Creating Candles

The early lamps were a bowl of oil with a wick inserted.  However, these could be messy and weren’t exactly convenient. 

So how did you get the light without the bowl and the mess?  All you really need is the oil and the wick, and that was how the candle was born.

Wick and tallow

Early candles were relatively simple.  All you had to do was take the wick and dip it into the melted tallow. 

When you take it out again, it is thoroughly coated.  Allow it to cool, and you have a candle, perfect for lighting that wood burning fireplace.

Early candles were often made in this way.  Multiple wicks would be tied onto one rod and then dipped into a pot of tallow.  For thicker candles, wicks would be dipped multiple times.  Most people made their own candles at home.

Later on, candles were made by pouring the tallow into a tin or pewter mold.  These candles had a smoother and more even appearance than candles that were dipped.

An expensive commodity

Candles were usually made of tallow instead of wax.  While there were wax ones available, they tended to be much more expensive and so were limited to royalty and the church. 

Kings would use them for special occasions and celebrations to decorate the fireplace mantle and the dining tables.

Tallow candles were not cheap either.  Even in recent history, some families would spend their evening with just the light of one candle.  For a party or guests, two or three might be used.

This is a stark contrast to the lights that we use today!  Even the brightest illumination to our ancestors would be barely lit by today’s standards and advances in fireplace designs.

Snuffing

Another downside to tallow candles is that they smoke.   They also need to be snuffed to keep the candle from getting covered in drippings.

As a candle burns, the wick does not burn up entirely and gets bigger and bigger.  The bigger the flame, the more tallow is melted, and the excess runs down the side.

To prevent this, the wick has to be trimmed, or snuffed.  Snuffing is done with a pair of special scissors that are generally stored near the candle.

To punch the wick off with your fingers was considered to be bad manners.  Once the end of the wick was removed, it had to be thrown on the floor and stepped on.

Modern candles

Today’s candles are made of stearine, which burns brighter than tallow.  The other advantage is that they do not need to be snuffed because of the way the wick is designed. 

In stearine candles, the hottest part of the flame is on the outside, where there is more air.

To see for yourself, take a piece of paper and hold it for a second over the flame of a candle.  When you remove it, you will see that that a circle has been burned, showing that the flame is hottest on the outside. 

If you do the same with a tallow candle, you will find a hole burned into the paper.  This causes the wick to be in the center of the flame, creating a charred end.

Another difference between the two is the style of wick.  In a tallow candle, the wick is twisted, while in a stearine one, it is braided. 

As a stearine candle burns, the wick unwinds, and the ends stick out into the hottest part of the flame and are burned away.

Tags: wood burning fireplace | wood burning fireplace | fireplace designs | fireplace designs | fireplace mantle | fireplace mantle