CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF CANDLES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
TINDALL, of Cornhill, in the City of London, Shipowner send, greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her
Letters Patent under Her Privy Seal, bearing date at Westminster, the
Eleventh day of April, in the sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her
heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Tindall, my
exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Tindall, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said William Tindall, my exors, adññors, or assigns,
should at any time agree agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times thereafter, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all the Colonies and
Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF CANDLES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
that the same Letters Patent should cease, determine, and become void if I,
the said William Tindall, should not particularly describe and ascertain 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, and cause the same to
be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Tindall, do, in and by this instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, and I do hereby declare
that the following is a correct account or statement thereof.
My Invention consists of applying and using in the manufacture of candles
plaited wicks in an improved and simple manner, by means of a flat metal rod,
wire, or instrument of the description herein-after contained. According to
my method, candles can be easily made with double wicks which will burn
without requiring to be snuffed, and the lighted ends of which will whilst
burning turn out from the centre of the candle and from each other. It is
well known that the lighted end of an ordinary plaited wick when burning
bends over upon that side of the wick in which the strands composing the
plait run upwards, in the direction of the burning end, from the outer edges of
the plait to the centre thereof, whilst on the opposite side of the wick the
same sands will be found to run upwards from the centre to and round the
outer edges of the plait. This is an invariable rule; and such rule must be
strictly observed and acted upon in applying or placing, according to my
method, the plaited wicks to and on the before-mentioned metal rod, wire, or
instrument used for the purpose of inserting them in candles. By plaited
wicks I mean such as are in common use, and it is not necessary for the
purpose of practising my said manner of applying and using such wicks that
they should be peculiarly formed or prepared, or that they should be combined
with any cord, braid, or other material or substance, in order to restrain their
bending, or otherwise to give them additional stability. No such peculiar
formation, preparation, or combination is required for the successful execution
of my said manner of applying and using such plaited wicks; nor is it
necessary, for the purpose of practising my said manner of applying and using
plaited wicks, that the rod, wire, or instrument used for introducing them into
candles should be formed or constructed in any peculiar manner; but the
instrument used by me for such purpose (and which I believe is in common
use) is a thin narrow rod of steel, brass, or other metal, made flat and even on
two of the sides thereof, being rather longer than the candle in which it is
intended to be used, and having at one end thereof a handle and at the other
end thereof a notch.
I do not claim the mode of forming this or any like instrument as a
part of my Invention, such, or the like instrument, having been long in
use for similar purposes; but I have caused a Drawing or Figure thereof

page_text: to be made in the margin of this Specification, by refer
the letters marked thereon, my said method or manner of
such instrument will be more readily and clearly understoo
instrument, at which the handle is formed, denoted in
Drawing by 'the letter A, I call the lower end, because
when the instrument is inserted in the candle during
manufacture, such end is at the bottom part of the
candle, while that end of the instrument where the notch
is made, denoted by the letter C, I call the upper end of
it because such end, when the instrument is inserted in
the candle during manufacture, extends to the top or
conical part of the candle, from which the wick projects
B, in' the said Figure or
for lighting. The letters B, B,
Drawing, denote one of the flat sides of the instrument,
along which the plaited wick is to be conducted, as herein-
after mentioned; the other, or opposite flat side, being
formed in the same manner; and the letter D denotes
the spot, immediately below the handle, where both the
ends of the plaited wick are to be fastene.l. I apply and
adapt a plaited wick to such instrument as aforesaid, as
follows:-I commence by placing the plaited wick upon
or against one of the flat sides of the instrument at the
lower end thereof, near to the handle; and in such a
manner that one of the broad sides or flat surfaces of the
plaited wick may lay even on one of the flat sides of the
instrument'; first, taking care so to arrange the wick that
the strands of it on that side thereof which is so placed
instrument shall run upwards (that is, in the direction
upper end of the instrument where the notch C is) from th
to and round the outer edges thereof. I then conduct the
broad side or flat surface of it laid next the instrument, in
course along and upon the same flat side of the instrum
notch at the upper end thereof, and at that notch 1 twist
wick half round, so as to bring the other or reverse broad
of the plaited wick flat upon and against the other or opp
instrument and close up to the notch, along which other
of the instrument, and in a straight and even course fro
handle, I conduct the said other or reverse broad sid
the said plaited wick. Both the ends of the wick are th

page_text: thread or other means round the instrument, near the handle, at the place
denoted by the letter D in the said Figure or Drawing. The instrument, with
the plaited wick thus laid and fastened thereon, will then be ready to be placed
in the mould intended for the candle.
The before-mentioned twist or turn of the plaited wick at the notch of the
said instrument is most essential, for by means of such twist or turn at the
notch I am enabled to conduct the wick from the notch along the said other or
opposite flat side of the instrument in such a manner that without the wick
being cut or divided the strands of that side thereof which is placed upon or
against the second flat side of the instrument run upwards in the direction of
the notch from the centre of the wick to and round the outer edges thereof, in
the same manner as the strands of that side of it which is first placed upon or
against the instrument, as above directed. By pursuing the method before
described; a double plaited wick may be so inserted in any candle as that both
the wicks of such candle will, whilst burning, turn outwards from the centre of the
candle; the two wicks being back to back, and each diverging from the other, and
both wicks will consume without requiring to be snuffed. It being, as before
mentioned, an invariable rule, which is well known, that the lighted end of a
plaited wick, when burning, bends over upon that side in which the strands of
the plait run upwards in the direction of the flame, from the outer edges of
the plait to the centre thereof, it is obvious that in first placing a plaited wick
upon or against the before-mentioned metal instrument, the wick must never
be so placed as that the strands of it on that side which is upon or against the
instrument shall run upwards (that is, in the direction of and towards the
upper end of the instrument where the notch C is,) from the outer edges of
the plaited wick to the centre thereof, for in that case the two wicks of the
candle, when manufactured, will, in burning, bend towards each other and
into the centre of the candle, and so spoil it and defeat the object in view.
From what I have stated it will now be obvious also why the twist or half
turn of the plaited wick at the notch is so essential as I have described it to
be. If the plaited wick were first placed upon or against one of the flat sides
of the instrument in the manner I have before described (viz, so that the
strands of the wick on that side of it which is placed upon or against the
instrument should run upwards in the direction of the notch, from the centre
of the wick to and round the outer edges thereof,) and the plaited wick were
then placed in an even course and without any twist or turn at all in the notch,
and so conducted in the same even course and without any twist or turn at all
from the notch along the opposite flat side of the instrument to the handle
thereof, the consequence would be, that both the wicks of the candle, when

page_text: manufactured, would, in burning, bend the same way, and one of the wicks
would turn over the other and bend in towards the centre of the candle, and
thereby spoil it and defeat the object in view.
Plaited wicks, applied in the manner I have described, may be used in all
candles which can be manufactured from different sorts of fats and fixed
concrete oils, whether the same be animal or vegetable, or chemical compounds
of such substances. The necessity of the twist or half turn at the notch may
be obviated by cutting the plait at the notch and carefully laying the plait on
the opposite or second side of the instrument, in the manner before described,
but, by so doing, some difficulty and uncertainty might arise in the manu-
facture of the candles, and therefore I much prefer the method of applying the
plaited wick with the twist or half turn, as before described.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do not
claim as my said Invention, or as comprehended therein, any of the matters or
things herein-before mentioned or referred to, save and except only the manner
and method of applying, placing, and fixing upon and against the instrument
herein-before described, plaited wicks with the said twist or half turn therein
at the notch of such instrument, and by cutting such wicks at the notch, as
before mentioned, or by either of such methods, and the candles manufactured
with plaited wicks applied in that manner.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Tindall, have hereunto set my
land and seal, this Twenty-third day of September, One thousand
cight hundred and forty-three.