Candlestick maker

“ If the candle is held on a level with the blower’s mouth, or blown down upon, as usual, as it stands on a shelf or table, the wick will smoulder and smoke till the room is filled with its disagreeable smell, and the wick burned away so that it can be lit next time with difficulty. If the candlestick is held well above the blower’s head, and the flame blown out from below, the ignited wick will almost immediately be extinguished, and no trouble will be found in re-lighting the candle. Avoid cheap candles; they burn rapidly to waste and play havoc with clothes and furniture by “dropping.” ”

“ Matches are not yet invented. So he takes from the shelf over the mantelpiece an old tin or brass candlestick with a piece of tallow candle in it, and with the tongs takes a coal from the ashes, and holds the candle wick against the coal and gives a few puffs with his breath. ”

“ The boys have no candlestick.
“Why, William, you have not brought any candlestick. What shall we do for a candlestick?”
“I forgot that,” said William.
“Never mind,” said John; “we can make one with a block and three nails.”
There is a way of making a candlestick in a shop, which consists of driving three nails into a small block of wood, at such a distance apart as to leave just space for the end of the candle between them. If the nails are driven into the block in a proper manner, and if the heads of the nails are not too large, this contrivance makes quite a good candlestick. ”

“ As with most domestic appliances the history of the candlestick is an unceasing tendency towards simplicity, the most elaborate and fantastic forms, animals and reptiles, the monstrous creatures of mythology, lions and men-at-arms, angels and cupids, having gradually given place to architectural motives such as the baluster stem and to the classic grace of the Adam style. The candlestick in its modern form is, indeed, artistically among the least unsatisfactory of household plenishings. ”

“ Windmiller’s candlesticks are flat candlesticks made of iron, with a long handle on one side, and a sharp spike on the other, by which they can be stuck into the wall, or into a sack of grain, or anywhere that may be convenient. Each man who works in the mill has a candlestick, and one is always kept alight and stationary on the basement floor. ”

“ OLD SHEFFIELD PLATED CANDLESTICK.
One of a pair, with finely shaped facets, decorated with leaf ornament. Date 1785.
(In the possession of G. H. Wallis, Esq., F.S.A.)
It is curious how collectors have come to love [83]
[85] the candlestick, possibly it is because it represents something that vanished during the horrible era of the gas chandelier and the paraffin lamp, and has been resuscitated in later days in the form of an electric chandelier or in electric standards. Electricity has galvanized the old candlestick and the antique candelabrum into life. ”

“ These candlesticks were made of gold, to show the worth and value of them. They were made after the form, or exact, according to rule, like those that were made in the tabernacle, or according to the pattern which David gave to Solomon to make them by. Observe, there was great exactness in these; and need there was of this hint, that men might see that every thing will not pass for a right ordered candlestick with God (Exo 25:31-40; 1 Chron 28:15) .
These candlesticks are said sometimes to be ten, sometimes seven, and sometimes one; ten here; seven, Revelation 1:12, 13, and one in Zechariah 4. ”

“ At the widest part they should measure six inches across, and there should be four of these feet to constitute a stable base. At the top of the stick (which should be about one-quarter of an inch square) a scroll and a hook will serve to support the screen. In a library or sitting-room, where one large lamp is used to read by, one or two banner-screens will keep the strong light from the eyes and the heat from the head without cutting off the needed illumination from the book or work in hand.
A Candlestick
The illustration shown in Fig. 9 gives a pleasing pattern for a small-based candlestick. ”

“ It is generally presumed that candles, in the abstract, come from some unknown place in 'the City;' but how they are made, or who is employed in their making, or how the workmen live in the grease-laden steam of the factory, not one in a thousand would know if he could certainly none would give himself any trouble to find out. Neither should we ourselves have known, had not a little pamphlet, bearing the heading, Special Report by the Directors to the Proprietors of Price's Patent Candle Company, fallen into our hands. ”

“ What a lot of patent candles we should have if the same custom prevailed in America! Ingenious men would puzzle their brains to invent candles that would burn longer than any others; and we might expect to see any morning the advertisement of 'The Patent Inexhaustible Candle that will neither burn nor be blown out!' And somebody would devise a system of making a secret connection between the candle and a gas-pipe, so that the supply of combustible material would never be exhausted. ”

“ The one known as the camping or soldier's candlestick is just the thing for a dark lantern. It is a little over two inches high, and made of brass, and costs only fifteen cents.
Adamantine candles are the best, as they last twice as long, and do not melt and run down the sides like the parraffine or tallow candles.
One needs two trays for developing—one 4 x 5 and another 5 x 8. The smaller tray can be used when one has only two or three plates to develop, and both trays where one has quite a number. ”

“ It is a dirty practice to clean the candlesticks on the kitchen dresser (as is sometimes done) , for even if the paper be spread beneath them, particles of tallow may be left on the dresser, which are not perceived, and may be mixed with the food preparing for dinner; it is also an exceedingly bad practice to place the candlesticks on the upper bar of the kitchen-grate to melt the tallow; a most disagreeable smell is raised in the house by the tallow dropping into the fire, and the japan of the candlestick is often injured by the heat. ”

“ As for causing them to melt or liquefy, one might as well expect the same animal heat of one’s hand to light a wax candle by simply grasping and holding the candlestick in which it stands, or that lightly rubbing the candlestick with a handkerchief, every five or ten minutes, to keep it bright and dry, would produce the same physical effect on the candle placed in it as ordinary mortals obtain nowadays by igniting a lucifer match and applying it to the wick. ”

“ When the paper is in the piece of candle give one good hard blow and extinguish the light. With the piece of candle concealed in your left hand, take the candle out of the candlestick, lay it on the table, and with a knife cut off the burnt end, which throw away and divide the remainder into three equal parts. ”

“ There are several ways of putting out candles, and you ought to be instructed in them all: you may run the candle end against the wainscot, which puts the snuff out immediately: you may lay it on the ground, and tread the snuff out with your foot: you may hold it upside down, until it is choked with its own grease, or cram it into the socket of the candlestick: you may whirl it round in your hand till it goes out: when you go to bed, after you have made water, you may dip the candle end into the chamberpot: you may spit on your finger and thumb, and pinch the snuff till it goes out. ”

“ It was the dowager, clothed in a long white garment, and with an immense frilled night-cap on her head, and two or three candlesticks in one hand, and a huge bunch of keys in the other.
“What are you staring like a stuck pig at? Give me your candlestick! All the lights in my house go out at half-past ten o’clock every night. That’s my rule, and I won’t break it for anyone, I don’t care who! Give me your light.”
Markworth handed the candlestick to the old lady, who presently retreated down the passage with her arms outstretched, looking like the Witch of Endor. ”

“ Chick keep her fruit here too? Such a funny woman!
Edith set her candle down by the closet door, and knelt just in front of it, the bottom of the candlestick almost touching the skirt [75] of her frock! But as she peered into the closet she forgot there was anything in the world but a sirup pitcher and some apricots and peaches. That candlestick with the candle in it was as far away from her thoughts, to say the least, as the moon in the sky.
But the candle did not forget. It is the duty of a lighted candle to set fire to anything that is put in its way ”

“ As a study, the candlestick exhibits infinite variety. The eighteenth century, from Queen Anne to the late George III period, offers many forms. The Stuart candlestick is on another plane, and appeals to the collector of rare examples. ”

“ The fire was still blazing redly—nothing uncertain in the light—the massive silver candlestick, topped with its tall extinguisher, stood on the centre of the black mahogany table as before; and, looking by what seemed a sort of accident to the apex of this, he beheld something which made him quite misdoubt the evidence of his eyes. ”

“ Paraffin wax, a mixture of solid hydrocarbons obtained from petroleum, came into use in 1854 and stearine is now used with it. The latter increases the rigidity and decreases the brittleness of the candle. Some of the modern candles are made of a mixture of stearine and the hard fat extracted from cocoanut-oil. Modern candles vary in composition, but all are the product of much experience and of the application of scientific knowledge. The wicks are now made chiefly of cotton yarn, braided or plaited by machinery and chemically treated to aid in complete combustion when the candle is burned. ”

“ Likewise, candlesticks and candelabra are still in use, not, of course, as necessities, as they were a century ago, but yet doing efficient service in the homes of people who realize that the soft glow of the candle affords an artistic touch that nothing else can give. Undeniably, there is a peculiar fascination about candlelight that few can resist, and in whatever room it is used, that room is benefited through its attractiveness.
It is only when harking back that one realizes the strides that have been made in house lighting. ”

“ As there are no servants in our model establishment, tallow candles need never be bought, and no candlebox will be required, nor any kitchen candlesticks, to be stuck periodically in a row in the fender to melt their grease and solder, and lose their extinguishers and snuffers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ You know that the flames on these burning wicks in candles made of bees-wax, stearin, or spermaceti, do not run down to the wax or other matter, and melt it all away, but keep to their own right place. They are fenced off from the fluid below, and do not encroach on the cup at the sides. I cannot imagine a more beautiful example than the condition of adjustment under which a candle makes one part subserve to the other to the very end of its action. A combustible thing like that, burning away gradually, never being intruded upon by the flame, is a very beautiful sight ”

“ Paraffin, and almost all patent candles, fill the air with burnt smoke, and this, to many people, is insufferable.
Sperm candles are preferable to any others for general use at the piano and for bed-rooms. And candles need not be an expensive item when a house is well fitted with gas, as much music practising may be done by daylight and gaslight; while in bed-rooms we ought not to require much length of candlelight.
There is no need of more than one candle to be carried about, and that is for the person who turns off the gas to go upstairs with. ”

“ I said. "In earlier and less conjugal days no wedding was considered complete without my silver candlesticks. It was all so simple, too. I called at Gillingham's, wrote out a card, gave an address, and away went the present. And what's more, they all wrote back and said it was the one thing they had been longing for."
"Oh," said the lady of the house, "they'll write like that about anything. At any rate, we won't have candlesticks. They're quite useless now, you know. Nobody has candles."
"And that," I said, "is what makes candlesticks so valuable. ”

“ The pricket candlesticks of early twelfth-century make illustrated in Fig. 47 may be referred to as examples of the pricket form, their chief attractions being found in the richly enamelled decoration. In Fig. 48 we are able to illustrate a very interesting candelabrum now in the National Museum at Washington City. It is made up literally of two candlesticks attached to a very simple pillar bracket on which they slide up and down, the addition of a metal reflector suggesting later developments in candlesticks and lamps. ”

“ Candles were useful in another way besides for lighting. A sale “by inch of candle” was a common proceeding. When the goods of a merchant, or of a company, were sold in lots, the time of bidding for each lot was confined to the period in which a small piece of wax candle kept a-light; when it went out the lot was the purchase of the last bidder. Such a sale must have been a Rembrandtish sight,—the earnest faces of the merchants, in their settings of long locks and vandyked collars, alternately obscured and garishly revealed as the candle flickered in its socket. ”