Fuel and light.
Comparative expence of candles and lamps. a common glass lamp, with a flat wick ½ an I. wide was placed beside a mould candle of the size called sixes, & allowed both to burn 16½ hours without being moved. in that time 2⅗ candles were consumed, a ⅓ pint of oil. from the experiment it appears that 1. gallon of oil will burn 402. hours, and that it requires 10⅗℔ of candle to burn the same time so that supposing oil to be .75 per gallon, it will be equal to mould candles at 7. cents per ℔. which shews the advantage of oil.
½ oz. of powdered brimstone will instantly extinquish a chimney on fire, if thrown on the burning coals on the hearth.
May 22. 1826. a gallon of lamp oil, costing 1.25 D has lighted my chamber highly 25. nights, for 6. hours a night which is 5. cents a night & 150. hours
Timber.
Get bark for tanning where your next cleaning is to be, felling the tree & stripping it clean.
maul up every cut of timber which will make rails, stacking those not wanting for the present. let them be large.
© 2025 Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Getting Word: African American History at Monticello supported by The Mellon Foundation