Candles.--Moulds for Candles.--It is usual, on an expedition, to take tin
moulds and a ball of wick for the purpose of making candles, from time to
time, when fat happens to be abundant. The most convenient mould is of
the shape shown in the figure. The tallow should be poured in, when its
heat is so reduced that it hardly feels warm to the finger; that is, 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.
[Sketch of candle mould].
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
gun-barrel, 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, 1 1/2 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.
Materials for Candles.--Tallow.--Mutton-suet mixed with ox-tallow is the
best material for candles. Tallow should never be melted over a hot fire:
it is best to melt it by putting the pot in hot sand. To procure fat, see
"Greasing Leather," p. 343.
Wax.--Boil the comb for hours, together with a little water to keep it
from burning, then press the melted mass through a cloth into a deep
puddle of cold water. This makes beeswax. (See "Honey, to find," p. 199.)
Candlestick.--A hole cut with the knife in a sod of turf or a potato; 3,
4, or 5 nails hammered in a circle into a piece of wood, to act as a
socket; a hollow bone; an empty bottle; a strap with the end passed the
wrong way through the buckle and coiled inside; and a bayonet stuck in
the ground, are all used as makeshift candlesticks. "In bygone days the
broad feet, or rather legs, of the swan, after being stretched and dried,
were converted into candlesticks."--Lloyd.
Lamps.--Lamps may be made of hard wood, hollowed out to receive the oil;
also of lead. (See "Lead," p. 340.) The shed hoof of an ox or other beast
is sometimes used.
Slush Lamp is simply a pannikin full of fat, with a rag wrapped round a
small stick planted as a wick in the middle of it.
Lantern.--A wooden box, a native bucket, or a calabash, will make the
frame, and a piece of greased calico stretched across a hole in its side,
will take the place of glass. A small tin, such as a preserved-meat case,
makes a good lantern, if a hole is broken into the bottom, and an opening
in the side or front. Horn (see p. 347) is easily to be worked by a
traveller into any required shape. A good and often a ready makeshift for
a lantern, is a bottle with its end cracked off. This is best effected by
putting water into the bottle to the depth of an inch, and then setting
it upon hot embers. The bottle will crack all round at the level of the
top of the water. It takes a strong wind to blow out a candle stuck into
the neck inside the broken bottle. Alpine tourists often employ this
contrivance when they start from their bivouac in the cark morning.
[Sketch of candle in bottle].