IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR FITTING CANDLES TO CANDLESTICKS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Langton Clarke, of The Common, Ealing,
in the County of Middlesex, Clerk in Holy Orders, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR FITTING CANDLES
TO CANDLESTICKS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Langton Clarke
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 20th March 1878.
I, JAMES LANGTON CLARKE, of The Common, Ealing, in the County of
Middlesex, Clerk in Holy Orders, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR FITTING
CANDLES TO CANDLESTICKS," to be as follows:-
-
My Invention relates to the construction and use of simple apparatus
whereby candles can be fitted steadily in the sockets of candlesticks of
various sizes, such apparatus being applicable to the fitting of candles
furnished with a "lychnophylax," or apparatus for preventing guttering,
such as was described in the Specification of a Patent granted to me
dated the 3rd February 1872, No. 349.

page_text: I provide an adjustable socket or "adaptor" which for ordinary use is
a short piece of metal tube prepared as will be hereafter described, and
which when it is to be employed in conjunction with the "lychnophylax"
above referred to, is of such length as to serve the purpose of the tubular
save-all referred to in the said Specification. The metal of which this
tube is made should have a sufficient but not too high a degree of
elasticity; tin plate, or German silver plate, will be found practically
suited for the purpose. The exterior diameter of this tube should be
rather less than the interior diameter of the socket of the candlestick.
Three or more longitudinal slits are cut in this tube parallel to the axis
thereof, and at each end of each of these slits are cut transverse slits, so
that three or more portions of the periphery of the tube can be bent
outwards like tongues projecting a little from the general cylindrical
surface. These tongues can be bent more or less outwards till this
tubular socket can be inserted with a suitable degree of tightness into the
socket of a candlestick, in which, owing to the length and number of
the tongues, it will be steadily held. The lower corners of the tongues
may be rounded off for facility of introducing the "adaptor" into the
candlestick. A candle being inserted into the tubular socket above
described will thus be held steadily in the candlestick. Two or more
pieces of the lower end of the tube should be turned in at the bottom of
the "adaptor" to prevent the candle from being pushed through it.
When the candle to be used with such tubular socket or with an
ordinary candlestick is larger than the socket its end can be reduced so
as to fit the socket by the use of a paring instrument which I will now
describe. This instrument is a tube having an internal diameter equal
to or slightly larger than the diameter of the candle to be operated on.
At one end of the tube, one or more, preferably two, longitudinal slits are
cut parallel to the axis of the tube, and at the end of each such slit is
cut a transverse slit so that one or more, preferably two, portions of the
periphery of the tube can be bent inwards like tongues forming cutters.
In setting the cutters care should be taken to keep the longitudinal
edges parallel to the axis of the tube. The end of the candle is inserted
into the tube and pushed along it till it meets these cutters. The candle
is then turned round in the tube in the opposite direction to that in
which the cutters point (or the tube is turned on the candle) while the
candle is pressed against the cutters, and an annular portion of the
candle's periphery is thereby pared off, the end of the candle being thus
reduced as may be required to fit the socket. The tongues or cutters

page_text: above mentioned may be adjusted by being pressed more or less inwards
so as to pare the candle to the desired dimensions.
The tube should be of such a length and fit the candle with sufficient
accuracy to insure that the axis of the candle shall be practically
coincident with the axis of the tube, by this arrangement combined with
the before-mentioned setting of the cutters, the parallelism of the
reduced end and the other part of the candle is insured, so that the
candle must stand upright in the before described "adaptor" and bear
with its whole surface against the inner surface thereof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Langton Clarke in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 10th September 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LANGTON CLARK, of The Common, Ealing, in the County of Middlesex,
Clerk in Holy Orders, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-three, in tho
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said James Langton Clarke,
Her special license that I, the said James Langton Clarke, my ex-
ecutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
James Langton Clarke, my 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, usc, exercise, and vend, within the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS
FOR FITTING CANDLES TO CANDLESTICKS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said James Langton Clarke, 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

page_text: six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Langton Clarke, 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 5
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to the construction and use of simple apparatus,
whereby candles can be fitted steadily in the sockets of candlesticks of 1
various sizes, such apparatus being applicable to the fitting of candles
furnished with a "lychnophylax" or apparatus for preventing guttering,
such as was described in the Specification of a Patent granted to me
dated 3rd February 1872, No. 349.
I provide an adjustable socket or "adapter" which for ordinary use is 1
a short piece of metal tube prepared as will be hereafter described, and
which when it is to be employed in conjunction with the "lychnophylax"
above referred to, is of such length as to serve the purpose of the tubular
save-all referred to in the said Specification. The metal of which this
tube is made should have a sufficient but not too high a degree of elasticity; 2
tin plate, or German silver plate will be found practically suited for the
purpose. The exterior diameter of this tube should be rather less than
the interior diameter of the socket of the candlestick. Three or more
longitudinal slits are cut in this tube parallel to the axis thereof, and at
each end of these slits are cut transverse slits, so that three or more 2
portions of the periphery of the tube can be bent outwards like tongues
projecting a little from the general cylindrical surface. These tongues
can be bent more or less outwards till this tubular socket can be inserted
with a suitable degree of tightness into the socket of a candlestick, in
which, owing to the length and number of the tongues it will be steadily
held. The lower corners of the tongues may be rounded off for facility
of introducing the "adapter" into the candlestick. A candle being
inserted into the tubular socket above described will then be held
steadily in the candlestick. Two or more pieces of the lower end of the
tube should be turned in at the bottom of the "adapter" to prevent the a
candle from being pushed through it. Where the candle to be used
with such tubular socket, or with an ordinary candlestick is larger than

page_text: the socket, its end can be reduced so as to fit the socket by the use of a
paring instrument which I will now describe. This instrument is a tube
having an internal diameter equal to or slightly larger than the diameter
of the candle to be operated on. At one end of the tube one or more,
preferably two, longitudinal slits are cut parallel to the axis of the tube,
and at the end of each such slit is cut a transverse slit, so that one or
more, preferably two, portions of the periphery of the tube can be bent
inwards like tongues forming cutters. In setting the cutters care should
be taken to keep the longitudinal edges parallel to the axis of the tube.
The end of the candle is inserted into the tube and pushed along it till
it meets these cutters. The candle is then turned round in the tube in
the opposite direction to that in which the cutters point (or the tube is
turned on the candle), while the candle is pressed against the cutters
and an annular portion of the candle's periphery is thereby pared off, the
end of the candle being thus reduced as may be required to fit the
socket. The tongues or cutters above mentioned may be adjusted by
being pressed more or less inwards, so as to pare the candle to the
desired dimensions.
The tube should be of such length and fit the candle with sufficient
accuracy to ensure that the axis of the candle shall be practically
coincident with the axis of the tube; by this arrangement combined with
the before-mentioned setting of the cutters, the parallelism of the
reduced end and the other part of the candle is insured, so that the
candle must stand upright in the before described "adapter," or in the
socket of a candlestick and bear with its whole surface against the inner
surface thereof

page_text: the tube. In order to prevent the candle from being pushed through
the adapter when it happens that the candle has no shoulder above it,
two or more portions of the metal at the lower end of the tube are bent
inwards so as to form tongues h (of which three are shewn in the Figures)
on which the end of the candle rests. An inner tube may be fitted in
the adapter so as to close the openings made at the tongues b, and
thereby exclude air from being supplied to the last portion of the candle
which may drop down to the bottom of the adapter, or the holes at the
tongues may be otherwise closed in any convenient manner. Also the
adapter tube may be closed by a diaphragm disc fitted into it immediately
above the tongues b, as indicated by the dotted line a¹, Figs. 1, 3, 4.
The adapter tubė may be made of any desired length; Fig. 4 shews
one a² made long enough to allow of the "lychnophylax" d described
in the Specification above referred to being used until the candle shall
have burned to the end.
Fig. 5 shows a side view, and Fig. 6. a plan of the paring instrument
constructed according to this Invention, and Fig. 7 shows a longitudinal
section thereof with the end of a candle introduced, and undergoing the
paring operation. The tube e is slit at its upper end longitudinally and
transversely in one or more parts of its periphery, so that portions of the
metal can be bent in to form cutters (of which three are shewn in the
Figures). These cutters are bent more or less inwards so as to reduce
more or less the end of the candle to be operated on, g, which is
introduced as shown in Fig. 7, through the end of the tube farthest from
the cutters and pressed forwards and turned round within the tube, or
held while the tube is pressed backwards, and turned round upon the
candle until the cutters shall have pared away a portion of its outer
material, reducing it to a smaller diameter to such depth as may be
.desired.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I claim,-
First. The use of an adapter or adjustable socket for steadying candles
in the sockets of candlesticks, such adapter consisting of a tube with
three or more adjustable tongues bent outwards to bear against the
interior of the socket, substantially as herein described in reference to
Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Second. The use for reducing the ends of candles to a smaller
diameter, so as to fit a socket or adapter of a paring instrument consisting

page_text: of a tube with one or more adjustable tongues bent inwards to act as
cutters, substantially as herein described in reference to Figures 5, 6, 7.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Langton Clarke, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
JAMES LANGTON CLARKE. (L.S.)