IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLE WICKS
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Pickering, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Chandler, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF CANDLE WICKS."
Sealed the 5th January 1872, and dated the 19th October 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Pickering at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 19th October 1871.
1
I, JOHN PICKERING, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Chandler, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLE WICKS," to be as follows:-
I take cotton or linen yarn, but by preference the material known as
cotton roving, and I weave together two or more strands of this material
into a flat tape form, or I can take the strands and without weaving
them together use them side by side in a flat form. I also introduce
this cotton roving in any desired proportion into ordinary wicks of any
description for the purpose of increasing the power of absorption. I

page_text: also propose to employ a flat wick made of any material suitable for
the purpose as a substitute for the round wicks in all descriptions of
candles.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Pickering in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th April 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
PICKERING, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Chandler, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 1
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Pickering, Her special license that
.I, the said' John Pickering, my executors, administrators, and assigns, 1
or such others as I, the said John Pickering, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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, êxercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF CANDLE WICKS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Pickering, 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 Pickering, do hereby declare a
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, that is to say :—
This Invention consists of improvements in the manufacture of candle

page_text: manufacture of a material of a more absorbent nature than those at
present employed for this purpose with the view to the prevention of
guttering or running of the tallow whilst burning, and to effect this I
take cotton or linen yarn, but by preference the material known as
"cotton roving," and I weave together two or more strands of this
material into a flat tape or other suitable form for a wick, or I can take
the strands, and without weaving them together use them side by side in
a flat form. I also introduce this cotton roving in any desired propor-
tion into ordinary wicks of any description, for the purpose of increasing
the power of absorption of such wicks, as it is found in practise that
ordinary plaited or snuffless wicks when employed for tallow candles
are deficient in absorbing power and therefore cause such candles to
gutter.
I have employed the term weave in allusion to the mode in which
the strands of cotton roving are to be combined or formed into a wick,
but this has been used as a general term only and applicable in its
strictest sense only to wicks of a flat or tape-like form; for wicks of
ordinary form the material may be doubled to impart to it sufficient
strength to withstand the tensile strain it has to endure during the
operation of being made into a wick, and when in the desired form I
.either twist or plait it into a wick for the purpose of being manufactured
into tallow candles.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I claim the improvements
in the manufacture of the wicks to be employed in making tallow
candles by the introduction of cotton roving either wholly or in part
into such manufacture for the purpose of increasing the power of
absorption in the wick, as herein more fully set forth and specified.
•
In witness whereof, I, the said John Pickering, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Sixteenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.