IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Fergusson Wilson, Managing Director, and
John Chase Craddock, Superintendent, of Price's Patent Candle Com-
pany, Belmont, Vauxhall, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
=
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Fergusson Wilson
and John Chase Craddock at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 5th December 1854.
We, GEORGE FERGUSSON WILSON, Managing Director, and JOHN CHASE
CRADDOCK, Superintendent, of Price's Patent Candle Company, Belmont,
Vauxhall, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES AND NIGHT LIGHTS" to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
candles and night lights, when using the stearines of cocoa nut oil, of the
Calhoun palm, and of the kernel of the palm oil nut. And our improvements
consist of combining one or more of such stearines with a small quantity of
hard fat acid, the stearine not being less than three-fifths of the compound by
which a candle stuff will be produced, requiring in each candle two small
wicks, or one large wick, suitable for turning out of the flames when burning,
when made up into candles.-And the use of the stearine alone, of the Calhoun
palm, and of-the-kernel of the palm-oil nut, with such like wicks; make good-

page_text: candles; and such application of these stearines constitutes part of our improve-
ments. We find that such stearines are unsuited for making night lights of
small diameter, by reason of their melting points; but that they may be used
with advantage when making night lights of comparatively large diameter.
And our Invention consists of applying such stearines when making night
lights of greater diameter than one inch and three-sixteenths of an inch
diameter.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George. Fergusson Wilson and John Chase Craddock in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
FERGUSSON WILSON, Managing Director, and JOHN CHASE CRADDOCK, Super-
intendant, of Price's Patent Candle Company, Belmont, Vauxhall, send
greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said George Fergusson Wilson and John Chase Craddock, Her special
licence that we, the said George Fergusson Wilson and John Chase Craddock,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said George
Fergusson Wilson and John Chase Craddock, our executors, administra-
tors, 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN' THE MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES-AND-NIGHT-LIGHTS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said George Fergusson
Wilson and John Chase Craddock, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, or under the hand and scal of one of us, 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 we, the said-George Fergusson Wilson and John
Chase Craddock, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in

page_text: what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in, the manufacture of
candles and night lights when using the stearines of cocoa nut oil,, of the
Calhoun palm, and of the kernel of the palm oil. nut.. And our improvements
consist of combining one or more of such stearines with a small, quantity of
hard fat acid,. the stearine not being less than three-fifths of the compound, by
which a candle stuff will be produced, requiring in each candle two small wicks,
or one large wick, suitable for turning out of the flames (when burning), when
made up into candles. And the use of the stearine alone, of the Calhoun palm,
and of the kernel of the palm oil nut, with such like wicks, make good candles;
and such application of these stearinės, constitutes part of our improvements.
We find that such stearines are unsuited for making night lights of small
diameter, by reason of their melting points; but that they may be used with
advantage when making night nights of comparatively large diameter.' And
our Invention consists of applying such stearines when making night lights of
greater diameter than one inch and three-sixteenths of an inch diameter.
Having thus stated the nature of our said Invention, we will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same.
In carrying out our Invention, we take, by preference, at the rate of about
four parts by weight of the stearine of cocoa nut oil, or of the Calhoun palm, or
of the oil of the kernel of the palm oil nut, or of mixtures of these, and com-
bine or mix therewith one part by weight of the hard fat acid, preferring that
separated by hot pressure from distilled acidified palm oil; and having melted
them together, we intimately mix them by blowing free steam through them,
when the combined materials will be ready for use.
We do not confine ourselves to the precise quantities, or to the precise
description of hard fat acid, but adhere as near as may be to those given above.
The wicks we prefer to use is a loose plat of English Turkey-bleached cotton,
of three strands of twenty-five threads each, or about the same quantity of
yarns made up into two wicks may be used; and such size or sizes of wicks we
employ in candles which weigh about six to the lb.
When the candles are required for chamber candles, or otherwise where the
quantity of light is not so important as the property of being able to be carried
about without dropping grease, we do not add the fat acid, but make
candles with the above wicks of the stearine of the Calhoun palm, or the
stearine of the palm oil nut, or of those stearines combined, and they may be
combined in any proportions. We prefer in all cases, when preparing these two
stearines, or any mixture containing them, or either of them, for the making

page_text: of night lights, to refine them by boiling them in water, acidulated with
sulphuric acid, as is well understood; after which we cast them in moulds when
making what are known as Albert night lights, or when making other forms
of night lights in paper or other suitable coverings or cases, of a diameter in
each case of one inch and five-eighths of an inch, as these stearines do not
burn well when made up into night lights of small diameter.
In witness whereof, we, the said George Fergusson Wilson and John
Chase Cradock, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-
fifth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty five
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
GEO. F. WILSON.
(L.s.)
JOHN CHASE CRADDOCK., (L.S.)