When All Hell Breaks Loose (68 page)

Not much is known about the origin of candles. Some scholars think they were first developed by the Egyptians, who used torches called "rush lights." They were made by soaking the pithy core of reeds in melted tallow or animal fat, although they had no true wick like a candle. The Romans win the prize for developing the wick candle, and they used it for everything from lighting homes and traveling at night to illuminating churches for worship. Similar to the Egyptians, they used tallow, the rendered fat from cattle or sheep, as the fuel element. Two-thirds of the tallow came from the solid fats palmitin and stearin with one-third from the liquid fat olein. Candles made from tallow smoked like crazy and emitted a certain odor that wouldn't go over well on a first date. In the Middle Ages someone finally discovered the wonders of beeswax and its delightful, clean-burning flame, although it was expensive at the time.

In the late eighteenth century, the whaling industry boomed partly due to the discovery of a wax called
spermaceti
that was obtained by crystallizing sperm whale oil. Fortunes were made and by 1792 the whaling port of Nantucket alone had ten candle factories. This wonder fuel could be produced not only in quantity (one sperm whale could contain hundreds of gallons of the precious goo), thus making the price cheaper, but it also burned just as clean as beeswax, had a higher degree of candlepower than anything else, and was harder and didn't bend in the summer sun.

In 1850, much to the relief of a diminished whale population, a substance called paraffin wax was made from oil and coal shales. The greatest advantage of paraffin was its cost; it was the cheapest to produce of anything that had been tried as a candle fuel. This, along with the discovery of an additive called stearic acid, solved the problem of paraffin's low melting point. With the introduction of the light bulb in 1879, candle making declined until the turn of the century when a renewed popularity for candles emerged.

Technically speaking, a candle is defined as one or more combustible wicks supported by a material that constitutes a fuel that is solid, semisolid, or quasi-rigid at room temperature, 68 to 80 degrees F (20 to 26 degrees C). It can also contain additives, which are used for color, stability, odor, or to alter the burning characteristics, the combined function of which is to sustain a light-producing flame. A candle flame burns its fuel in distinct regions within the flame itself. The differences are reflected by the various colors appearing within the flame. The hotter-burning blue areas burn hydrogen that has been separated from the fuel to form water vapor. The brighter, yellow part of the flame is carbon soot being oxidized to form carbon dioxide. Thus, a well-made, properly burning candle produces mostly harmless water vapor and carbon dioxide. The chances of carbon monoxide poisoning with candles is almost nonexistent as you would need many, many candles in a very confined space.