IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Lyon Field, of Lambeth, and Charles Humfrey,
the younger, of Camberwell, both in the County of Surrey, Candle
Makers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
CANDLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Lyon Field, and
Charles Humfrey at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 29th Juno 1857.
We, JOHN LYON FIELD, of Lambeth, and CHARLES HUMFREY, the younger,
of Camberwell, both in the County of Surrey, Candle Makers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF CANDLES," to be as follows:-
Our improvements in the manufacture of candles will be best understood
by the following description:-In manufacturing candles of paraffine, or
principally of paraffine, there is considerable difficulty in making the candles
draw from the moulds in which they are cast, especially if the weather is at all
This difficulty can be overcome by suddenly heating the moulds by
steam, and quickly drawing the candles; but however carefully this operation
is performed the surface of the candles is more or less melted, and the polish
destroyed. Now the object of our Invention is to smooth and polish the
candles after they are made. This we effect by forcing the candles through
steel draw plates, or by passing them through a hollow mandril with revolving
cutters.
There are other descriptions of candles to which our process can be applied.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Lyon Field and Charles Humfrey in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 29th December 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JoпN
LYON FIELD, of Lambeth, and CHARLES HUMFREY, the younger, of Cam-
berwell, both in the County of Surrey, Candle Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said John Lyon Field and Charles Humfrey, Her special licence that we,
the said John Lyon Field and Charles Humfrey, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Lyon Field and Charles
Humfrey, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF CANDLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
John Lyon Field and Charles Humfrey, our exccutors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 we, the said John Lyon Field and Charles Hum-
frey, the younger, 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 :-
Our said Invention relates to an improved method of making paraffine aud
some other description of candles, and the method we employ is as follows:-
The moulds in which the candles are to be cast are made with cups and
detached, such kind of candle moulds being well-known in the trade, but
instead of making the barrels conical, as is usual, we have our moulds
constructed with cylindrical barrels, and these moulds may economically be
made of sheet tin. The candles are to be cast according to the well-
known processes for casting paraffine candles, preferring the process patented

page_text: the 22nd day of February 1856, by John Kingsford Field and Charles
Humfrey, No. 454, and when cold the moulds are exposed to free steam,
and the candles suddenly withdrawn. This, with a little practice, can be
done without much melting the candles, though the surface will be rough,
and the candle consequently opaque until treated as herein-after directed.
We next take one or more steel draw plates or cutters, with apertures
diminishing in size, and, fixing them on a convenient frame, with guides for
the candle to slide in, we force the candles through the cutters. By such
means the rough surface is planed off, and the candle becomes smooth,
polished, and transparent. There are some other materials used in candle
making, such as wax and pressed lard, and candles made of such mate-
rials, or principally of such materials, present the same difficulty, it being
almost impossible to draw them from the moulds in the ordinary way;
but treated as above directed for casting and polishing paraffine candles, wo
can obtain from any of these materials well finished and polished candles.
All candles made according to the method above described, are of necessity
cylindrical, and not conical, as all other cast candles are. The same advan-
tages can be obtained by pressing the candles through a hollow mandril
with revolving cutters, but we find the steel cutters above described quite
as efficient and simpler, and more economical.
Having thus described the nature and object of our said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, we claim the method of
making paraffine and certain other candles as above described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Lyon Field and Charles Humfrey,
the younger, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-ninth
day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and flow con
JOHN LYON FIELD.
(L.B.)
Witness,
CHARLES HUMFREY, Junior. (L.S.)
ALEX. PRINCE, Patent Agent,
4, Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross.