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Out of The Myths of Time
Leave a Candle in the Window

by Lord Darius "Pork Fat Rules" von Tannenburg

When last we met in these pages, I spoke about preparations for winter and some of the difficulties involved. I mentioned that our ancestors had to deal with their own fears as much as anything else. One of the first things most people do to combat fear is to try and shed some light on the situation. I mean that literally. What goes bump in the night seldom does it in a well lit room. The things we fear abide in the dark. We are less afraid when we can see what threatens us and can deal with it. When we cannot, we must use our imaginations, and therein lies the problem, and the subject of this article.

Our ancestors could not flip a switch to turn on a light. No automatic dusk-to-dawn light, no floodlight with a motion detector. They had to depend on a communal fire. A torch allowed some exploration, but those things are dangerous and hard to control indoors. Smaller, more manageable fires were called for. Candles and lamps are more portable and easier to control indoors, where many possessions are also flammable.

The Complete Anachronist #68 ("Domestic Lighting") provided inspiration for me this time around. It seems many types of artificial light sources were developed. All were made from local materials and tailored to the local environment. Candles worked well in the North, but climate in the form of heat made them rare in the South. Oil lamps were preferred around the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

I chose to experiment with tallow for two reasons. First was cost - I had some on hand. You may as well. I keep an empty tin can on my stove to pour bacon grease and other meat drippings into. This helps to keep my drains clear. The second was novelty. Anybody can go buy supplies of wax and wick, or a kit complete with molds at almost any craft store. Sometimes I just got to do it the hard way to understand what our predecessors went through.

The booklet spells out in detail the "right" way to do it. Anyone interested in that should read the book.

Here I shall relate the experiences of a man who is not afraid to proceed without reading the instructions, and who still manages to succeed in spite of himself. After melting and re-melting what I had in my can and transferring the contents to another can I had washed out, I placed my can in hot water in an old cast iron pot. When the fat melted, I spooned a few teaspoons of water over the top of the fat. The water ran down to the bottom of the can, taking what few food particles remained with it. When this mess had been solidified by cooling in the bottom of the fridge, I tried to light it with my barbecue lighter. I hate to admit that I have trouble starting a grease fire on purpose, but there it is, and I feel better having said it. It makes my next confession that much easier.

I went back and read part (not all, just part) of the instructions, and found that I had omitted a crucial and obvious part of my candle, the wick. I was not sure just how easily my intended fuel would burn and felt the need to test it. The testing had left the top of the fat in a liquid state, so I improvised a wick by dredging a small square of paper towel through the melted fat and rolled it into a tube. I stuck this into the soft contents of my grease can and lit it. I thought that if the paper only was going to burn, my "candle" would be short lived. Ten minutes later I still had most of my improvised wick and it looked like my tallow candle worked. It burned with little sputtering and almost no smoke. A dressed up version was displayed at Anniversary.

Also mentioned in the Complete Anachronist was a pan-style oil lamp fueled with olive oil. You know I had to try this one, too. Olive oil burns clear and bright and steady with no odor. At my table at Yule I plan on having period lighting. I encourage everyone who can find the time to try something from this booklet. Would beef lard work for a "tallow" candle? I don't know, but it might make an interesting experiment in medieval science.

Copyright 2003 Albert R. Endsley.
Please include all copyright statements and attributions when sharing OUT OF THE MYTHS OF TIME articles.

Darius von Tannenberg has granted permission for all of his articles that were previously on the Dreiburgen web site to continue to appear on the site, 9 Oct 2006.

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