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Previous Next The best candle and soap tips online! TECHNICAL TREATISE ON SOAP AND CANDLES. MANUFACTURE OF CANDLES. 505 stand passing through the loops holds the wicks in position. A small wooden peg is often put in the hole, which seems to hold the wick tight and prevent the melted tallow from leaking out. The frames being in readiness and the tallow at the proper temperature, the moulds are filled with the same. To succeed well, care must be taken to have the tallow neither too hot nor too cold. If too hot, it hurts the mould and causes the candles to adhere and be full of cracks. If too cold, the candles have a granular structure and look uneven ; in the first case, the candles are removed by dousing the moulds in warm water after they have cooled and the candles dexterously drawn out. The proper heat for the tallow is when on cooling a pellicle forms on the sides of the kettle, at a temperature of about 37.7° to 44.4° C. (100° to 112° F.). The mould while cooling should be left in quiet in an upright position, and the wick ends showing below the tip are straightened by pulling before the candle congeals, unless the pegs spoken of have held the wicks firmly in position. When the moulds have caps, the candles are easily drawn by raising the caps and cutting them at the junction, otherwise the workman presses his thumb against the bottom of each candle to loosen it, and draws it with a kind of bodkin. When first made from ordinary materials, the candles are more or less yellowish, and it is customary to expose them to light and air, which bleaches them somewhat, but if packed away the color returns. The best remedy is to have the tallow whitened by some of the processes we have described .in a previous section. It is true that they will become white with age, but it is by absorbing oxygen and becoming rancid unless kept from the air. Moulding by machinery has nearly superseded the more tedious method by hand, and there are numerous mechanical appliances more or less perfect and rapid, for small as well as large manufactories. If the article to be moulded be tallow, it is preferable to have it hardened and bleached. The hardening is done by pressing out a portion of its oil, or by granulating and separating as previously described. In the melting and refining of the tallows, steam is now generally employed, particularly when a large quantity is needed for moulding by machinery. We here illustrate a convenient form of apparatus for melting, Fig. 120. The steam generator A. The reservoir B contains the water for feeding the boiler by the cock N; the draft is regulated by the damper O. The boiling tubs C C C are heated by the pipe 506 TECHNICAL TREATISE ON SOAP AND CANDLES. MANUFACTORE OF CANDLES. 507 OOO. This range of melters is convenient, as a constant supply of melted fat can be kept up. Leubel's moulding machine is arranged to make 396 candles at one operation. Fig. 121 shows a front elevation of responding in size and position with those in the wooden tabled. Figs. 122 and 123 show other views of this machine ; Fig. 124 the arrangement of the wick. Fig. 122. Fig. 123. Fig. 121. ,0 one-half of the machine, also the moulds. The moulds are ranged in a stand somewhat like the ordinary one, on top ot which is a second stand but ledged and made of iron or other metal and pierced with holes corresponding with those in the wooden stand beneath. In each of these holes is lodged a kind of small funnel, to which is attached the wick which descends into the moulds. The metallic stand is so arranged that, by the aid of a winch moving a cogged rack, it can be raised or lowered at will. When the candles are about to be cast, the metal stand is lowered until the funnel caps touch in the top of the moulds, when the fluid tallow being poured upon this stand runs through the caps into the 396 moulds. After perfect congelation the metallic plate is raised by the winch and the candles severed with a long knife. In warm weather the moulds are cooled in a vessel of ice-water, elevated so that the filled moulds are dipped their whole length in it. A is the framework of oak wood; the platform d supports the vessel e of water for cooling the moulds. The metallic table fis pierced with holes cor- The manner of working this machine is to commence by placing the moulds in the holes of the wooden stand t, and the funnel caps in those of the metallic stand/, which being done, the upper stand is lowered by tlfe winch m, until the caps get into the ends of the moulds. The wicks are arranged in the usual manner, and retained in position by hooks in the centre of each cap; when all is ready the melted tallow is poured in upon the table/, whence it runs into all the moulds. When the candles have cooled and hardened in cold weather by the atmosphere or in warm weather by the bath of ice-water, the metal table to which the candles adhere is lifted up and the candles are detached with a knife. The operation being finished, the caps are removed and cleansed in hot water before using again. The moulding is facilitated by having the upper metallic frame warmed sufficiently to prevent the too rapid cooling of the fat; being larger than the 508 Previous Next
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