- What is it?
- The Oxford English Dictionary would call it a "mould,"which
it defines as
"A hollow form or matrix into which fluid or plastic material
is cast or pressed and allowed to cool or harden so as to form an
object of a particular shape or pattern. Also with qualifying word,
as brick-mould, bullet-mould"—or in this case "candle
mould."
- Webster's Dictionary, however, would call it a candle-mold. The
lost "u" documents an interesting piece of American history.
Noah Webster, born in Hartford, Connecticut in desire to distinguish
American English from British English by simplifying spelling.
- For a brief biography of Webster published by the company
that bears his name, see: http://www.m-w.com/about/noah.htm
- For a scholarly but highly readable account of Webster's
innovation, read Jill Lepore, A is for American (New
York 2002).
- The National Candle Association, a trade group, offers a short
history
of candles on its website. What ideas about the past does it convey?
What does it leave out?
http://www.candles.org/Candlemaking/
- A more focused study of lighting in early New England can be
found in Jane C. Nylander, Our Own Snug Fireside (paperback,
Yale University Press, 1994), page106-11. She points out that
few New England homes had lighting devices in any but the main
room, and sometimes not there. People got used to working by the
light of the hearth fire or going to bed early. Rural families
did make their own candles, but usually from tallow, a form of
beef fat. They commonly made candles by tying wicks to wooden
rods and dipping them many times in a kettle of tallow. This method
allowed them to make as many candles as they had wicks. Candle
molds made of pewter and tin were more limited, though useful
if one wanted to fill them gradually as tallow or wax became available.
Candles made by "candle chandlers" were also available
for sale, and occasionally neighbors exchanged candles and other
products made at home.
- Go to dohistory.org
and search the diary of the Maine midwife Martha Ballard for the
words "candle," "tallow," "wax,"
"spermaceti" and "wicks." How does Ballard's
diary change or enlarge your understanding of the history of candles?
- In Moby Dick, Melville connected whaling to candles when he wrote
that "almost all the tapers, lamps, and candles that burn around
the globe" were shrines to the glory of mariners. Nantucket and New Bedford whaling museums have brief discussions of the use of spermaceti in candles.
http://www.nha.org/history/hn/HNWhalingmus.htm
http://www.whalingmuseum.org/kendall/amwhale/am_hunt.html
http://www.nps.gov/nebe/planning/interpthemes.htm
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