A Million Dollar Industry - Candle Making

Ever since man invented fire, candles of some sort have been an important part of our lives, piercing the darkness and warming our souls on cold evenings. They are no longer the essential staple of yesteryear, but are a vital part of our lives, nonetheless.

History in Candle Making

The word candle comes from the Latin "to shine". The first candles were puddles of animal fat in a shell or hollowed out bone. Fat gave way to bee's wax and a couple of other imaginative (albeit impractical) sources of wax candle until around Civil War time, paraffin wax (derived from oil refining) came into use and is still used today. The naturalists did their homework and fairly recently came up with cleaner, longer burning candles made of bee's wax (again), palm wax and soy candles. Of those, soy candles are the most cost effective. Pre-historic man drew on walls by their light, Roman rulers enjoyed the expensive bee's wax, young Abe Lincoln read by them, and now almost every home has at least one.

Oh, But, You Can't Buy Just the Scented Candle!

Decorative to scented, candles are in our homes, our places of worship, at our parties and in our restaurants. But you can't just stick a candle on your table and let it drip and burn your furniture. Oh no; you're going to need candle holders, snuffers, hurricane lamps, jars, wall and ceiling mounted decorations and even bobeches. What? Bobeches are, in themselves, decorative; but they have a functional characteristic as well. They are actually a small 'collar', usually glass, which slips down to the base of the candle, preventing hot wax from dripping down onto your tablecloth.