FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 209 



The candle diverged from the stem of the torch at a relatively late 

 period. It represents, like the torch, the employment of a rigid 

 material for combustion, and differs from the torch in having a cen- 

 tral wick made of a capillary substance The capillary wick marks 

 an important epoch in the history of illumination. Tribes having 

 the large domestic animals or having bees or wax-yielding palms and 

 insects in their environment can secure the materials and may invent 

 the candle. A great number of tribes, however, possessing some of 

 these essentials did not make candles. The candle is rather high in 

 the scale of invention, and appears when conditions of social advance 

 permit or require its use; for instance, as in the definite and estab- 

 lished cidture of the Iron Age. 



The candle may be defined as an aggregation of fixed fat or waxlike 

 substance around a central wick. The suitable substances are the 

 soHd fat of animals, mineral, animal, and vegetable wax, or even 

 resins, which melt easily and offer a fluid supply to the wick. The 

 latter draws the fluid to the flame by capillarity. 



Latitude and elevation furnish temperature elements which are 

 important in the question of the origin and use of the candle. Mat- 

 thieu Williams, the distinguished English chemist who sought to 

 popularize scientific facts, pointed out that there is an imaginary 

 line crossing Europe which he called the "oil and butter line," an 

 isotherm above which fixed fats occur and below which oils occur. 

 This noteworthy generalization shows the bearing of temperature 

 on the use if not the invention of the tallow candle, and is good also 

 for Asia. The wax candle is not subject to the law of temperature 

 affecting tallow, and is therefore used in warm climates. Beeswax, 

 on account of superstitions regarding bees, its small amount, clean- 

 liness, burning quahties, and pleasant oder, became appropriated for 

 cult purposes. There is no objection to the theory that the wax 

 candle and tallow candle originated from the torch stem independ- 

 ently. 



Accompanying the torch and candle are fixtures for installing the 

 illuminant. These grow in complexity as the science of illumination 

 progresses, and have a remarkable development which will be noted 

 in another section. 



KINDS OF CANDLES 



There are two classes of candles whose genesis can be traced. The 

 first of these is the taper, which is a cord or wick covered at present 

 usually with wax, forming a flexible length suitable for coiling in a 

 vessel or around a support. The taper is recognized in forms of the 

 torch made up of manufactured parts instead of rude natural mate- 

 rials. Thus the European torch of considerable antiquity was an 

 aggregation of cords imbued in fat, wax, resin, and the like, bound 

 or twisted as the link rope, and units of this torch were used as tapers. 



