IMPROVEMENTS IN APPA- BATUS FOR MANUFACTURING MOULDED CANDLES." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Fergusson Wilson, of Belmont, Vaux-
hall, in the County of Surrey, Managing Director of Price's
Patent Candle Company, William Henry Hatcher, of Manor
Street, Old Kent Road, in the County of Kent, Engineer, and
John Jackson, of Southville, Wandsworth Road, in the said
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPA-
BATUS FOR MANUFACTURING MOULDED CANDLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Fergusson
Wilson, William Henry Hatcher, and John Jackson, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition, on
the 23rd April 1853.
We, GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the
County of Surrey, Managing Director of Price's Patent Candle Com
pany, WILLIAM HENRY HATCHER, of Manor Street, Old Kent Road, in
the County of Kent, Engineer, and JOHN JACKSON, of Southville,
Wandsworth Road, in the said County of Surrey, do hereby declare,

page_text: the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
MANUFACTURING MOULDED CANDLES " to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object several improvements in glass
moulds, and also combining them with other apparatus.
These improvements consist,―
First, of forming or moulding the ends or tips by a blow pipe.
Secondly, the Invention consists in mounting diamonds in frames,
and applying them to cut off the lengths of glass tubing to form
moulds.
Thirdly, the Invention consists of mounting glass moulds, and, in
place of using elastic collars or packings, as heretofore, in employing no
elastic materials to surround them.
Fourthly, the Invention consists of applying cups and collars of
metal to protect the ends of the glass moulds.
Fifthly, the Invention consists in applying a bar of metal to protect
the tips of glass moulds, and to facilitate the cutting off' of the knots or
ends of the wicks.
Sixthly, the Invention consists of applying glass moulds to hand
frames, to be wicked in the ordinary manner.
We that find there is a great saving in the cost of moulds, particu-
larly in making large candles for churches, by using glass moulds.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Fergusson Wilson, William Henry
Hatcher, and John Jackson, in the Great Seal Patent Office, ou
the 22nd October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, of Belmont, Vauxhall, in the County of
Surrey, Managing Director of Price's Patent Candle Company,
WILLIAM HENRY HATCHER, of Manor Street, Old Kent Road, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, and JOHN JACKSON, of Southville, Wands-
worth Road, in the said County of Surrey, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said George Fergusson Wilson,
William Henry Hatcher, and John Jackson, Her special licence that
we, the said George Fergusson Wilson, William Henry Hatcher, and
John Jackson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said George Fergusson Wilson, William Henry
Hatcher, and John Jackson, 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 APPARATUS FOR
MANUFACTURING MOULDED CANDLES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said George Fergusson Wilson, William Henry Hatcher,
and John Jackson, by an instrument in writing under our hands and
seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, 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 George Fergusson Wilson, on
behalf of myself and the said William Henry Hatcher and John
Jackson, 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:
The nature of our improvements is as follows:-First, in forming
the tips or ends of glass moulds for candles. The tubes of glass are
drawn in the usual well known manner, and are made a little larger
than the candles for which they are intended to be used. They are
divided into lengths, each rather longer than the candle to be moulded
in it; and these lengths are accurately guaged as to the diameters of the

page_text: two ends, so that the smaller end may be taken for the tip of the
candle mould. The tip is made by softening the small end of the tube
in a common glass-worker's lamp, and drawing it out and moulding it
into a somewhat obtusely conical form, which is an operation easily
performed by those accustomed to working glass at the lamp. Then,
to render the shoulder of the tip truc and pleasing in form, a thin plate
of metal, having in it a hole rather less than the diameter of the
intended shoulder, is pressed down over the obtuse cone formed while
the glass is quite hot, so as to render the base of the cone more abrupt,
and give a finished appearance to the tip of the candle when moulded.
The proper shape being thus given, the point of the cone is cut off, and
the glass around the small holes thus left is softened by lieat, so as to
contract the hole to the needful size, and render its edges round and
smooth.
The moulds are then adjusted, as to length, by means of a rule or guage
of wood, having a groove in which the mould can lie, and a moveable
stop or block of hard wood.
A common glazier's diamond is fixed in
the groove of wood, so as to project inward, and touch the outside of the
mould lying in the groove. Then the stop or block of wood is adjusted
in position until it is so fixed that when the tip of the mould to be cut
is pressed endwise firmly against it the diamond in the groove may touch
the mould at the exact distance from the tip at which the glass is
required to be cut off. In order to insure an accurate cut, without
splintering, a second diamond is mounted, so as to project at right
angles from a rod of iron sliding through a metal collar at the end of
the groove furthest from the sliding stop or block. This rod of iron
slides freely through the collar, but may be fixed in any position by a
tightening screw, and the collar itself turns on a pivot, so that the rod
revolves in a plane coincident with the axis of the groove. The iron
rod, with its diamond, is thus easily introduced into the open end of a
mould, to be cut and adjusted in its collar, until the diamond within the
tube rests exactly over the diamond fixed without the tube in the
groove of wood; then the mould is made to revolve in the groove, with
its tip in firm contact with the stop or block; and being made to press
lightly on the outer diamond, while the inside diamond is, by means of

page_text: its rod, made to bear on the inner surface of the glass, the glass is thus
cut simultaneously at the same line both on its outer and inner surface,
and rarely fails to divide accurately. Finally, the rough cut edges are
smoothed, and the length adjusted, by grinding on a horizontal stone or
lap with fine sand and water.
The glass moulds thus prepared may be mounted in frames in the
following manner:-Each of the moulds may be bedded in a larger
metal or other case, and the space between filled with rešinous, or other
cement, or each mould may be protected by string wound round; or
the open end of each glass mould may be protected from injury by
having cemented upon it a metal collár of thin zinc or other suitable
metal, which is simply rolled into a cylinder of a diameter slightly less
than that of the mould on which it is to be applied. The edges of the
rolled cylinder are left open and unjoined, in order that the cylinder
may be sprung open when about to be put on the glass, and then, by its
elasticity, clip or hold the mould' with some firmness. A good cement
for fixing these collars we have found to be composed of shell-lac
dissolved in spirits of wine, and when about to be used mixed with red
and white lead into a thick paste. This cement, when applied.to.fasten
on the collars, speedily becomes very hard in a stove or drying room.
The edge of the collar at one end is made to coincide with the edge
of the glass mould; and we have found that the collar should be made
so long as to extend about one or one and a half inch below the upper bed
of the frame in which the tubes are fixed. The closed ends or tips of
the moulds may be protected either by caps of cast metal, or by collars
similar to those put around the open ends. The cast metal caps are made
of white metal or pewter, cast about three sixteenths of an inch in
thickness, and finished interiorly so as to fit nearly to the tips of the
moulds. The point of each cap is drilled out, and a small disc of 'brass,
having a small hole of a size just to admit the wick, is soldered into
this point, so that the hole in the brass may correspond with the wick
hole in the tip of the mould. The brass resists the abrading action of
the wicks, when drawn in, better than the soft pewter. The caps have
a flange round their open end; so as to rest by it on the lower-bed of
the frame. These caps are cemented on to the glass by the mixture

page_text: already described. If the thin rolled-up collar is applied to the tip as
well as to the open end of the moulds, then these collars are cemented
on with the shell-lac mixture, in such a position that their lower ends
may be about three eighths or one half of an inch above the extreme
point of the glass mould. The moulds, when thus prepared, are
mounted in the frames so that the edge of the open ends comes
exactly flush with the upper surfaces of the upper beds, and they
are cemented in their places in the upper beds by the cement already
mentioned, but are left free in the holes of the lower bed. Thus
fixed, we find they are less liable to break by warping or twisting
of the frames than they would be if cemented rigidly both at the
upper and lower beds. The effect of such warping is also guarded
against, as far as possible, by using diagonal braces, which are
securely rabbetted and screwed to the frame-sides and beds. If the
cast metal caps are used the lower beds are bored out to admit the
collars easily, and are of such a thickness that the collars may, when
resting by their flanges on the upper surface of the bed, have their
points projecting about one-fourth or three-eighths of an inch below
the bed. If the rolled-up collar be preferred for the tip of the mould,
then the holes in the lower bed are bored from the upper surface,
cylindrical, and of the size to admit the collar easily to within about
one-fourth of an inch of the lower surface of the bed: for this
remaining quarter the holes are obtusely conical. By this arrange-
ment the mould, when put in its place, is supported by the edge of its
collar resting on the conical part of the hole, while the uncovered point
of the glass, relieved from all pressure, projects about one eighth or
three sixteenths of an inch below the lower surface of the bed. Then,
to protect these projecting points, we place over them a bar of white
metal or pewter, cast flat on one side, and almost semi-cylindrical, on the
other.
This bar has conical holes drilled in it from its flat side, so as
to receive and cover the points of the glass moulds, while small holes
drilled from the bottoms of these conical holes quite through to the
cylindrical or convex side of the bar allow of the introduction of the
wicks. These bars are screwed down by countersunk screws to the lower
surfaces of the lower beds, covering and protecting all the mould points.

page_text: These moulds, thus mounted, may be wicked with a cottoning stick in
the usual manner; and we find that the bar of metal over the points
greatly facilitates the cutting off of the knots of the wicks by providing
a smooth unbroken surface of metal over which the knife can easily
glide. We find also that by using glass moulds we can cast candles of
great length, say of three, four, or five feet long, suitable for the use of
churches, and that, by so employing glass moulds for these candles,
the great expense of metal moulds of such large size can be avoided.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Fergusson Wilson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of
October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
an fifty-three.
Witness, B. GOBEY,
GEO. F. WILSON. (L.S.)
Clerk to Messrs. Carpmael,
Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.