Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 186, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1915 — The Day of the Candle. [ARTICLE]

The Day of the Candle.

The Romans possessed an inferior sort of candle which was made of strings of papyrus or rush dipped in pitch and surrounded with wax. But candles in perfection were not made until a much later period, and Alfred the Great of England has the credit of being the inventor of the horn shield for the flame, and consequently of the “lant-horn.”

One proof of their value is the fact that previous to the invention of the Argand burner, in 1784, lamps had entirely fallen out of use, a glance at the prints of that period being sufficient to convince one that candles reigned supreme not only in the houses of the people, but in the churches and in all other places of pnblic assembly. In such places there was an official whose sole duty it was to pass round armed with a pair of snuffers and an extinguisher on the end of a long stick, attending to the requirements of such of his flaring rods of tallow or wax as needed his attention.

Candle-making -at that time also formed a part of the education of every housewife, and the candle box was to be found in every household.