Candle Making Basics

Candles have shed a light on man’s progress since the beginning of time. There is actually not much known on the subject of origin of candles. Although it is frequently believed that the original candles were created by the Ancient Egyptians who used rushlights, or torches, made by saturating  the pithy core of reeds in molten tallow, the rushlights didn’t have a wick like a candle does. And so the Romans are credited with creating the wick candle, using it to aid travelers in the dark as well as  lighting homes and other buildings at night.

Like the primitive Egyptians, the Roman’s relied on tallow as the principal ingredient of candles.  Tallow is gathered from either cows or sheep suet.  Beeswax, which is a substance secreted by honey bees to construct their honeycombs, was introduced during the Middle ages. Beeswax candles did not produce a smoky flame or emit an acrid odor when burned so they were a marked improvment over the tallow candles. However, even though beeswax candles burned pure and clean, they were expensive, and so only available to those that could afford them.

American colonial women contributed to candlemaking when they discovered that boiling the grayish green berries of bayberry bushes produced a sweet-smelling wax that burned clean. Unfortunately, the process of extracting the wax from the bayberries was extremely tedious. The popularity of bayberry candles soon diminished because of this.

It was the growth of the whaling industry in the late 18th century that brought the first major change in candlemaking since the Middle Ages. Spermaceti, a wax obtained by crystallizing sperm whale oil, became available in greater quantities and like beeswax, the spermaceti wax did not elicit a repugnant odor when burned. Spermaceti wax was found harder than both tallow and beeswax and so it did not soften or bend in the summer heat. Historians document that the first “standard candles” were made from this spermaceti wax.

It was in 1834 when inventor Joseph Morgan first introduced a machine that allowed continuous production of molded candles.  Using a cylinder which featured a movable piston that ejected candles as they solidified, it this process that caused major developments affecting contemporary candlemaking to occur.

Still more candlemaking developments occurred in 1850 with the production of paraffin wax made from oil and coal shales. This process distilled the residues left after crude petroleum was refined.  It was determined that the bluish-white wax burned cleanly and without any objectionable aroma. More importantly, paraffin wax was far cheaper to produce than any preceding candle fuel developed. While paraffin’s low melting point could have posed a threat to it’s popularity, the discovery of stearic acid solved this problem. Stearic acid was found to be hard and durable and was being produced in quantity by the end of the 19th century. And so by this time, almost all candles were being manufactured using paraffin wax and stearic acid.

Alas, the introduction of the light bulb in 1879 caused candlemaking popularity to all but disappear until about the end of the century when a renewed interest in candlemaking emerged.

Due to the growth of the U.S. oil and meatpacking industries during the first half of the 20th century, candle manufacturing was further enhanced. Increases of crude oil and meat production led to an increase in the by-products that are the basic ingredients of contemporary candles paraffin and stearic acid.

Even though candles are no longer our major source of light, they continue to grow in popularity and use. Candles today define ceremony for temples, churches and personal shrines, they symbolize celebration and mark romance as well as provide beautiful accents to our decor. Of course, they’re pretty handy too when the power goes out.