Improvements in Candles or Tapers for Fumigating or Perfuming or Evaporating Purposes.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Dec., 1891-Accepted, 30th Jan., 1892
JUDEL PIN DI MULTIVATION.
Improvements in Candles or Tapers for Fumigating or Perfuming or
Evaporating Purposes.
1, JOHN RYDER of 2, New Bridge Street, Manchester in the County of
Lancaster, Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
(a communication to me from abroad by Ernst August Weidemann of Liebenburg
a/ Harz, Province of Hanover, Prussia) and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
This invention relates to candles or tapers for uniformly impregnating the air
of a room in which the said candles or tapers burn, with ether or other
vapours for the purpose of perfuming or disinfecting the air as may be desired.
Hitherto, candles or tapers for fumigating purposes have been inefficient for
their purpose in that there is no guarantee that they contain a sufficient quantity
of the required substance, for if the tapers are not used directly after they are
made, but have been lying in stock any length of time, the substance in question
must be affected by coming in contact with the air and its efficiency more or
less diminished. And when it has been desired to evaporate the odorous or disin-
fecting matter such matter has had to be placed in a separate vessel.
The application of this method is attended with difficulties, as the heating flame
must be so arranged as to evaporate only a certain quantity of matter in a given
period of time. But even in this case the matter should be fresh at the moment of
evaporation and not have been exposed previously for any length of time to the
influence of the air, so as to lose its efficiency. It will thus be seen that these
methods of fumigating and evaporating chemical substances, present many
objections to their use on the part of an inexperienced person, especially that they
are comparatively speaking, but rarely adopted.
By my invention I get rid of the objections hitherto experienced by incorporating
the chemical substances to be fumigated or evaporated with the material of which
the candle or taper is composed, so that the substance of the latter hermetically
closes round the former and the burning wick, while consuming the substance of
the taper, either burns up the chemical matter thereby causing fumigation or
merely causes it to evaporate and thus fills the air of the room in which the taper
is burning, either with the products of combustion of the chemical matter or with
its vapours.
The invention will be fully described with reference to the accompanying
drawings in which :-
Fig. 1. is a section of candle or taper for fumigating purposes.
Fig. 2. is a section of candle or taper for similar purposes, and,
Fig. 3, is a section of candle or taper chiefly designed for evaporating purposes.
In carrying out the invention as applied to a candle or taper for fumigating
purposes, paraffin or any other material employed in the composition of ordinary
candles or tapers is thoroughly well mixed with ether, essential oil, or some
powdered substance and drawn out or moulded in the usual way in the form of a
candle or taper with its wick. The candle or taper thus produced forms the core
or base of the new taper A (Fig. 1.) and this core is afterwards covered with a
coating of paraffin, or similar material in such a way, that the finished taper is
externally not to be distinguished from other similar candles or tapers whilst
containing the required fumigating matter within itself perfectly secure against all
atmospheric influences.

page_text: When the candle or taper is lighted, it burns together with the enclosed matter,
and the products of combustion of the latter permeate the room in which the taper
is burning, so that any occupant of the room is compelled to breathe the air,
impregnated with the burnt substances.
When the candle or taper is extinguished, the chemical matter which has been
liquefied by the heat of the flame, grows cold, and the paraffin, or material
composing the taper, again hermetically closes round the added chemical substances,
even at the burning surface, so 'that the taper may be laid by, for any length of
time without any detriment to its efficiency.
If the candle or taper has been properly made, it will always burn at an equal
temperature, or with an equable development of heat, and a candle or taper of
certain fixed dimensions will always burn a certain length of time, which can be
easily determined, consequently, this kind of taper affords the means of effecting
fumigations of well defined intensity or strength from time to time. All that-is
required is to mark the outer surface with lines at regular intervals so as to gauge
the length to be burnt to produce the desired effect.
Instead of forming a core containing the perfume or disinfectant and surrounded
with the usual pure components of a candle or taper, we can at once make a complete
candle or taper, with channels or tubes running its entire length and open at the
top; see u. Fig. 2.
These channels or tubes a are afterwards filled with a melted paraffin solution
mixed with the required chemicals. After this filling has gone cold, the matter it
contains is again thoroughly secured against the influence of the atmosphere, but
will burn on the taper being lighted and effect the desired fumigation.
If the taper is not to be used for fumigating, but for evaporating any given
substance, then small tubes a open at the top and closed at the bottom are
inserted in the ordinary taper as shown at Fig. 3 of the drawing. These tubes are
afterwards filled with paraffin or some other material which hardens in cooling and
is thoroughly mixed with the substance to be evaporated.
When the taper is lighted, it burns in the usual way, but at the same time the
heat of the flame is communicated to the tubes at which surround it, the filling of
these tubes melts, begins to boil and evaporates, so that the room in which the
taper burns, is pervaded with these vapours. When the taper is extinguished, not
only does it congeal at the burning surface, but the filling of the tubes a¹ again
solidifies, so that the chemicals incorporated with the filling, are again excluded
from contact with the air. The tubes a', are not consumed as the taper burns low,
but remain in an upright position, and, in order to improve the appearance of this
glass circular grating," it is advisable to make the tubes a' of coloured glass, so
that the flame inside the envelope may shine through them.
66
If the substances for evaporation, contained in the tubes a, are readily
inflammable; so that the vapours ignite as soon as they are brought into contact
with the flame, the tubes a¹ must be turned away from the flame at their upper ends
as shown by the dotted lines in the drawing. The gases generated in the tubes a¹
when the taper is burning, are then diverted from the flame, and distributed in the
room without igniting.
Of course this arrangement of taper for the purpose of evaporation, may also
serve for fumigating, providing the tubes a', are made of a combustible or fusible
material. In this case the tubes a will buru or melt as the taper burns low, and
as now the filling is brought into contact with the flame, the chemical substance it
contains is burnt along with it.
'The taper as described above requires no attention, but, after once lighting,
burns steadily on until it is totally consumed, and during the whole of the time the
air is being impregnated with chemical substances, in a uniform degree, easily
calculated beforehand so that it becomes possible, in sick-chambers for instance, to
disinfect or perfume the air equably and in such a manner as not to inconvenience
the patient.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
A candle or taper constituted in such a manner that the chemical substances
contained within it are closely enveloped by the material of which the taper is
composed and thereby, when cold, thoroughly shielded from the influence of the
surrounding atmosphere, the said substances being either incorporated with the
material of the taper, or contained in tubes (a¹) embedded in the said material, in
which latter case the filling of these tubes must also be mixed with a substance that
shall melt and evaporate under the action of the flame, whilst the open ends of the
said tubes must be either straight, or bent outwards from the flame, according as
the taper is to be used for fumigating or evaporating.
Dated this 28th day of December 1891.
EMMOTT & Co., LIMITED,
Per W. H. T.,
2, New Bridge Street, Manchester, Agents for the Applicant.