Let There be Candles...Forever!

Aa Aa Aa

Candles go way back in history. The ancient Egyptians used candles as early as 300 BC. However their candles didn't have a wick, it had plant reeds instead. These reeds were soaked in tallow (molten animal fat). The wick is accredited to the Romans. Like the Egyptians the Romans also used animal fat. On the other hand, the Chinese used Sperm Whale fat that was harder and didn't have the foul smell of tallow. Later on, beeswax was used instead of the tallow. Beeswax was way better than tallow. Tallow emitted a bad smell (due to the combustion of glycerine) and produced black soot however beeswax has a better smell and produced less smoke.

The curious thing is; the history of candles didn't progress that much later. Obviously we like candles as is; it is romantic and soothing.

Now I will tell you something important and something fun about candles!!!

First, something important;

What should you be looking for when buying candles?

Mostly women are the ones buying about 90% of candles worldwide. However, when they buy it, they look for its shape, fragrance or color, and that is not as important as the source of wax!!!

Why is the source important?

A study showed that candles made from paraffin wax (a petroleum derivative) emit poisonous fumes that can cause asthma, allergies and even cancer. Luckily these horrible side effects will not happen to an occasional user. But if you like candlelight and you use it more frequently, you better not use paraffin wax candles. Nevertheless, the National Candle Association refuted this study, but gave no evidence otherwise.

In my opinion, I think candles causing cancer is unlikely. For that to happen we need someone living all his life with multiple paraffin candles in an unventilated room and intentionally inhaling the fumes, and that is not the case at all. Otherwise, if we speak about a petroleum byproduct causing allergies, that is plausible for me.

Now to the fun part :)

Ancient fun: do you know that the ancient Egyptians were the first to use candles to make dreams come true and also to make spells or magic. Burning a candle is an essential part in the Ancient Egyptian love spell "Spell of Isis".

Modern day fun: NASA made an interesting experiment and lit a candle in microgravity. Some interesting things happened (see the picture to the right):