Candles

Monday, December 8th, 2008

The flame and light from a candle is like no other. It gives me a really warm feeling.

For many years, they have been popular items for the home. This is not for the light they give but I guess for that same warm feeling. And of course there is always the fun and hilarity of blowing them out on the birthday cake.

They come in all shapes and sizes and colours; many are highly decorated and some have their own particular fragrant scents.

Much as I like them, I have been disappointed by many, notably the fat ones for they seem to burn at the centre leaving an ever deepening crater of unmelted wax around them. And if you are unlucky they will burn unevenly and the crater wall will break and hot wax will run everywhere. Others have wicks that just seem to give up the ghost before they are halfway used.

I don't expect some makers to care and here I am referring to those unwashed hippies in kaftans and sandles who set up some craft centre in the woods and eschew the trappings of civilisation - well apart from tourist money, electricity and many other of the benefits of modern day society. They just take your money and never bother to ask if you are into white slave trading or dumping toxic waste into the Thames.

But you would think that others could do better, especially those sweet middle class ladies in village craft centres selling pottery from Peru, place mats from India, cushions from Vietnam and the occasional jar of local jam. I jest of course; they don't give a damn either.

I don't know the science but it seems obvious that the wick is the core issue (pardon the pun). It needs to be big enough to last and to create a large enough flame to melt even the outer edge, albeit at a pace which preserves the concave bowl of molten wax. Some fat candles try to get around this by having multiple wicks. They don't always work.

Another area of potential development which has been neglected for ages. Much like dripless spouts I guess. No bugger has ever cracked them.