stearin candle, made of stearin from tallow in the way I have told you.
Then here is a sperm candle, which comes from the purified oil of the
spermaceti whale. Here also are yellow bees-wax and refined bees-wax, from
which candles are made. Here, too, is that curious substance called
paraffin, and some paraffin candles made of paraffin obtained from the
bogs of Ireland. I have here also a substance brought from Japan, since we
have forced an entrance into that out-of-the-way place a sort of wax
which a kind friend has sent me, and which forms a new material for the
manufacture of candles.
And how are these candles made? I have told you about dips, and I will
shew you how moulds are made. Let us imagine any of these candles to be
made of materials which can be cast. Cast! you say. Why, a candle is a
thing that melts; and surely if you can melt it, you can cast it. Not so.
It is wonderful, in the progress of manufacture, and in the consideration
of the means best fitted to produce the required result, how things turn
up which one would not expect beforehand. Candles cannot always be cast. A
wax candle can never be cast. It is made by a particular process, which I
can illustrate in a minute or two: but I must not spend much time on it.
Wax is a thing which, burning so well, and melting so easily in a candle,
cannot be cast. However, let us take a material that can be cast. Here is
a frame, with a number of moulds fastened in it. The first thing to be
done is to put a wick through them. Here is one a plaited wick, which
does not require snuffing[3] supported by a little wire. It goes to the
bottom, where it is pegged in the little peg holding the cotton tight,
and stopping the aperture, so that nothing fluid shall run out. At the
upper part there is a little bar placed across, which stretches the cotton
and holds it in the mould. The tallow is then melted, and the moulds are
filled. After a certain time, when the moulds are cool, the excess of
tallow is poured off at one corner, and then cleaned off altogether, and
the ends of the wick cut away. The candles alone then remain in the mould,
and you have only to upset them, as I am doing, when out they tumble, for
the candles are made in the form of cones, being narrower at the top than
at the bottom; so that what with their form and their own shrinking, they
only need a little shaking, and out they fall. In the same way are made
these candles of stearin and of paraffin. It is a curious thing to see how
wax candles are made. A lot of cottons are hung upon frames, as you see
here, and covered with metal tags at the ends to keep the wax from
covering the cotton in those places. These are carried to a heater, where
the wax is melted. As you see, the frames can turn round; and as they
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