Lisa Ann Jenssen, age 10, of Pocatello, Idaho, for her question:
HOW ARE CANDLES MADE?
Candles were used for illumination before gas and electric bulbs. They are also used today for soft light on a dining table, for holiday decoration and in some church services. Candles are made, basically, by inserting a wick into a tubelike block of wax or paraffin.
Today many candles are made either of paraffin or stearine and they are made by molding.
A number of tubelike candle molds are sealed in a metal tank. A wick is run from a spool through a piston and then through the length of each mold. After the melted material is poured into the molds, the tank is filled with cold water which cools and hardens the candles.
The piston then pushes the candles upward out of the molds into a wooden rack directly above the empty molds. The next section of the string wick is pulled into the molds for the next pouring of candles. Thus candles come out in long strings.
Dipped candles are made by cutting the wicks to the right length and hanging them from a frame over a tub of melted wax. The wicks are dipped into the wax until the coating is the right thickness. They are removed to a table where they are smoothed and finished.
Handmade beeswax candles are usually made in this way, as are the tall dip candles often used in homes.
Drawn candles begin with the wick wound on a drum about five feet in diameter. From this drum the wick is drawn through a shallow pan of melted wax. The wick passes through larger and larger holes in a die to another drum. The wick, with its layers of wax, is drawn back and forth until the candle grows to the desired thickness.
Using this method, the candle is then removed from the wheel and cut into short lengths and shaped. Long, thin church candles and tiny birthday candles are made by drawing.
A later method of candle making is by extrusion. Liquid wax is fed into a machine that produces long wax cylinders, which are cut into desired lengths. The wick is then hand inserted.
Candles with odd shaped forms are made in individual molds.
Candles are made from animal, vegetable and mineral waxes. There are many kinds of waxes, both natural and synthetic, but the waxes chiefly used for candles are beeswax (mostly used for religious purposes); paraffin, a waxy solid obtained from petroleum; and stearic acid, a refined product from animal tallow.
The first known candlelight was from a reed soaked in oil or fat. From this came the oil lamps of ancient Greece and Rome and the first candle, a rod of tallow, or animal fat, with a cloth strand running through the center for a wick.
The first candles of beeswax date back 2,000 years.
Candleberry, which is sometimes called bayberry or waxberry, is an evergreen shrub. Its berries are covered with bayberry wax, a green, pleasant smelling wax that is used in Christmas candles. A bushel of berries gives four to five pounds of wax.
The candleberry grows along the Atlantic Coast and as far west as Louisiana.