IMPROVEMENTS IN CANDLES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th June 1870.-A communication from abroad by François Alfred
Chatel, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Manufacturer.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.
Southampton Buildings, London, Patent Agents, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CANDLES," a commu- ·
nication, to be as follows:-
Heretofore candles whether of wax or tallow or other materials have
been commonly made with a single central wick, but according to this
Invention instead of one wick they have three distinct wicks arranged
triangularly at the centre of the candle, each one of these wicks being
composed of a certain number of threads and being distinct from
each other and also of a determined length. By this means I am
enabled to produce candles which with regard to their illuminating
power, as compared with candles having only a single wick are fifty
per cent. superior for a given quantity or surface of stearine suet,
wax, or other material used. It is therefore by the employment of
three wicks under certain special conditions, determined by calculations
based on experiments, that the above result has been arrived at, and my
Invention consists in the employment of three separate wicks apart from

page_text: each other, arranged triangularly at the central portion of the candle
instead of a single wick, as herein-after set forth, the object of the said
Invention being an increased illuminating power.
The best conditions under which to obtain with the three wicks the
maximum illuminating effect with a candle whose diameter is about
1.25 inches are as follows:-A candle of the above diameter will have
a transverse sectional area of 1.223 square inches, the three wicks
should form at the centre of the candle the three points of an equi-
lateral triangle, of which each side will be from 236 inches to .275
inches in length, that is to say, the wicks will be distant from centre
to centre of each other from 236 inch to 275 inch. Each of these
wicks should be composed of 36 threads. With a candle of the above
diameter which has a surface of 1.223 square inches, each wick will be
fed by the third of the surface, that is to say, by about 406 square inch of
surface of stearine suet or other material. The above rule should serve
as the basis for the manufacture of my improved candles with three wicks,
the Figures being varied according to the section of the said candles.
In order that my said Invention may be clearly understood I have
shewn in the accompanying Drawings one of my improved candles made
in the proportions above given.
Figure 1 is an elevation of the said candle; Figure 2 is an end view
of the same shewing the triangular arrangement of the wicks; Figure 3
is a longitudinal section of the same on the line 1, 2, Figure 2 passing
through two of the wicks. Similar letters indicate the same parts in
these three Figures.
a is the body of the candle; b, b, b, are the three wicks arranged in
the form of a triangle at the centre of the candle, in such a manner
as to form throughout the same the three points of a triangle prism,
that is to say, they shall always be at the same distance one from
another at any part of the candle. As I have above stated, each of
these wicks should be composed of 36 threads, and may be either flat
or cylindrical.
My improved candles may be used for household purposes, in churches,