the use of a vapour or product not containing oxygen, though
other means may be resorted to, and I prefer to employ for this purpose highly
heated steam conducted into the still, and in such manner that the same may
be divided into numerous jets or streams below the vegetable tallow in the
still, and thus to cause the vegetable tallow to be distilled by the action of
such heated steam, so that the steam is not only the means of distilling and
carrying over of the matter, but also the means of excluding the atmosphere
from the still as the steam itself pervades the still. The steam, as heretofore,
when used for distilling fatty matter, is generated in an ordinary boiler or
generator, and then in its passage to the still is highly heated by passing
through pipes or apparatus highly heated, as when obtaining a hot blast of air
for the manufacture of iron. The distilled products, as they come over, are

page_text: received into condensors. Distilled products of vegetable tallow may be used
alone, and will be found very useful for mixing with other candle-making
matters in the manufacture of the better class of candles.
Another part of my Invention consists of improvements in treating the
substance or matter known as paraffine, and consists in subjecting such matter
or substance to the process of distillation, with the air excluded; and although
this process may be conducted in various ways, such as by exhaustion, and by
filling the still with a vapour or product not containing (or containing very
little) oxygen, but the best means of carrying out this part of my Invention
is to employ highly heated steam in such manner that such steam at once
becomes the means of distilling the substance, and also of excluding the
atmosphere; for which purpose, as before explained, I generate the steam in
an ordinary steam boiler or generator, and cause it to be heated in its progress
(after leaving the boiler or generator) to the still by passing through pipes or
apparatus heated to a high degree, as when heating air for obtaining a hot
blast, and also as steam has been and is now heated when for distilling fatty
matters with the air excluded. By distilling paraffine by a process which
excludes the prejudicial action of the atmosphere I am enabled to obtain that
substance in a more pure state for the manufacture of candles and night lights,
and such purified paraffine will be found highly useful when combining the
same with wax and fatty and oily matters ordinarily employed in the manufac-
ture of candles, whether such fatty or oily matters be in an acid or other state,
and whether they be distilled or not.
Another part of my Invention consists of manufacturing candles with two or
more wicks, and consists of the use of vegetable tallow when making such
descriptions of candles; and although such vegetable tallow may be used in the
natural state, I prefer it to be first treated with diluted acid, as above explained
in respect to the acidified vegetable tallow; and I use vegetable tallow mixed
with fatty or oily matters such as are now used for making candles. In the
making of candles for lamps and other uses with two or more wicks, combined
with vegetable tallow, I proceed in like manner to that in which candles with
two or more wicks have before been made when using tallow and other fatty
matters, this part of my Invention consisting of the using of vegetable tallow
when making candles with two or more wicks.
Another part of my Invention consists of manufacturing candles with two
or more wicks for lamps and other purposes, by employing in such manufacture
the use of vegetable wax as a means of giving hardness to lower melting
materials. By this means candles with two or more wicks, particularly those
for candle lamps, may be manufactured at much lower cost, in consequence of

page_text: being thus enabled to employ low melting fats and oily matters as they become
sufficiently hardened by an admixture or combination with vegetable wax, such
combinations being found very important when manufacturing candles with
two or more wicks.
Another part of my Invention consists of manufacturing candles when with
two or more wicks, by combining the use of fatty or oily acids with palm oil
pressed before or after bleaching.
The object of the last three parts of my Invention is to obtain candles which
will give a considerable quantity of light, and be suitable for burning in candle
lamps where the candles are not seen, and will, therefore, admit of being made
of materials which would in most cases be objectionable if the same met the
eye when being consumed; and it is the employment of two or more wicks in
a candle, with the use of the particular materials above explained, which
constitute the novelty of such three parts of my Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Fergusson Wilson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.