History of Candles

History of Candles

History of Candles

www.candlemakersite.com

History of Candles

Most of us think about candles as a romantic item, they create a soothing atmosphere which is conducive to relaxation and romance, but to a large amount of less fortunate people in this world, they are still the primary source of light after dark, especially in the more primitive counties all over the world.

The Egyptians are generally credited with the invention of candles although this is not strictly correct, what they used was rushlights, these did not have wicks, they were made by soaking the core of a reed in molten tallow (animal fat), it could be argued that these reed cores were in fact the first wicks, they did after all serve the same purpose as a wick i.e. suppling the flame with fuel to burn. However the wick actually was invented by the Romans, and like the Egyptians, they also used tallow as the fuel source for their candles.

Next somewhere around the middle ages was the discovery that beeswax worked very well, beeswax did not burn with a lot of smoke and also does not have an unpleasant smell while burning.

During the colonisation of America, tallow was still being used as the main fuel source for making candles, and as this was scarce, the very enterprising colonists discovered that they could use Bayberry wax, to obtain wax, the bayberries were boiled and the wax was scooped off the top. This process was quite tedious and once other fuel sources became available, its popularity fell away sharply.

The next major change to the industry was the discovery of spermaceti, a wax obtained by crystallizing sperm whale oil, at the time whale hunting was a very large industry, and consequently spermaceti was available in large quantities, spermaceti was clean burning just like beeswax, but it was a lot harder and did not bend in the heat, this was the first "standard" candle.

During the nineteenth century most of the major changes in the industry took place. In 1834, inventor Joseph Morgan invented a machine for the mass production of candles, and in 1850 paraffin wax was discovered, and due mainly to its low cost, this became the standard and remains so to this day. Paraffin wax is produced by distilling the residues left after crude petroleum is refined, it burns cleanly and has no unpleasant odour.

With the introduction of the light bulb in 1879, the need for further innovation in candle making declined until the turn of the century when a renewed popularity for candles emerged.

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