Candles and Lamps.

349

just before setting. If this be done over-night, the candles will come out in the morning without difficulty. But, if you are obliged to make many at a time, then, after the tallow has been poured in, the mould should be dipped in cold water to cool it : and then when the tallow has set, the mould should be dipped for a moment in hot water to melt the outside of the newly-made candle and enable it to be easily extracted. By this method, the candles are not made so neatly as by the other, though they are made more quickly. It is well to take, if not to make, a proper needle for putting the wicks into the moulds. It should be a hooked piece of wire, like a crochet needle, which catches the wick by its middle and pulls it doubled through the hole. A stick across the mouth of the mould secures the other end. When the tallow is setting, give an additional pull downwards. A gunbarrel, with a cork or wad put the required distance down the barrel, has been used for a mould. Pull the candle out by the wick after heating the barrel. Two wads might be used; the one strongly rammed in, to prevent the tallow from running too far, the other merely as a support for the wick. Perhaps, even paper moulds might be used ; they could be made by gumming or pasting paper in a roll.

Dip Candles.-Candles that are made by "dipping," gutter and run much more than mould candles, if they have to be used as soon as made. The way of dipping them is to tie a number of wicks to the end of a wooden handle, so shaped that the whole affair looks much like a garden-rake-the wicks being represented by the teeth of the rake; then the wicks are dipped in the tallow, and each is rubbed and messed by the hand till it stands stiff and straight; after this they are dipped all together, several times in succession, allowing each fresh coat of tallow to dry before another dipping. Wax candles are always made by this process.

Substitute for Candles.-A strip of cotton, lz foot long, drenched in grease, and wound spirally round a wand, will burn for half an hour. A lump of beeswax, with a tatter of an old handkerchief run through it, makes a candle on an emergency.