Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/886

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802
CAN—CAN

tracted the notice of the Empress Catherine of Russia, who made him director of the salt-mines of Staraja-Russa, councillor of the Imperial College, and, three years before his death, councillor of state. He is the author of a large number of works in German on mineralogy and metallurgy, of which the most important, the Grundzilge der Berg- uiid Salzwerkskunde, published at Frankfort in 13 vols., during the years 1773-1791, has been translated into several

languages. He died in 1796.

CANDAHAR. See Kandahar.

CANDELABRUM, in Classical Antiquities, a stand for a lamp or lamps, usually of such a height as, when placed on the floor, to be serviceable to a person seated or reclining on a couch. The material varied according to the cir cumstances of the owner; only those of bronze have survived ; but they are many. Generally the form con sists of a heavy base resting on three spreading claws. From the base rises a tall usually fluted stem, branching out at the top into two or more arms from which the lamps were hung. On candelabra of this simple form the only place available for ornament was the top of the stem, on which a statuette or a group of figures could be placed ; and it appears that very many of the small bronze statuettes now existing in museums had originally served this purpose. Or the lower part of the stem, immediately above the base, could be converted into a figure supporting the stem, as may be seen in several very beautiful examples in the British Museum. There was, however, no limit to the extent to which the original form might be departed t i-om, as many of the candelabra from Pompeii show.

CANDESH, or Kandeish. See Khandesh.

CANDIA, the modern name of the island of Crete (q.v.)

CANDIA, formerly the capital and still the most populous city of Crete, to which it has given its name (see Crete), is situated on the northern shore somewhat nearer the eastern than the western end of the island, in 35 20 N. lat. and 25 9 E. long. It is still surrounded by its extensive Venetian fortifications ; but they have fallen into disrepair, and a good part of the town is in a dilapidated condition, mainly from the effects of earth quakes. The principal buildings are the pasha s palace, the mosques, which are fourteen in number, the two Greek churches, the Armenian church, the Capuchin monastery, the bazaars, and the baths. The town is the seat of a Greek archbishop, and one of the churches ranks as a cathedral. The chief trade is in oil and soap, both of which are of excellent quality; 900 tuns of the former were exported in 1873, and of the latter 40,000 cwts. The coasting trade, which is of considerable importance, is mainly carried on in Turkish vessels. The manufacture of leather for home consumption is an extensive industry, and wine of good quality is produced in the neighbourhood. The harbour, which had grown almost inaccessible, was deepened by Mustapha Pasha between 1820 and 1840. It is formed for the most part by the ancient moles, and was never deep enough to admit the larger vessels even of the Venetians, which were accustomed to anchor in the port of the neigh bouring island of Standia. A short distance from St George s Gate there is a small village exclusively inhabited by lepers, who number about seventy families. The popu lation of the town is estimated at from 15,000 to 18,000, about two-thirds being Turks. Candia, or as it is frequently called, Megalo Castro (the Great Fortress), occupies the site of the ancient Heradeion, the seaport of Gnossus, and is still known by that name to the Greek speaking population. The ruins of the mother city are situated at the distance of about two miles and a half to the S.E. at the village of Makri Teikos or Long Wall. Founded by the Saracens in the 9th century, Candia was fortified by the Genoese in the 12th, and was greatly extended and strengthened by the Venetians in the 13th, 14th, and 15th. centuries. It was besieged by the Turks under the Vizier Achmet in 1667 ; and, in spite of a most heroic defence, in which the Venetians lost 30,000 in killed and wounded, it was forced to surrender in 1669. (Spratt s Travels in Crete, 1865.)

CANDIAC, Jean Louis Pierre Elizabeth de Montcalm de, a child of astonishing precocity, born at the Chateau de Candiac, in the diocese of Nimes in France, in 1719. At four years of age he read Latin, either printed or in manuscript; and at six he understood Greek and Hebrew, had an astonishing acquaintance with arithmetic, history, geography, and heraldry, and had read many of the best authors. His extraordinary powers attracted the attention of the learned ; and it was for his benefit that the typographic board was contrived by M. Dumas, who superintended his instruction. He died at Paris in 1726.

CANDLE, a cylindrical rod of solid fatty or waxy matters, enclosing a central fibrous wick, and designed for giving light.

The raw materials mostly used for candles are tallow and palm oil ; they are also made from wax, cocoa-nut oil, paraffin, spermaceti, the mineral wax called ozokerit, ttc. For ordinary tallow candles, the mutton or ox tallow, taken as soon as possible after separation from the carcase, is sorted, cut into pieces, and melted in a pan ; the mem branous matters, which are known as graves or cracklings, collect at the surface ; and the liquid tallow, after being strained through a sieve and washed with boiling water, is ready for use. The candles are made either by clipping or by moulding.

The common tallow candles, however, are greatly inferior, both as regards illuminating power and absolute expense, to those now obtained from raw fats by processes based on the researches of some French chemists. The stearine or stearic acid industry, which is now of large proportions, originated in M. Chevreul s discovery that fats arc composed of orre or more inflammable fatty acids com bined with a comparatively uninflammable base, glycerine. Thus, tallow or palm oil consists of palmitic, stearic, and oleic acids, with glycerine. An economical method of separating the acids and the glycerine was first discovered in 1831 by De Milly, who used lime for the purpose, in place of potash and soda, the substances adopted by Chevreul and Gay-Lussac in their patent of 1825. The factory established by De Milly and Motard near the Barriere de VEtoile, in Paris, gave the " star candles " their name.

In this saponification by means of lime, the melted fat is stirred some hours with a mixture of lime (about 14 per cent, of the weight of the fat) and water. The lime com bines with the acids to form a soap, and the glycerine, dissolved in the water, is then run off. Next, the lime soap is decomposed, under heat, by means of sulphuric acid, which unites with the lime, the fatty acids being set free. 100 parts of the fatty acids, at this stage, give on an average 45 9 parts of a mixture of stearic and palmitic acids. The acids are washed with water, and allowed to cool and solidify. They are then pressed in press bags, both in the cold state and with application of heat, to expel oleic acid, which is liquid. After further purification, they are ready to be made into "stearine candles."

Various other methods of saponification have come into

practice. Thus it was found that the amount of lime in the foregoing process might be greatly reduced if the mixture were heated to a higher temperature with superheated steam. In another method, sulphuric acid is added to the fat, and the mixture is heated. The black mass produced is washed with boiling water till all the fatty acids are completely freed from sulphuric acid.

Then they are distilled with the aid of superheated