We envision what it must have been like to illuminate one’s home before electricity. The evening’s gloom thickened and the room’s furnishings cast their long shadows from the dying light seeping in through pane glass windows. Candles were lit and a soft glow continued to play with the shadows, now shimmering in a flickering light. However, wicks layered in animal tallow were but only one means to reclaim the day. Out of necessity, our industrious forefathers found other sources to produce light. The original European settlers in the New World brought a limited supply of candles. The communities were small and spread out over vast stretches of land. Candle merchants were few and far between and expensive, leaving it upon most settlers to mold their own – a long, tiresome job on top of everything else needed to survive in a harsh new land. And at first, as so often, these newest Americans turned to the original Americans. Those native to North America had developed a quick and inexpensive method of lighting their world which they willingly shared – the pine knot or candle-wood.
Pine Knot, Candle-wood, or Pine Torches
Candle-wood was the first and most natural way to light colonial homes in America. Burning resin or wood tar of the pine tree was not new to Europeans; in 1648 the Swedes started a company that exported the wood, mainly for heating and its tar extract. From Africa to the far reaches of Asia, wood pitch lit the night. However in America, its use was so wide spread and in many cases preferred to candle light in intensity and longevity, that homes in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont were still using pine knot right up to the early part of the twentieth century. Fat pitch-pine as it is commonly called has also been referred to as fatwood, fat-lighter, light-wood, rich-lighter, lighter-knot, and heart pine. In the southeastern United States, the longleaf pine or Pinus palustris was valued the most for its high pitch production. However anywhere there is a pine tree or pine stump, there can be fatwood used for illumination.
Governor John Winthrop the younger, wrote in 1662 that candle-wood was much used for domestic illumination in Virginia, New York, and New England. It was gathered everywhere in new settlements and burned in humble households for lighting purposes. William Wood wrote in his 1634 text New England Prospect “Out of these Pines is gotten the candle-wood that is much spoke of, which may serve as a shift among poor folks…” In 1633, Reverend Higginson wrote that “They [pine knots] are such candles as the Indians commonly use, having no other, and they are nothing else but the wood of the pine tree, cloven in two little slices, something thin, which are so full of the moisture of turpentine and pitch that they burn as clear as a torch.” Fatwood lights quickly even when wet, is very wind resistant, burns hot and bright. The down side to its use is the pitch-soaked wood produces an oily, sooty smoke and a tar residue. To avoid having smoke in the room, and the pitch droppings of tar as it burned, the candle-wood was usually lit in a corner of the fireplace, on flat stones. Colonial households led a frugal existence. Lighting was an important expense as the cost of tallow candles were dear and used sparingly; the single candle often extinguished during the long family prayer each evening. To supplement and in many cases instead of candles, nearly every family laid in a good supply of this light-wood or candle-wood, especially for the long nights of winter.
Pine trees produce resin or pitch as a defense mechanism, pumping out resin to protect wounds from fungal attack or to ward off offending insects. Once hardened, the wood and bark around the area becomes rich with the flammable hardened resin. Resin is tree sap that has thickened as the terpene within evaporates and hardens. Over time, as the heartwood forms with age, excess resin is shunted into the heartwood creating a high concentration of resin and permeating the heartwood into what is called a ‘pitch soaked’ condition. This pitch soaked heart can last for decades, well beyond the life of the tree. The stump, left after a tree has died or was cut down, was the primary source of fatwood as the resin impregnated heartwood became hard and rot-resistant long after the tree had died. Pine in its varied species was found everywhere in the forests of America; just the longleaf pine alone was estimated to cover 90 million square acres. As colonists clear cut vast swaths of foliage, the stumps left produced a never ending supply of fatwood. Also, the joints where limbs intersected the trunk could be harvested for fatwood – the pine knots are the preserved branch parts of an otherwise rotted tree and can be picked up off the forest floor. Besides its illuminating properties, the fatwood was instrumental in lighting fires for warmth; wood shavings were also used for igniting fires.
Early Candles
For many Americans, tallow candles were the highest quality of candle that could be expected as they were made from kitchen byproducts. Marshall B. Davidson stressed this point in Early American Lighting. For the ordinary settler, just enough light for the page of a book or a section of needlework was all that was required to idle away the dark hours before bedtime. Bright lighting was simply not worth it. More light beyond simple needs was secondary to the cost, extensive labor to make additional candles, and the inconvenience of providing it. Anything beyond that, such as lighting an entire room, was beyond the settler’s wildest dreams, reserved for the the most wealthy landlords and merchants.
Candles of wicks repeatedly dipped in animal tallow or grease, each time hardened until several layers coated the woven fibers were dear and hard to come by. Reverend Higginson wrote in 1630: “…New England has no tallow to make candles of…” When Governor Winthrop arrived in Massachusetts, he wrote to his wife to bring candles with her from England. Candles cost four pence apiece which was a luxury for thrifty colonists. At first there was no livestock to furnish the tallow to mold their own. Hunting provided some, but in very limited amounts.
Frontier settlements carefully saved the deer suet, moose fat, and bear’s grease rescued from pot liquor. Every ounce of this grease tallow was conserved as a precious treasure. Over the decades, with the expanded use of domestic animals, candle making increasingly became a common household chore. Thomas Tusser wrote in his Directions to Housewives, “Wife, make thine own candle, Spare penny to handle, Provide for thy tallow ere frost cometh in, And make thine own candle ere winter begin.” Eventually, added to autumn’s many laborious duties was providing the winter’s stock of candles.
Wicks of Milkweed and Common Rushes
Wicks form the center of the candle. Their purpose while burning is to deliver fuel, in this case the wax or tallow, to the flame. Acting like a fuel pump, the wick absorbs and draws the liquefied wax up into the flame to burn by capillary action (the elevation of the surface of a liquid when coming into contact with a solid).Wicks were traditionally made of cotton or loosely spun hemp or tow – broken fibers used for twine or yarn. These bundles of fibers were simply twisted together which burned very poorly, needing constant maintenance to stay lit. It wasn’t until the 19th century that the braided and tightly plaited wick was invented, enabling the wick to curl over and be completely consumed in the flame. In America, colonist found that the fibers of the milkweed, which grew plentifully in the fields and along roadways, when twisted, burned cleaner than that made of cotton. Wicks were also made from rushes called rush-lights. Rushes are flowering plants distinguished by cylindrical stalks or hollow, stem-like leaves. The common or Juncus rush was most desired. The outer bark was stripped leaving the pitch bare, which was repeatedly dipped in tallow or grease, allowing it to harden each time.
Making Candles
For the farmer and lower classes, candles were made of animal grease. The fat would be saved for months and smelled rancid by autumn which was the traditional time to lay aside the next year’s supply of candles. Most colonial families burned an average of three to four hundred candles a year, depending on the size of the home, frugal usage, and income as some could be purchased averaging four pence a candle. In 1743, Reverand Edward Holyoke, President of Harvard, wrote in his diary that 78 pounds of candles had been produced in two days. A few short months later, all 78 pounds were gone.
Turning the collected tallow into candles was set aside for the women and children. It took about six hours for the fat to melt in an iron kettle set in the fireplace. The tallow was rendered out of the animal fat through cloth, removing the solids. The tallow was either stored for future use or transferred to a pot for reheating and dipping the candles. Wick strings were doubled and strung at the mid point over a narrow stick called a candle rod. The two ends of the wick strings hanging down were twisted tightly. The wick was dipped quickly into the melted tallow and the candle rod was rested on a rack until the tallow cooled and hardened. It was important that the melted tallow was not too hot or it would melt off what had already been dipped. This action was repeated over and over until the candles’ desired thickness, sometimes taking days. Because the candles would melt in summer’s heat, they were often packed in candle-boxes and covered over before setting aside in a cool dark closet or a root cellar. For convenience, a small metal candle-box large enough for a few candles usually hung on the edge of the kitchen mantel shelf. Often candles were strung from rafters until needed.
Bees Wax
These early candles of hot tallow or animal grease painstakingly layered around twisted wicks burned poorly and smelled even worse. In American, heated bees wax pressed around the wick and shaped by hand became more common and the odor produced was much more appealing. Bees wax candles were nothing new, the clergy during the middle ages used them extensively. However, reduced quantities made it expensive, limiting their use to the church and upper classes. Bees were not native to the new world, having been introduced by Europeans. The industrious insects thrived in their new environment. Native Americans traipsing through the forests learned that when spotting what they called “white man’s flies” hovering among the vegetation, a settlement was nearby. Farmers expanded their hives of bees as much for the honey as for the wax. Though the bees wax candles were in use and preferred, the number of candles made from the wax was very limited, even when a farmer had several hives. There were certainly not enough to keep them supplied throughout the year. The early settlers soon discovered another source of fuel for their candles that burned bright with the benefit of a sweet smell – berries from the bayberry shrub.
Bayberry Shrub or Candle-berry Tree
Soon after the first arrivals from Europe settled the land along the American coast, they discovered a very appeasing wax from boiled bayberries. It created a pleasant smell, gave off little smoke, did not melt in the summer, and proved to be a good burning candle. Natural and inexhaustible, these waxy berries were found in all the colonies from New England to Florida. Also called Virginia myrtle, the bayberry plants were in several varieties; the most common was the northern bayberry (morella pensylvanica) and the southern bayberry (morella cerifera). One pound of bayberry wax required fifteen pounds of bayberries. Therefore a quart and a half of bayberries yielded only enough wax for one small candle. The process was very time consuming. More prosperous families might own small candle molds, which allowed the user to cast up to a dozen candles simultaneously. Over time, candle makers or chandlers, traveled among the colonists selling various sized molds to expedite the autumn tradition of candle making. In 1705, Roberrt Beverley wrote in his History and Present State of Virginia: “Of this [bayberries] they make candles, which are never greasy to the touch, nor melt with lying in the hottest weather: Neither does the snuff of these ever offend the smell, like that of a tallow-candle; but instead of being disagreeable, if an accident puts a candle out, it yields a pleasant fragrant to all that are in the room; insomuch that nice people often put them out, on purpose to have the incense of their expiring snuff.”
A visiting scientist to America was more explicit in his definition of the use of bayberries for candles. In 1748 a Swedish botanist, Peter Kalm, credited with the first scientific description of Niagara Falls, traveled America collecting seeds and conducting research. In his Peter Kalms Travels in Northern America, he wrote of the bayberry: “There is a plant here from the berries of which they make a kind of wax or tallow, and for that reason the Swedes call it the tallow-shrub. The English call the same tree the candle-berry tree or bayberry bush; it grows abundantly in a wet soil, and seems to thrive particularly well in the neighborhood of the sea. The berries look as if flour had been strewed on them. They are gathered late in Autumn, being ripe about that time, and are thrown into a kettle or pot full of boiling water; by this means their fat melts out, floats at the top of the water, and may be skimmed off into a vessel; with the skimming they go on till there is no tallow left. The tallow, as soon as it is congealed, looks like common tallow or wax, but has a dirty green color. By being melted over and refined it acquires a fine and transparent green color. The tallow is dearer than common tallow, but cheaper than wax. Candles of this do not easily bend, nor melt in summer as common candles do; they burn better and slower, nor do they cause any smoke, but yield rather an agreeable smell when they are extinguished. In Carolina they not only make candles out of the wax of the berries, but likewise sealing-wax.”
A bayberry candle was a luxury to be saved and relished. A letter to John Winthrop in 1712 read, “I am now to beg one favor of you – that you secure for me all the bayberry wax you can possibly put your hands on. You must take a care they do not put too much tallow among it, being a custom and cheat they have got.” Bayberry candles were a treasure to the colonists who often saved them to burn on special occasions. This may have its roots in the fact that these candles burned longer than tallow candles; the most holy Christian holiday occurred during the shortest days of the year. It became a tradition to burn bayberry candles on Christmas or New Years eve to bring blessings of abundance in the coming year. The presentation of bayberry candles was a thoughtful gift that expressed one’s desire to share joy, happiness, good luck, and prosperity in the coming year; “a bayberry candle burned to the socket, brings joy to the heart and gold to the pocket.”
Elaborate candles
At times special occasions demanded elaborate displays, especially for those who could afford it. Anne Warton, in her 1895 text Colonial Days and Dames, recorded a wedding reception with a fireworks display that delighted those in attendance: “…the wedding entertainment was spread, and expense had not been spared… among the rare, and for those days luxurious adornments of the ample board, were a number of candelabra containing a curious kind of candle made by a then well known artificer, Peter Pield. These candles were decorated, and by an ingenious process, were made to explode in a shower of beautiful but harmless pyrotechnics. [providing it didn’t torch the curtains] Everything was in readiness for the ceremony to begin, the bridal party had entered. Suddenly the candles flamed up, to the astonishment and applause of the company…”
Spermaceti – Candles of the Rich & Famous
A waxy substance that came from the sperm whale’s head, called spermaceti, was found to produce a more durable candle than all others. Bleached during processing, these candles were quite attractive; their color was often white and translucent. Unlike tallow candles, there was little fear when storing during the summer months, these candles melting at about 50 degrees C or 122 degrees F. They burned longer, cleaner, brighter, with little odor, however they proved quite expensive. The perils whale-men experienced in harvesting the sperrmaceti along with its lengthy production, in some cases years from the time the whale was killed, kept the cost of the spermaceti candle high. It would never replace the tallow candle in popular use for only the richest of Americans fully enjoyed the benefits of this superior candle. Yet despite its high cost, demand remained high throughout the 18th and well into the 19th century.
Many of our founding fathers were wealthy enough to purchase these ‘better’ candles, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington who favored the spermaceti candle for its superior burning ability. Washington concluded that burning a spermaceti candle five hours each night for one full year would cost approximately eight pounds, which was far beyond the financial reach of most Americans. The spermaceti candle represented a changing society, constantly striving to better one’s life, which included lighting the darkness through clean and more efficient means.
Spermaceti comes from the greek sperma meaning seed, and ceti, the genitive form of whale. While blubber and whale oil remained driving factors in the whaling industry, this waxy substance could only be found in the head of the sperm whale. Two theories for the biological function of spermaceti propose it either controls the whales buoyancy, or acts as a focusing device for the whale’s sense of echolocation (the location of objects by reflected sound). It is believed that the first sperm whale killed by a New England colonist was Christopher Hussey in 1712. While patrolling the coast off Massachusetts, he was blown out to sea where he encountered and killed a sperm whale. Within decades, the whaling industry exploded off the New England coast.
The invention of the spermaceti candle remains a mystery. It is thought that Jacob Rivera, a Portuguese sailor who emigrated to Newport, Rhode Island in the early 1700’s, may have produced the first candles around 1748. Also Benjamin Crabb of Rehoboth, Massachusetts, applied to the General Court of Massachusetts in 1751 for the ‘sole privilege’ of manufacturing spermaceti candles. However, casting doubt on these possible originators of the candle, was an advertisement for spermaceti candles, found in the March 30, 1748 Boston News-Letter, as well as the 1743 Chambers’ Cyclopedia which included a description of sperma-ceti candles.
Once a sperm whale was killed, seamen tied its head and tail to the ship. After the blubber and other usable body parts were harvested, the head was severed and the body was allowed to sink. The head was either kept alongside the ship or more frequently brought on board the vessel. A hole was cut into the side of the head to get to the spermaceti which was bailed out by buckets. Occasionally seamen would climb inside to scoop out the last of the waxy fluid. Once aboard the ship, the spermaceti was squeezed by hand to separate the sperm oil before placed in barrels to be transported to New England candle manufacturers. On especially long journeys, the spermaceti would have been boiled and strained of impurities to prevent it from going rancid. A large whale could yield up to 500 gallons.
The process from spermaceti to candle was long and timely. Emily Irwin wrote a masters thesis summarizing this method: “The first step in the candle-making process requires the boiling of the spermaceti. The removal of impurities is crucial in creating high quality candles. The spermaceti is then placed in barrels and stored in an unheated shed over the winter, allowing it to fully harden [congeal into a spongy and viscous mass]. On a warm winter day, the spermaceti is removed, placed into bags [wool sacks], and pressed to remove additional sperm oil. After a few more months of storage, the spermaceti is once again heated, hardened, and returned to bags where greater pressure is used to remove any of the last remnants of oil. The remaining spermaceti, a waxy substance brown, yellow, or gray in color is once again heated.” All of the strained oil was bottled and sold as ‘winter-strained sperm oil.’ The spermaceti wax was bleached before molded into candles. One could purchase the candles or the wax to mold their own.
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Recommended Further Reading
Colonial & Early American Lighting by Arthur H. Hayward has been often researched and is rich in details including lamps and oils in use. More general texts include Flickering Flames: A History of Domestic Lighting Through the Ages, by Leroy Twing and The Story of the Lamp (and Candle) by F. W. Robins. Also Jane Brox’s more recent study is quite thorough, published in 2010: Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light.
Featured Image: Care of Williamsburg Colonial Village, Virginia
SOURCES
Andrews, Charles M. Colonial Folkways: A Chronicle of American Life in the Reign of the George. 1919: Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut.
Brox, Jane. Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light. 2010: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, NY.
Calhoun, Arthur W. A Social History of the American Family from Colonial Times to the Present. 1918: The Arthur H. Clark Company, Cleveland, OH.
Davidson, Marshall B. “Early American Lighting.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New Series, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Summer, 1944) pp 30 – 40.
Earle, Alice Morse. Home Life in Colonial Days. 1898: Grosset & Dunlap, New York, NY. 1974 reprint: Berkshire Traveller Publications, Great Barrington, Mass.
Hayward, Arthur H. Colonial and Early American Lighting. 1923: Dover Publications, New York, NY.
Holland, J. G. The Bay-Path: A Tale of New England Colonial Life. 1862: Charles Scribner, New York, NY.
Kalm, Peter. Peter Kalm’s Travels in North America: The America of 1750; the English Version of 1770, edited by Adolph B. Benson… 1966: Dover Publications, New York, NY.
Robins, Frederick Williams. The Story of the Lamp (And the Candle). 1939: Reprint 1970: Oxford University Press, Bath, England.
Stefoff, Rebecca. America Voices from Colonial Life. 2003: Benchmark Books, Tarrytown, New York.
Thwing, Leroy Livingstone. Flickering Flames: A History of Domestic Lighting Through the Ages. 1958: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland, Vermont.
Tunis, Edwin. Colonial Living. 1957: World Publishing Company, Cleveland, OH. 1999 reprint: John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland.
Wharton, Anne Hollingsworth. Colonial Days & Dames. 1894: J. P. Lippincott & Company, Philadelphia, PA.Click here for a Preview in Amazon
Wood, William. New England Prospects. 1634: Reprinted 1777: The University of Massachusetts Press.