2-914-009 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Bromborough Pool Candle-Works - interior view under three spans of roof - from a photograph, 1854. Candle factory on Merseyside. 'Their operations have been considerably affected by the [Crimean] war in which we are at this moment engaged: for example, the importation of palm-oil - the raw material of stearic candles - has increased about one-fourth of the whole quantity, which fourth is equal to one-eighth of the tallow brought to this country from Russia...[The factory is a] '...one-storied building, with walls twenty feet high; roofed by Mr, John Walker, of London, with galvanised corrugated iron, in spans of forty feet, covering three acres...The fourteen steam-boilers are fitted with self-feeding, smoke-consuming furnaces...increased extent of manufacturing power will lead to the reduction of prices, [and] will meet the enormous demand which has sprung up from Australia...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.