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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1908 



Old -Time Lights 



By Mary H. Northend 



HE earliest artificial light used by the first night, like a lantern, as well as for a fixed illuminator. Other 



settlers of New England was furnished by kinds of lights were procured with more difficulty. Candles 



candlewood, or pine torches, cut from the were first imported from England, at prices which 



forest trees, after a fashion learned from made them too expensive for any but gala occasions. Do- 



the Indians. The pine torch was simply a mestic animals in the early colonies were all too few to be 



portion of a dry limb of the pitch pine, cut killed for their flesh. Deer and bear suet was mixed with 



into convenient lengths. It was usually the fat of beef or mutton, and used for candle-making. One 



selected so that it would end in a knot, as this part of the of the first letters which Governor Winthrop wrote home to 



wood is more abundantly 

 supplied with pitch, and 

 also burns away less rapidly, 

 on account of its twisted 

 fiber. "Candlewood" was 

 formed by short sections of 

 some old dry pitch-pine log, 

 cut into lengths of about 

 eight inches. Only heart 

 wood was used, and the 

 strips were split very thin. 

 The resinous wood was so 

 full of turpentine that the 

 small cleft splinters burned 

 like little torches. Lest the 

 continually dropping pitch 

 should disturb the neat 

 housewife, these slivers 

 were placed upon flat stones, 

 usually just inside the fire- 

 place. Several were burned 

 at a time, and their steady 

 flame, combined with the 

 flickering blaze of the roar- 

 ing fire, cast into the low, 



1 — Candelabra of Cut Glass and Gilt Brass, Osgood Collection 



h'is wife asked her to bring 

 candles and wicking with 

 her when she came. In the 

 absence of proper wicking, 

 the pith of the common rush 

 was used instead. This con- 

 stituted a rushlight, and 

 such a candle did not last 

 as long as those properly 

 made, nor did it give as 

 good a light. 



Many candles were made 

 from wax, which was easily 

 obtained from the wild bees. 

 Excellent material for can- 

 dles was also found in the 

 pale-green wax made from 

 the gray berries of the wild 

 bayberry, an aromatic shrub 

 which grows in profusion 

 along the coast. Sheep be- 

 came more numerous, and 

 everybody could have the 

 inexpensive "taller dip." 

 Then every housewife un- 



bare rooms enough light for the simple household tasks dertook to make her year's supply, and this was no easy task, 



which hard-working people must perform after nightfall. Wicks were of loosely spun hemp or tow. Four or five lengths 



The use of candlewood fagots continued in New England of the braided or twisted strands were suspended from a 



throughout the eighteenth century. Each householder could stick called a candle rod. The number of wicks hung to 



cut, every fall, enough candlewood to supply his family the rod depended upon the size of the kettle of boiling water, 



for the year. The pine torch persisted until 1820, and with melted tallow upon the surface, into which the wicks 



is still used in the Southern States, where it goes by the were dipped, after being carefully straightened. Then the 



name of a pine knot, and is used to carry in the hand, by rod was placed across two long poles, for cooling, while a 



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2 — Antique Sconces Owned by Mr. N. C. Osgood, Salem, Mass. 



3 — Mirror Candelabrum — Miss Sarah Kimball's Collection 



