SOAP AND CANDLE MAKING.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20302, 30 July 1931, Page 3

SOAP AND CANDLE MAKING.

STUDENTS VISIT WORKS AT BELFAST. Ilie fourth of the eurront series of excursions being arranged by the Scientific Society of Canterbury College wa3 held yesterday afternoon, when nearly . thirty students visited the Zealandia Soap and Candle Factory at Belfast. They were conducted ever the works by Mr Wotton, the works-manager, who explained all the processes' and methods employed in making soap and candles. In the soap-making buildings, they were shown the huge iron vats in which the fat was mixed with the alkali, and left to boil for three days with steam being passed in Resin is added in order to give the soap higher lathering properties, and when cooled, the mixture is run out into scores of metal moulds, measuring four feet high, five feet long, and one foot wide. After the soap has been left to solidify for a week, it is cut up, stamped wrapped in paper, and packed in boxes for export. Another interesting sight was a large glycerine still, which is used to I extract any valuable materials from the spent lye, the bye-produet of soapmaking. In another building were rows of long tanks containing sodium carbonate crystallising out. The soda is put on the market as washing-soda crystals, and it is also used as the main ingrediont of bath-salts. The candle-making part of the works was visited last, and here the visitors saw the complete stages of manufacturing candles. Pure paraffin wax is melted, and poured into the machines, which automatically provide the wicks and shape the candles. They are cooled, and cut into lengths, all ready to be wrapped and packed immediately. 1 At the conclusion of the tour, Mr J. D. Sargent, a member of the committee, thanked Mr Wotton for the demonstration, pointing out how useful it was for students to see in practice the methods about which they read in their text-books.