Candles.
Up to about the year 1860, wax caudles and “steeples” and tallow caudles
were almost the only kind of artificial light, for, though colza-oil lamps attained
a certain degree of popularity, the tallow candles dipped at home were and
remained indispensable in every household, until the time when gas and American
petroleum almost simultaneously became known and brought into use. In
place of tallow candles, stearine candles are now almost universally employed,
and in recent years, composition candles (of stearine and paraffine wax) or, more
seldom in Sweden, candles of paraffine wax, in cases where, for some reason,
candle light is preferred or must be used. The manufacture of stearine candles
in Sweden dates from 1841, when L. J. Hierta, a prominent and active man
in many directions, in conjunction with J. Michaelson, established the factory at
Liljeholmen. In 1843, Lars Montón founded the Clara candle-factory, the second
of the kind in the country. In 1912, Sweden had five stearine candle factories,
with 369 workmen and an output of 22 823 quintals of candles, valued at
1 9 7 5 000 kronor, mostly of pure stearine. Besides this, in both the stearine
factories of Liljeholmen and Clara, the by-products glycerine and oleine were
obtained to a value of 502 000 and 596 000 kronor respectively. The import
of candles in 1913 amounted to 20 600 kronor, of glycerine to 445 000 kronor,
of oleine to 457 000 kronor, and of stearine to 127 000 kronor. The exports were
37 500, 185 000, and 144 000 kronor respectively.
In the manufacture of stearine candles, certain fatty substances are used for
raw material, such as tallow and various oils consisting of a mixture n f fluid
and solid fat, chiefly oleine, palmitine, and stearine. In the manufacture of
candles, these so-called neutral fats are decomposed by the actions of some base,
such as lime, magnesia, or oxide of zinc, under pressure or with concentrated
sulphuric acid, and during recent years in an emulsion with diluted acid, into
glycerine and oleine, palmitic and stearic acids. Oleic acid is fluid at ordinary
temperatures, palmitic and stearic acids, on the other hand, are solid, and, after
due purifying, these are employed in the moulding of candles. The by-products
in candle-making, glycerine and oleic acid (oleinel, are collected and purified
separately. Glycerine is utilized in a large variety of ways, as a medical agent,
but chiefly for cosmetics and for nitro-glycerine. 0\eine (oleic acid, as it ;is incorrectly
named in the trade) is employed both in the manufacture of hard and
soft soap, and as a dressing agent for wool in the textile industry.
The consumption of candles in Sweden may be seen from the following figures:
Annually 7 Kg
1881-85 .................................... 1481000
1886—90 ................................................ 1 578 000 ,
1891—95 ............................................... 1761000
1896—00 ............................................ . 2067 000
1901—05 ................................ 2 454 000
1906—10 ................................................ 2 407 000
1910 ........................................ 2503 000
1911 ....................................................... 2 211000
1912 ....................................................... 2 239 000
1913 ....................... . 2 415 000
Scents.
Scents, in the ordinary sense, are most frequently solutions of fragrant substances
in pure spirit. In general, scents and the choicer soaps are made in the
same factories. The whole output of scent was valued at 1 107 000 kronor in
1912, and the export at 100 000 kronor. The number of factories was 23
employing 81 hands, in 1912.
Hard and Soft Soaps
are obtained by the decomposition of different kinds of fat, both solid and fluid,
by means of alkalies. Generally speaking, hard soap is soda, soft soap, potash,
chemically combined with fatty acids.to form salts. The boiling of hard soap,
like so many processes, used to be done on a small scale to supply domestic
needs; from wood-ashes and lime was obtained the required potash lye, which
was boiled with an admixture of tallow. A soft tallow soap was the result, from
Which, by the addition of common salt, a firm and good hard tallow-soap was
obtained. The first soft-soap factory in Sweden was founded in 1823 by Lars
Monten, in co-operation with the famous chemist, Berzelius. Though the raw
materials for this industry, especially tallow, linseed oil, and train-oil, might
partly be obtained in the country itself, the greater proportion of the raw materials
used are now brought from abroad, because the home- production is insufficient,
more especially since certain oils obtained from tropical plants, such
as cocoa-nut oil, palm-oil, etc., have begun to be used in soap-making. Soft
soap used to be generally employed for washing, but has latterly been superseded
by hard soap. Bor cheap toilet soaps, cocoa-nut oil is primarily made use of.
Soaps have also been recently manufactured by taking, first of all as neutral
a soap as possible,: and grinding, perfuming, and pressing it. Besides other
good qualities possessed by soaps prepared by this method they also admit of
being scented better and more lastingly than others.
The production of soft and hard soaps has made great .progress in Sweden
during the last 50 years. In 1860, there were 13 factories producing 2 105 000
kg of a value of 859 000, kronor.
In 1912 there were 60 factories, employing 745 workmen and producing
24 472 000 kg, valued at 10 236 000 kronor.
The consumption of cleansing materials, which is considered as a standard of
civilization, has increased about seven times per person and per annum in Sweden,
in spite of the fact that alkalies are now much used directly for cleaning purposes.
The price of soft soap and hard soap has, on an average remained the
same as then, 40'8 and 41 ’8 ore pr kg. respectively but for hard soap alone it
T ab le 88. The Manufacture of Soaps.
A n n u a l i y
Soft soap
kg
Hard soap
kg
Total
kg
Per inhab.,
annually
kg
1861 1865 . . . . . . 2 141 879 390 034 2531913 0-63
1866—1870 .................... 3 059 072 285 737 3344 809 080
1871—1875 .................... 4 567 896 441 228 5009124 H k
1876—1880 ................ 6 062 230 406 038 6468268 1-42
1881—1885 .................... 6 889 811 422 312 7 312123 1-56
1886-1890 .................... 7 150 225 770 331 7 920 556 1-65
1891—1895 | ................ 9 205783 1544 436 10 750 219 218
1896-1900 .................... 11 912 229 3 233 664 15 145 893 2'95
1901—1905 .................... 14 085 820 3 627 667 17 713487 3-34
1906 1910 .................... 18072 212 4 244 243 22316455 4-07
1910 20 307 546 4 575 283 24 882 829 4-51
1911............................... 17 025 571 4 562 856 21588427 3-90
1 9 1 2 . . . . . . . . 19 905 353 4 566 820 24 472173 4'38