CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF CANDLES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Etienne Laporte, Chemist, of Paris, in the French
Empire, for the Invention of CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF CANDLES."
Sealed the 15th February 1856, and dated the 25th September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Etienne Laporte at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th September 1855.
I, ETIENNE LAPORTE, Chemist, of Paris, in the French Empire, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES" to be as follows:-
Whereas various attempts have been made to manufacture candles from
vegetable wax alone or combined with fatty matter, which have all more or
less failed, from the improper treatment of the material, and from the want
of sufficient wick surface: Now, my Invention consists, 1st, in the employ-
ment of a tubular or non-tubular wick, composed of a great many threads,
woven or plaitted, or otherwise held together, or of a number of small wicks
united; 2nd, in the employment of a jacket or case round the moulds, capable
of being heated up from 113° to 132°, by gas, steam, or other heating medium;
and, 3rd, in the general process followed to manufacture a candle, composed
wholly of vegetable wax, or having vegetable wax for its base.

page_text: To make 2 cwt. of candles, I take, for example, 66 parts of vegetable wax
and 34 parts by weight of tallow, or of cocoa nut oil, or other suitable oil, or of
any fatty body suitably prepared. The fatty body is for the purpose of render-
ing the vegetable wax less brittle, and of increasing the intensity of the light.
Previous to melting, the wax must be crushed up, and then thrown, together
with the tallow or fatty matter, into a vessel containing water acidulated by
sulphuric acid. The whole must be heated to about 194°, by means of steam
or of a water bath. The mixture must be allowed to remain until it becomes
sufficiently fluid, when it is drawn off into another vessel, where it is allowed
to get a little cooler, an even temperature being maintained throughout the
mass by keeping it well stirred. The mixture is next run off into moulds,
heated as before stated, up to from 112° to 132°, and the temperature is
gradually lowered down to from 59° to 67°, when the candles may be removed
from the moulds.
The wicks may be composed of from 60 to 150 threads, united in any
suitable manner to form a capillary column, large in bulk, and at the same
time very divided, and they may be made to turn either to require snuffing
or not. Vegetable wax if submitted to too high a temperature turns black.
while if the temperature be not high enough it curdles, and does not produce
a perfect candle.
Although I have given above proportions of vegetable wax and fatty matter,
the same may be altered, according as the candle to be manufactured is required
to be more or less hard or solid.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Etienne Laporte in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st February 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, ETIENNE
LAPORTE, Chemist, of Paris, in the French Empire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth 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 Etienne Laporte, Her special licence that I, the said Etienne
Laporte, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the
said Etienne Laporte, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times

page_text: 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 "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Etienne Laporte, 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 Etienne Laporte, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
Whereas various attempts have been made to manufacture candles from
vegetable wax alone or combined with fatty matter, which have all more or
less failed, from the improper treatment of the material, and from the want
of sufficient wick surface: Now, my Invention consists, first, in the employ-
ment of a tubular or non-tubular wick, composed of great many threads,
woven or plaited, or otherwise held or united together, or of a number of
small wicks united; second, in the employment of a jacket or case round the
moulds, capable of being heated from 112° to 132°, by gas, steam, or other
heating medium; and, third, in the general process followed to manufacture
a candle, composed wholly of vegetable wax, or having vegetable wax for its
base.
The manner in which I carry my Invention into effect is as follows:-To
make two hundredweight of candles, for example, I take 66 parts by weight
of vegetable wax and 34 parts of tallow, or of cocoa nut oil, or other suitable
oil, or of any fatty liquid or solid body suitably prepared. The fatty body is
combined with the vegetable wax, for the purpose of rendering the vegetable
wax less friable and brittle, and of increasing the intensity of the light.
Previous to melting, the wax must be crushed up, and then thrown, together
with the tallow or fatty matter, into a vessel containing water acidulated by
sulphuric acid. The whole must be heated to about 194°, by means of steam
or of a water bath. The mixture must be allowed to remain until it becomes
sufficiently fluid, when it is drawn off into another vessel, where it is left to
get a little cooler, an even temperature being maintained throughout the mass
by keeping it well stirred. The mixture is next run off into moulds containing
wicks, and heated, as before stated, up to from 112° to 132°, and the tem-
perature is gradually lowered down to from 59° to 67°, when the candles may

page_text: be removed from the moulds. The wicks may be composed of from 60 to 150
threads, woven, plaited, or united in any suitable manner, to form a capillary
column, large in bulk, and at the same time very divided, and they may be
made to burn either so as to require snuffing or not. Vegetable wax if sub-
mitted to too high a temperature turns black, while if the temperature be not
high enough it curdles, and does not produce a perfect candle.
Although I have given above proportions of vegetable wax and fatty matter,
the same may be altered, according as the candle to be manufactured is
required to be more or less hard or solid.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as of my said
Invention,-
First, the employment, in candles composed wholly or chiefly of vegetable
wax, of wicks made in the manner herein-before described.
Second, the employment, in the manufacture of such candles, of moulds
surrounded with jackets, for the purpose herein-before described.
And, third, the treatment of vegetable wax, and the substances combined or
mixed therewith, in the manner herein-before described, for the manufacture
of candles.
In witness whereof, I, the said Etienne Laporte, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
CH. ARMENGAUD, Ing* Civil,
No. 6, Rue Filles du Calvaire, à Paris.
E. LAPORTE. (L.S.)