11:40 Franklin's lantern design is so utterly iconic and everlasting that it exists to this day, albeit with LED lightbulbs in them. Most houses still carry this design as their outside lights. I wonder what he’d think of that. Fascinating
My grandfather used to tell a story that when he was a kid (Silesia, 1920s), all they had in their village was naphtha lamps. So one time when he was 6yo, he went to the church at different village, and it was already electrified. His amazement as everything around lighted up was so great that he remembered that moment even until he was in his 90s. So I believe that the difference must have been huge.
Ngl we probably had similar feeling experiences as kids growing up for a few things. I remember as a kid in the 90’s going from software rendering to hardware openGL for the first time, and the massive difference of dial-up internet to Cable Internet. I remember my dad (rip 2022) told me how much better it felt no longer having to wait with a 56k modem for a webpage to load one single image or screen with text for over 5 to 10 minutes and falling asleep waiting around, while with Cable everything loaded in a manner of 5-10 seconds. Now we freak out if a web page or thing doesn’t load in 2-3 seconds but back then you’d be lucky to get things downloaded before you passed out. I STILL remember waiting over 20-30 minutes for a single 20.1mb SNES Rom file to download for the Zsnes emulator back in 1998 or 1999 on my dads PC as my friend and I stayed up all night trying to download games so we could try 2 player emulation with only one keyboard, attempting to play an import Gundam fighting game.
My great-grandparents were born in the 1880s in El Salvador. They didn't get kerosene lamps until the 50s, and never got electricity. The past isn't as long ago as we think!
@@MikeLikesChannel Yep, the differences are wild. My aunt's best friend has a house near Sonsonate with every modern convenience, like any middle-class house in America. You go ten miles down the beach and people live with wood-burning stoves!
So true! "Rural Electrification" in the US was within living memory and in the early 50's only some 90% of farms were electrified, and prior to that effort large swaths of the countryside depended on lantern light, or even candles. If you were really lucky, gas light. My1905 building in a major metro area still has the old gas lighting pipes in the walls and even exposed in the basement, with the little stopcock valves to control the gas! Coal shoot, fuel oil tanks... It's living history!
@@lelandunruh7896 I work at a farm supply store in Arkansas, when it finally dipped below freezing a few weeks ago we started selling hundreds of bags of wood stove pellets and dozens of gallons of kerosene. I have to load up around a hundred 40lb bags of those pellets every day, you'd be surprised how many people still live like that, and my house is 100% electric, with solar panels to boot
@@lelandunruh7896 My grandparents were born in the beginning of the twentieth century, in Australia, they did not get electricity until 1950. They did not get town water or an indoor toilet until 1975.
Very interesting and informative but he left out that the tallow candles needed to be stored in a candle box mounted on a wall- to keep mice and other critters away, lest those labor-intensive candles become a tasty treat.
Light bulbs and refrigeration really changed human life drastically. I love these episodes that cover a particular topic and how people dealt with it back then.
My great grandmother was asked what was her favorite invention during her lifetime. She said without hesitation "the washing machine!" Before its invention washing clothes by hand was an all day chore, especially since families were so large back then.
@@1TakoyakiStore a women that raised a lot of children was genuinely feared by many when she was angry, because a lot of them would have arms that could strangle a bear. Tons of laundry, dough kneeding, grocery hauling and other very labour intensive tasks made sure of that.
@@rubenskiii It's funny you say that. An ancestor on my mother's mother's side (I'm not too familiar with that side of the family so take this with a grain of salt) grew up on a dairy farm. She had to transport heavy milk containers by hand (sometime in the late 1800's in the Dakotas). Of course this caused her to develop strong arms, so much so that she was embarrased and self conscious about it since it wasn't seen as womanly attributes. 🤣
@@1TakoyakiStoreMy grandmothers in Australia said the best invention was the hot water system. Boiling water for baths, doing dishes, cleaning and washing was ongoing and awful in a hot climate. And yes the next best invention was the washing machine.
There is a theory that it wasn't feminists that allowed married women to work. It was electricity, along with washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric irons etc.
The war tax on candles not being repealed until long after the war ended reminds me of the telephone tax from the Spanish-American War that did not get repealed for 100 years
This is basically the same story for most taxes we have. They all served a specific purpose at first and then turn into yearly revenue to fatten up the government. Nice to see things haven’t changed…
I actually made dipped candles for shiggles one time, had no idea what I was doing but it worked out. Had a big 1x4 or so that I attached the wicks to and could make quite a few at a time. Kinda forgot I ever did that lol, thanks, wonderful video as usual. I always find it fascinating how much intricacy and nuance there is in even the most seemingly simple things when you really try to learn. Nothing is ever as simple or easy as it seems and I think that's a life lesson a lot of people could benefit from greatly.
Yup. Here in CA they raised the sales tax to help pay for the Northridge earthquake recovery. Then the police wanted it and they ran ads saying it wouldn't raise taxes. :P
Never knew how interesting candle history is. Crazy to think nowadays all these little things I’ve taken for granted. We really do owe so much to those who came before us. Kinda cool
My family owned a cabin built in 1890 when I was growing up. All our light came from candles, oil lamps, and kerosene lanterns. We experimented with different candle wicks by drilling holes into slabs of paraffin wax. The wicks with a wire center always worked the best.
Another part of lighting we don't think about much today is the house itself: the color of your wall, and how smooth it is greatly impacts how much light there is in your house. If you have dark colored walls light would just be absorbed, while a whitewashed wall would reflect better. These considerations greatly affected how houses looked on the inside. With richer people who could afford more light having more intrecate designs on their wall, more furniture standing against it and things like carpets on the wall. Especially poorer people would have white plastered walls, plain. So that the few light sources they had would light up as much as possible of the room. My family is from the seaside and back in the day every time a catch came in many people, especially the very young and very old would be busy cutting up fish, preparing it for preservation. They had to work quick. They would take the fatty insides of the fish and boil out the oil, for use in lamps mostly. Basically the whole village was lit with what came from the sea until i think the 1890's-1910's. After that electricity and gaslamps became more affordable and available.
My Grandma once showed me how the very very poor would create light purely from what came from the sea: a vessel made from Mussel, a wick made from the inner skin of fish, and the fuel the lowest grade of fish oil. Smells strongly, but you had light made from things only from the sea.
Thank you, I never thought about the colors of the walls, I will use that in my historic interpretation in the future since our Mission era building walls are whitewashed.
Yes! Of course the other side of that is that if you had those white walls and are burning the cheapest kind of candles the walls are going to get very visibly dirty very fast. Not a problem for the rich, of course, who are burning the clean candles and have maids anyhow, but just one more darn thing the poor wife has to constantly tend to.
Here in Alberta, we've been weathering extreme cold over the last few days. That has put enormous pressure on our power grid, resulting in our electrical regulator putting out a notice that we need to reduce consumption. I brought out the candles, and we've been very contentedly spending our evenings, with little modern technology, in candlelight. It brings me back to my childhood at the family cabin, where we didn't have power for many years. Candles for light, wood stove for heat, games, and hot apple cider were the stuff of many of our evenings.
I appreciate the joy in simpler things. However, the idea that your 9 watt led light bulb or 50 watt router is going to crash the net says that your government is failing in its basic responsibility to its citizens. Historically, its been cold in Canada before. Why is there a risk now? Not just Power to the People. Power for the People! Accept nothing less.
Some years ago I attended an evening ball at Colonial Williamsburg. According to the hostess, it was “brilliantly illuminated “. Actually, it was dark as a seance, even with all the candles. With our electric lights, it’s hard to imagine just how dark nights were with just candles and oil lamps. I remember as a child reading books like Cinderella, with illustrations of the brightly-lit ballroom and all the colorful uniforms and ball gowns. No such thing in reality. We couldn’t even make out the fancy gown’s colors, just the sparkle of the paste jewelry. I tried reading by candlelight once and it was really tough to make out the words. I had to have the candle within about 18 inches of the book. It makes you really respect people like Franklin and Lincoln, studying by candlelight, and makes you wonder why their eyes did not fail.
@@kilianortmann9979 These would indeed make the best use of the light that was there, but that light was still meager compared to what we are used to. Of course, it would have been more light than those of that time would normally have at home, so it would have been--to them--"brilliant".
They also wouldn't have had all the light pollution we have now so if there was a full moon and a clear night sky, there would've been a pretty decent amount of natural light coming in as well.
We were talking just a little while ago about J.S. Bach and the enormous amount of music he wrote, all written by hand and with a quill, and he had to do it all during daylight hours in order to see what he was doing. Aside from the creativity, what a logistical task to get all that work done, and for choral music, to get it done in time for his singers to learn and perform it!
Remote Upper Great Lakes here! I live in a region that didn't have electricity until after WWII. I have a copy of the history of the area, and it's a treasure. People worked so hard, (we work hard to live here now, so just imagine!) and they were so resourceful in every imaginable way. Much respect.
I remember making candles with my grandmother as a tiny, tiny kid. She would soak the string from bags of flour or cattle feed in salt brine first. I always wondered why as a kid. Now I'm a chemist and I suspect it's to stiffen the wick, and maybe add a little more brightness from the sodium in the salt, but I admit I'm not really sure.
My power went out for a couple hours yesterday and I thought about life before electricity and what it must have been like. Good time for this video to pop up in my feed.
I personally, from 1984 to 1993 did not live in a neighbourhood with electrical power. My homework for those nine years were in the kitchen table under candle light. My neighbors used kerosene lamps. My mom would not let one of those into our house because of the smell. Edit: that was in a very poor region in Brazil.
My grandparents would tell their grandkids that the reason why wax myrtles were called that was because the pioneers would make candles out of them. Never heard a thing about it until last month when the channel Weird Explorer decided to do an episode on it. During his research he could only find recipes that had a small amount of beeswax added. He decided to make his 100% out of wax myrtle berries. It worked but was quite a pain as the lack of beeswax made it really brittle. But it worked! Not only did it work but it lasted quite awhile, smelled pleasant, and had little to no soot.
@GrumpyOldTroll we're a medically retired military family of 7 struggling since our home burned down. it started off as her teaching me to can foods we needed. Most of the time it's us canning foods together, but we often bake, help with their store, or help around their home as she's in her 70s.
@GrumpyOldTroll thank you. All of our kids are young so it's been hard. Our friendship has truly been a blessing and the difference in all of us having dinner or just the kids eating.
I still cannot believe that content of this quality is available for free, and it continually convinces me that I live in the best time of all, so far. Thank you for your work, Jon.
As a person that lives in a (very) rural area, night definitely hits different. Frankly I wanted to be there when candles were still being used en masse. I wonder how a city would've looked like just by being lit by candles and oil lamps.
Ask Mrs. O'Leary's cow. 😆 In all seriousness, having lived in an area with occasional power outages and using many different lighting alternatives - there's a reason people switched to electric as soon as they could. It's very moody and pretty, but not very effective.
It really sucks that I forget about this INCREDIBLE channel until a video is recommended in my feed. I’m changing that starting right now by making sure I get notifications from Townsends! Seriously this channel is such an important historical well of knowledge. I absolutely appreciate the hard work and pure dedication that you all put into running it. Cheers to The Townsends!!
Candle makers often competed with soap makers for animal fat. Around 1835, that led to Proctor and Gamble, who were married to sisters, to form their company. Their father-in-law told them they stop competing and work together. Thanks, Pop!
I never take electricity for granted. I think about how it would affect every day, everyday. I give thanks for hot water, medicine, easy transportation, A/C, and easy access to food ALL THE TIME. I think we'd be a lot more content if really understood how good we have it nowadays. I'd wager any king of the past would give up their kingdoms to live in our modern society.
I totally agree! I live in a humble single-wide mobile home and I think to myself, I am actually living better than the vast majority of people throughout human history. I might not have marble and gold and silver, but I have safe lighting, safe food storage, water at my fingertips; I have a vehicle out in my driveway that can run faster than any racehorse ever bred. I don't have to chop firewood, make my own candles. If I want to and have the money I can go to the airport and fly across oceans to places that once took months to travel to. I had a conversation recently with a neighbor who was bemoaning how awful the world has become and how this is a sign of the End Times. I said, really? Things are getting worse? When we are living longer, when we have better nutrition, when we have better sanitation, when most babies born have a pretty decent chance of growing up to become adults, when women don't have to fear dying in childbirth? If you want to believe things are getting worse, you go right ahead. I don't believe it.
I never realized how important a single candle could be until last Friday. My power went out around 6 pm, which is dark here in the northeast, right as my oven was heating for dinner. I'm in a wheelchair and was scared of running my dog over or bumping into things. So I crawled on the floor in the darkness carefully to find where my phone was so I could use its flash light. The other flashlights in my house had dead batteries, my head lamp wasn't charged, but I found a singular candle. That thing became by best friend for the next 8 hours until the power came back on. I used it to warm a can of soup and all. The very next day I ordered a lantern and a flashlight that uses batteries I regularly have on hand... and a few more emergency candles.
Glad it worked out for you. Nothing humbles modern man like a power outage. We learned the hard way to be better prepared when we lost power for almost 6 days in an all electric home (no water either).
I was in the scouts, and we had quite a few camps where we weren't allowed most modern comforts (except sleeping bags, clothes, knives, hatchets, and a single tarpaulin), so no compass, no flashlight, no watch, no matches, no tents... (We had many normal camps, but they wanted to give us survival knowledge with minimal tools). We made many types of shelters: snow tombs, igloos, lean-to or tents (with the tarpaulin) and prospector tents. I don't know how the last one are really called elsewhere, it's basically a reinforced tent with the tarpaulin built on a wooden base, with a flapping entrance door and ideally an entrance room where you keep all the wood dry and where the cold gets stopped, with a raised platform where we sleep, they gave us construction wood to do that one and a stove to put inside the main room. It took us the whole summer camp to build (three days), and it was used in the autumn and winter camps, in winter we were sleeping in boxers ON our sleeping bags because it was almost too hot with the stove heating the tent, while it was under -35C outside XD For light we also were given wicks and paraffin (I know, not an old method but the principle is the same) and/or oil canisters to make either candles or oil lamps, but we were not given the moulds nor the lamp itself. So we made the moulds or lamps ourselves with clay we collected, moulded and dried with the fire made from spinning a stick or hitting some pyrite ore and flint we both found near the river... Anyways, way too long story to tell I still have many of these candles, so when I got my apartment, I brought many with me and each time there was a power outage I had candles in each room that I could light to pass through the outage for light and a bit of heat, one lasting two days after the worst snow storm.
Years ago my husband and I bought a house needing renovation. At the last minute the bank refused us our renovation money. For a year we had three working power points and zero lights unless it was a lamp plugged in. I assure you romantic candle lit dinners loose their appeal quite quickly when there is no alternative. That was in Australia but I enjoy these videos as much of our pioneering cooking etc was similar.
In the UK, in the early 70's we had power cuts due to industrial action & I remember doing my homework by candlelight, it was very comforting and I have great memories of that time.
My mother told me about this. Government enforcing a 3 day week to deal with miners union protests, they could not power the coal power plants without them.
My teacher in second grade taught us how to make dipped candles. I used to have the two candles I made, but lost track of them when I joined the Navy. She also taught us how to make butter in an old fashioned butter churn. Those lessons still hold in my mind.
8:32 in Hawaii as a kid Insat and watched this guy dip candles for almost an hour. The entire marrketplace was within this giant system of ficus trees, which people had built arbors, little rooms, and pathways with the roots... One of the most fascinating things ive ever experienced!
Hey man I have to say…I’ve been watching your videos for the past decade now. They’re always great, quality videos that I actually learn from. I just wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done. Because of you, I’ve gained an incredible amount of knowledge that I’ll never forget. If I could shake your hand I would. Thanks again. For everything.
Even growing up on the farm in the 1980's, you always had candles and a kerosene lantern around for when the power went out. I don't think a year goes by where I don't need to use candles at least once, I still have various ones hidden through the house for when needed. You have to imagine what a shock it was when people switched from candles to light bulbs. I just replaced some old incandescent tri-light bulbs in my house with led ones and it is incredible how much brighter they are. It must have been shocking for people back then to suddenly being able to see tour whole room lit and visible inside of having half of it in the shadows all the time.
growing up in the mountains around the same time we always had candles, oil lamps, kero lanterns, and a kero heater for backups around because if the power went out especially in winter it could be anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days for it to get restored depending on if it was overnight or on a weekend or how deep the snow was. even now i keep emergency candles and battery lanterns around. I heard stories pretty often from my grandmother of when their farm finally got electrified, she was born in 1917 and got to see the whole valley change over time, and had stories of people crowding around the first storefronts to be electrified to marvel at the bright lights and going home to oil lamps and using candle lanterns to find the privy out back. she said the first lightbulbs at home made them feel like millionaires, quite literally the world changed overnight once lightbulbs were in homes.
We still keep kero backups. Even at 32 degrees, a power outage is mostly really inconvenient but possibly life threatening for the impaired. At zero degrees, it can be life threatening for all. Better have a back up plan.
growing up in Greece that was very early electrified for that part of the planet... old house in the late seventies had a wall with kerosene lamps wich they kept for emergencies
Yes, i grew up on a very tiny army base and then in a very small village where if the power went out. It be out for atleast over 24 hours. One of my fondest/weirdest memories is seeing my parents faces in a dark room candles illuminating their tired but trying eyes and faces. Us kids were all quite young during these times and in winter it was pitch black and we were all scared of the dark. My parents tried to make it fun. They took all our mattresses and layed them on the floor in the livingroom and we all had a big "sleepover". My mom read us stories from our favourite books, or made them up, using a candle close to the book while the rest of us fell asleep to her words in the dark. Weirdest blast from the past.
My great Grandmother in the 60s and 70's used terms like "You left a light burning in the kitchen" or "Keep the door to the icebox closed" She grew up using candles or gas for lighting and the icebox was a wooden locker that used delivered Ice blocks to keep food cool. Oh yeah she called automobiles "Machines"
I remember in early 90s when my village lost electricity due to a storm or there was some kind of power cut. The TV was off, everywhere was so quiet and cosy and my parents were lighting some candles. Such a great time for a kid.
My family has a cabin in the middle of the woods on a river bank. The cabin doesn't have electricity, so we burn oil lamps and a lot of candles there. Of course we have battery powered lights, but nothing beats the atmosphere of the living flame.
Years ago I had an art studio with a candle maker. He and his wife were great people, and I’ll never forget the smell of the vats of wax, or how interesting it was to watch them work!
One of my favorite, very useful hobbies is candle making. Bee's wax is hands down the best, but as you say expensive. I've made them from everything from deer tallow to store bought ingredients. Most of my wax comes from yard sale finds. Remelted, that wax and cheap 100% cotton twine makes wonderful dipped candles. I live in a rural area with frequent power outages, making candles one of my treasures.
We went to Lincoln's New Salem for their candlelight event this past fall - whole village lit up with candles. It was gorgeous! We stuck around until the end of the night, and as the blacksmith shop closed up they put out the candles one by one - until a single candle burned on their chandelier. It was stunning how much light that 1 single candle put out - lit the whole place up! We live in such convenient times, but it's important to step back and see just how 1 candle could revolutionize your life if it's dark and you need some light. It was also so incredible to see the fireplace hearth that Lincoln once read beside - the actual fireplace. That is wild!
Lighting is certainly something we take for granted now and we generally dont appreciate just how much (quantity, quality, and convenience) light we have! But it is nice to stop and appreciate candle/fire light alone every now and then!
Outstanding video Jon!!! Candles and oil lamps, kerosene lamps etc. just have something about them that makes ot so relaxing when you use them! Great content as always and keep up the good work!!
This was fascinating. I really had zero idea how much technology went in to a candle. Thank you so much for the gift of your knowledge and this video. 🙏🏼
Would love to see a candle making tutorial for every type and info on which oils are best for oil lamps. Thank you for another high quality video. This channel brings me so much peace 🙏
Lifelong Wabash county resident here, thanks for the shoutout! I own two properties, one in Roann and one in North Manchester, both in Wabash county and both are by the covered bridges. If you haven't already, you should do a video about the covered bridges, I really enjoy seeing you highlight the great history of this area. Thank you, Sir!
My parents grew up in Mexico without power, so they had to rely on candlelight. I think they mostly made them themselves, as my grandpa had some beehives too. They eventually moved over to kerosene lamps.
My grandmother used to tell the story that when she was first married, about 1934 her husband's parents lived in Northern Minnesota. They didn't have electricity so they lit with kerosene lamps, but kerosene was expensive so they burned rendered skunk fat. She said the rendering process smelled terrible but the lamps actually smelled pretty good.
I'm south African. They call it loadshedding. Then keep hiking your Bills. Consistently steal more through blatant corruption. Every SOE is bankrupt and they do not want to allow privatisation. They are even looking to start taxing guys who install solar and battery systems. Absolute joke. Man, my disdain is high for politicians is through the roof.
A candle actually displays all four phases of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, which is where the light comes from. Awesome videos, thanks so much!
I've been a custom candle maker for many years now and there is so much you need to know if you want to make even simple candles. Many types of wicks for different applications, many types of waxes, additives, etc. I still love making candles and giving them away for holiday or birthday presents. Really enjoyed this video!
Thank you so much for all your videos including wonderful 18th century recipes. In France we (used to) call Chandelle the suet candle and Bougie the wax candle. Thank you again from a 18th century enthousiast :))
_Chandelle_ can be traced back to the Latin word _candela_ that referred generally to a light or torch and specifically to a cylinder of either tallow (rendered fat) or wax used for lighting. _Bougie_ has a much shorter history: it dates back only to 1755, by which time the Algerian town of Bugia had developed an important trade in wax and candlemaking that had extended to France. It would be unsurprising to find that a _chandelle de Bougie_ was considered especially effective or fashionable.
Your video production is so high quality I love it. I have been a fan of your channel for about 10 years now and am glad you continue to enrich my life, thanks Townsends!
We had a power outage recently and it felt pretty good to have a candle and a tea-light ready to go. It was kinda cosy but not a lot of light to do more then basic things.
I remember in the sixties I did the fad of making sand candles where you would pour melted wax into a depression in the sand and hang a wick down from a little stick. When everything hardened you could dig up the candle and it would be sand covered. I guess that was “artsy”.
When we returned from a summer vacation visiting our grandparents in Florida, the decorative candles our mom had in a couple of wall sconces and in candle holders on the dining room table were all oddly bent over. Apparently, it had gotten unusually warm at home while we were away. I had a very low tolerance for "weird" when I was young and I was completely creeped out seeing these candles bent all the way over.
I fashioned a very rudimentary oil lamp from a sheet of aluminium foil and a small rolled-up wad of tissue paper for a wick that burnt canola or sesame oil that I had lying around in the kitchen. (The latter smells great.) Just needed to cut and "advance" the wick on the spout once awhile as it wilted during use.
I love your cooking videos but I adore these kinds of your videos! Information about just daily things like lights from the 17th and 18th century can be so hard to come by comparative to other time periods I’ve found during my own research. Thank you so much for these informative and fascinating videos!
I love learning about things like this. The ordinary everyday things that were vital to people in the past but which are never talked about are always the most interesting topics for me.
Video on cold boxes, cold storage, keeping stores just outside a cabin or in other dependency when root cellar not available or to keep colder? Thank you so much for this amazing deep dive into an essential utility and timely in the dark depths of winter. Would be awesome if while still in winter, you could do a video on the history of letting a bit of cold air into a part of a cabin or enclosing an outside space - how this abundant asset of cold air was used snd harnessed to extend shelf life. We stick cider jugs just oustside out kitchen door and extend fridge space and shelf life. Would love to connect w the history of this. In this candle video you reach into the 19th and even 20th centuries. Would love to see the evolution of this cold box idea through the eras and think it ties in beautifully w your early focus on cuisine. Thanks so much. Townsends awesome!
Thank you for this. I've been reading a lot of Victorian-era novels recently and this is helping me picture what the indoor lighting would've been like during scenes at night.
Candles is still a better light source for emergencies, they have long shelf life, you store them anywhere, and they are ready to go. The candle is still relevant even the old saying about burning the candle at both ends.
You would be surprised to find most people would be incompetent in understanding how to light a fire and keep it in a secured holder away from flammable areas. Thousands of burn victims and house fires still occur every year because of this.
I went to church with my parents yesterday on Christmas eve. Candles were the only light source in the place and it felt magical. I wanted to cry it was so lovely.
Till a few years ago you could still buy tallow candles in my country but they were used to rub on your boots to waterproof them for winter. Very cheap and extremely effective! A little stinky for a few days but you had nice dry warm feet for the whole winter. Sadly I can't find these anymore but also almost impossible to find the leather boots. Everything is synthetic now. I am a city girl and I have hope that in the country regions these kind of products can still be found. My mother grew up on an island without electricity and she tells stories of making and using oil lamps as their main form of lights. Candles were kind of luxurious. I love these little tidbits of history about things we now take for granted...
It must be extremely satisfying to make a candle in the manner of the historical era that interests you most. I've made simple oil lamps using just a jar and a metal wire stand to hold the wick (purchased). I used olive oil and though it gave off an odor it was not unpleasant. I saw someone on RUclips make a candle with I think it was tree sap and some dried plant matter but I forget what. Hey, I would try it if I truly needed it. But I cringe at the thought of using bacon grease.
When I bought my first house in 2001 in the town of Swansea MA, the town went bankrupt. The town council voted to shut down about half of the street lights in order to save money. But if you had a street light in front of your home, you could pay the electric bill for that light. Lol. For over a year I would fill up my dual fuel Coleman lantern and light it up every night. With a few pulleys, small piece of rope and resolve, I would fill it, light it up and pump it until I could not get any more pressure in the tank. It would last almost all night. My neighbors thought I was nuts. But it worked and I didn’t mind taking the effort to do what needed to get done at the time.
Public lights were not at all common in most places in the period, so you had to bring your own light to go out at night. The upscale resort town of Bath was the first English city to have extensive, constant public lighting, as well as legislation around it.
Amazing to think how dangerous it would have been to go out at night in a larger town, like a port city. Ruffians would have had great freedom. My (late) Aunt Ethel was born in the late 1800's- she was adamant that a woman never go out at night unescorted.
For the longest time growing up, my maternal grandparents had a kerosene lamp setup in the bathroom. It hung on the wall in it's own little holder and there was a small mirror behind the lamp attached to the wood holder. I still have that holder but my more modern version of that lamp that runs on liquid paraffin doesn't fit. To light it you would take the glass top off, light the wick, and then put the glass back on...not exactly easy to do unless there was an able bodied adult to do so since it hung at a height that for a kid was out of reach for safety sake but was about the height of my grandfather...the nail it hung on is still in the wall in the bathroom now. It was a good little setup that gave a good bit of light to the small room it was in thanks to the mirror behind it small as it was.
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I was waiting for a mention of or a contrast with the Safety of modern lighting devices compared to the use of flame for illumination. My parents lost their home (where I grew up) to a fire in the recent past, so I admit I'm a little sensitive about this topic.
Fires were a constant risk with candles and oil lamps. Lanterns for candles were favoured as not only did the glass prevent draughts blowing out the candle, but they kept the flame away from curtains and such. Oil lamps with enclosed reservoirs and double glass globes were useful containment, but they had to be put in very stable places to avoid being knocked over, automatically spreading fire. Ironically, the resurgence of candles used for atmosphere and scenting rooms has become a major cause of house fires after all other safety improvements made house fires rare.
In the Netherlands, street lighting came in the 1600s, to prevent people from falling in canals and drowning, perhaps the cause of the many drink houses at the time.
These videos have been awesome since I started watching the channel about 6 years ago, but wow the production value has really improved! Glad to see the channel growing!
My bathroom lamp is dead and my ladder is broken so I can’t change the bulb so I have to take a shower in the dark for a few days, I appreciate people who lived before electricity.
11:40 Franklin's lantern design is so utterly iconic and everlasting that it exists to this day, albeit with LED lightbulbs in them. Most houses still carry this design as their outside lights. I wonder what he’d think of that. Fascinating
Franklin did many things that are still known today. Dude was the GOAT back then. I'm honestly not convinced he wasn't a time traveler.
My grandfather used to tell a story that when he was a kid (Silesia, 1920s), all they had in their village was naphtha lamps. So one time when he was 6yo, he went to the church at different village, and it was already electrified. His amazement as everything around lighted up was so great that he remembered that moment even until he was in his 90s. So I believe that the difference must have been huge.
Ngl we probably had similar feeling experiences as kids growing up for a few things. I remember as a kid in the 90’s going from software rendering to hardware openGL for the first time, and the massive difference of dial-up internet to Cable Internet. I remember my dad (rip 2022) told me how much better it felt no longer having to wait with a 56k modem for a webpage to load one single image or screen with text for over 5 to 10 minutes and falling asleep waiting around, while with Cable everything loaded in a manner of 5-10 seconds.
Now we freak out if a web page or thing doesn’t load in 2-3 seconds but back then you’d be lucky to get things downloaded before you passed out.
I STILL remember waiting over 20-30 minutes for a single 20.1mb SNES Rom file to download for the Zsnes emulator back in 1998 or 1999 on my dads PC as my friend and I stayed up all night trying to download games so we could try 2 player emulation with only one keyboard, attempting to play an import Gundam fighting game.
Thank you for sharing this beautiful story of your Grandfather.
@@autumnhomer9786Agreed it fills my heart ❤
Reminds me of my dad who saw a TV for the first time in the 1960s and kept looking for a projector because all he knew where cinema screens.
Imagine some ''people'' still haven't invented the wheel yet.
My great-grandparents were born in the 1880s in El Salvador. They didn't get kerosene lamps until the 50s, and never got electricity. The past isn't as long ago as we think!
I was in San Salvador in 2009 installing gigabit fiber for an office - years before most US offices had it. It just depends 😉
@@MikeLikesChannel Yep, the differences are wild. My aunt's best friend has a house near Sonsonate with every modern convenience, like any middle-class house in America. You go ten miles down the beach and people live with wood-burning stoves!
So true! "Rural Electrification" in the US was within living memory and in the early 50's only some 90% of farms were electrified, and prior to that effort large swaths of the countryside depended on lantern light, or even candles. If you were really lucky, gas light. My1905 building in a major metro area still has the old gas lighting pipes in the walls and even exposed in the basement, with the little stopcock valves to control the gas! Coal shoot, fuel oil tanks... It's living history!
@@lelandunruh7896 I work at a farm supply store in Arkansas, when it finally dipped below freezing a few weeks ago we started selling hundreds of bags of wood stove pellets and dozens of gallons of kerosene. I have to load up around a hundred 40lb bags of those pellets every day, you'd be surprised how many people still live like that, and my house is 100% electric, with solar panels to boot
@@lelandunruh7896 My grandparents were born in the beginning of the twentieth century, in Australia, they did not get electricity until 1950. They did not get town water or an indoor toilet until 1975.
Very interesting and informative but he left out that the tallow candles needed to be stored in a candle box mounted on a wall- to keep mice and other critters away, lest those labor-intensive candles become a tasty treat.
Light bulbs and refrigeration really changed human life drastically. I love these episodes that cover a particular topic and how people dealt with it back then.
My great grandmother was asked what was her favorite invention during her lifetime. She said without hesitation "the washing machine!" Before its invention washing clothes by hand was an all day chore, especially since families were so large back then.
@@1TakoyakiStore a women that raised a lot of children was genuinely feared by many when she was angry, because a lot of them would have arms that could strangle a bear. Tons of laundry, dough kneeding, grocery hauling and other very labour intensive tasks made sure of that.
@@rubenskiii It's funny you say that. An ancestor on my mother's mother's side (I'm not too familiar with that side of the family so take this with a grain of salt) grew up on a dairy farm. She had to transport heavy milk containers by hand (sometime in the late 1800's in the Dakotas). Of course this caused her to develop strong arms, so much so that she was embarrased and self conscious about it since it wasn't seen as womanly attributes. 🤣
@@1TakoyakiStoreMy grandmothers in Australia said the best invention was the hot water system. Boiling water for baths, doing dishes, cleaning and washing was ongoing and awful in a hot climate. And yes the next best invention was the washing machine.
There is a theory that it wasn't feminists that allowed married women to work. It was electricity, along with washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric irons etc.
Can we take a minute to appreciate the work that went into his room.
That's a beautiful stage
The war tax on candles not being repealed until long after the war ended reminds me of the telephone tax from the Spanish-American War that did not get repealed for 100 years
The government never wants to give up power. The FBI was also supposed to be temporary, for example.
So was the income tax
Patriot act rings a bell too.
This is basically the same story for most taxes we have. They all served a specific purpose at first and then turn into yearly revenue to fatten up the government. Nice to see things haven’t changed…
Mark 12: 13 - 17 📖
I actually made dipped candles for shiggles one time, had no idea what I was doing but it worked out. Had a big 1x4 or so that I attached the wicks to and could make quite a few at a time. Kinda forgot I ever did that lol, thanks, wonderful video as usual.
I always find it fascinating how much intricacy and nuance there is in even the most seemingly simple things when you really try to learn. Nothing is ever as simple or easy as it seems and I think that's a life lesson a lot of people could benefit from greatly.
few things are as permanent as a temporary tax
Or temporary govt. buildings too.
Truest words ever spoken!!!!
Yup. Here in CA they raised the sales tax to help pay for the Northridge earthquake recovery. Then the police wanted it and they ran ads saying it wouldn't raise taxes. :P
@@RocketRay they tax us for everything here.
So true!
Great vid. Most people don't know that lighting did not significantly change from how it was in antiquity until the mid-19th century
Most people?
@@Muriel20091 yes, MOST people. most; the greatest amount or quantity.
Never knew how interesting candle history is. Crazy to think nowadays all these little things I’ve taken for granted. We really do owe so much to those who came before us. Kinda cool
My family owned a cabin built in 1890 when I was growing up. All our light came from candles, oil lamps, and kerosene lanterns. We experimented with different candle wicks by drilling holes into slabs of paraffin wax. The wicks with a wire center always worked the best.
Another part of lighting we don't think about much today is the house itself: the color of your wall, and how smooth it is greatly impacts how much light there is in your house. If you have dark colored walls light would just be absorbed, while a whitewashed wall would reflect better. These considerations greatly affected how houses looked on the inside. With richer people who could afford more light having more intrecate designs on their wall, more furniture standing against it and things like carpets on the wall. Especially poorer people would have white plastered walls, plain. So that the few light sources they had would light up as much as possible of the room.
My family is from the seaside and back in the day every time a catch came in many people, especially the very young and very old would be busy cutting up fish, preparing it for preservation. They had to work quick. They would take the fatty insides of the fish and boil out the oil, for use in lamps mostly. Basically the whole village was lit with what came from the sea until i think the 1890's-1910's. After that electricity and gaslamps became more affordable and available.
My Grandma once showed me how the very very poor would create light purely from what came from the sea: a vessel made from Mussel, a wick made from the inner skin of fish, and the fuel the lowest grade of fish oil. Smells strongly, but you had light made from things only from the sea.
Thank you, I never thought about the colors of the walls, I will use that in my historic interpretation in the future since our Mission era building walls are whitewashed.
Yes! Of course the other side of that is that if you had those white walls and are burning the cheapest kind of candles the walls are going to get very visibly dirty very fast. Not a problem for the rich, of course, who are burning the clean candles and have maids anyhow, but just one more darn thing the poor wife has to constantly tend to.
boy I never thought of that before, that is one legit reason to always have white walls.
I've never thought of that before. Now I'll be paying even more attention to the walls of historic homes on future visits!
Here in Alberta, we've been weathering extreme cold over the last few days. That has put enormous pressure on our power grid, resulting in our electrical regulator putting out a notice that we need to reduce consumption. I brought out the candles, and we've been very contentedly spending our evenings, with little modern technology, in candlelight. It brings me back to my childhood at the family cabin, where we didn't have power for many years. Candles for light, wood stove for heat, games, and hot apple cider were the stuff of many of our evenings.
I appreciate the joy in simpler things. However, the idea that your 9 watt led light bulb or 50 watt router is going to crash the net says that your government is failing in its basic responsibility to its citizens. Historically, its been cold in Canada before. Why is there a risk now? Not just Power to the People. Power for the People! Accept nothing less.
Kudos for mentioning Rush Lights. Possibly used for over thousands of years with little data on the subject.
Modern History TV made an interesting video on rush lights in his attempt to recreate them.
@@XBluDiamondX Yes I had seen it. First time I had ever seen Rush Lights.
Some years ago I attended an evening ball at Colonial Williamsburg. According to the hostess, it was “brilliantly illuminated “. Actually, it was dark as a seance, even with all the candles. With our electric lights, it’s hard to imagine just how dark nights were with just candles and oil lamps. I remember as a child reading books like Cinderella, with illustrations of the brightly-lit ballroom and all the colorful uniforms and ball gowns. No such thing in reality. We couldn’t even make out the fancy gown’s colors, just the sparkle of the paste jewelry. I tried reading by candlelight once and it was really tough to make out the words. I had to have the candle within about 18 inches of the book. It makes you really respect people like Franklin and Lincoln, studying by candlelight, and makes you wonder why their eyes did not fail.
I am now utterly disheartened! The Grand Ball in War and Peace was Lords and Ladies tripping each other! In the dark! 😁
A lot of ballrooms had gilding and mirrors and usually white walls to reflect the light as much as possible. Though to say how effective it was.
@@kilianortmann9979 These would indeed make the best use of the light that was there, but that light was still meager compared to what we are used to. Of course, it would have been more light than those of that time would normally have at home, so it would have been--to them--"brilliant".
They also wouldn't have had all the light pollution we have now so if there was a full moon and a clear night sky, there would've been a pretty decent amount of natural light coming in as well.
We were talking just a little while ago about J.S. Bach and the enormous amount of music he wrote, all written by hand and with a quill, and he had to do it all during daylight hours in order to see what he was doing. Aside from the creativity, what a logistical task to get all that work done, and for choral music, to get it done in time for his singers to learn and perform it!
Fascinating about the way wicks are manufactured so precisely so as to work well, thanks Jon.
Never would have guessed the tension of the braid being a factor for even burning and smoke minimization.
They're also dipped in borax and salt, not sure why.
Remote Upper Great Lakes here! I live in a region that didn't have electricity until after WWII. I have a copy of the history of the area, and it's a treasure. People worked so hard, (we work hard to live here now, so just imagine!) and they were so resourceful in every imaginable way. Much respect.
I remember making candles with my grandmother as a tiny, tiny kid. She would soak the string from bags of flour or cattle feed in salt brine first. I always wondered why as a kid. Now I'm a chemist and I suspect it's to stiffen the wick, and maybe add a little more brightness from the sodium in the salt, but I admit I'm not really sure.
My power went out for a couple hours yesterday and I thought about life before electricity and what it must have been like. Good time for this video to pop up in my feed.
My Mother, who was born in 1934 West Virginia, did her homework by an oil lamp. Enjoyed this video very much.
As a child in the 1950's in Ohio I did my homework by an oil lamp at the kitchen table.
I personally, from 1984 to 1993 did not live in a neighbourhood with electrical power.
My homework for those nine years were in the kitchen table under candle light. My neighbors used kerosene lamps. My mom would not let one of those into our house because of the smell.
Edit: that was in a very poor region in Brazil.
@@filipeorr7821 My mother and her brother did their homework at their kitchen table.
My grandparents would tell their grandkids that the reason why wax myrtles were called that was because the pioneers would make candles out of them. Never heard a thing about it until last month when the channel Weird Explorer decided to do an episode on it. During his research he could only find recipes that had a small amount of beeswax added. He decided to make his 100% out of wax myrtle berries. It worked but was quite a pain as the lack of beeswax made it really brittle. But it worked! Not only did it work but it lasted quite awhile, smelled pleasant, and had little to no soot.
For almost 2 years, I have spent MANY 18-hour days working with our amish friends. Through them, I have learned just how precious lighting is.
In what capacity were you in such immersion with Amish people?
@GrumpyOldTroll we're a medically retired military family of 7 struggling since our home burned down. it started off as her teaching me to can foods we needed. Most of the time it's us canning foods together, but we often bake, help with their store, or help around their home as she's in her 70s.
@@GrumpyOldTroll we also take them to shop or to appointments as needed.
@@fallenangelwi25 Thanks. Sorry to hear about your home, but it sounds like you've developed a lovely relationship there.
@GrumpyOldTroll thank you. All of our kids are young so it's been hard. Our friendship has truly been a blessing and the difference in all of us having dinner or just the kids eating.
I still cannot believe that content of this quality is available for free, and it continually convinces me that I live in the best time of all, so far. Thank you for your work, Jon.
You sir are correct. Just the fact that you and I can enjoy this video at different locations and times illustrates your point.
It's not really free. You have to pay your electricity bill, and buy a smart-phone or computer to access the video. Nothing's really free.
@@adrianjohnson7920 Yes, dear. We call this “adulthood.” I’m sorry it’s coming as a shock to you.
@@adrianjohnson7920that's obviously not what the OP meant.
People are dumb
As a person that lives in a (very) rural area, night definitely hits different. Frankly I wanted to be there when candles were still being used en masse. I wonder how a city would've looked like just by being lit by candles and oil lamps.
Ask Mrs. O'Leary's cow. 😆 In all seriousness, having lived in an area with occasional power outages and using many different lighting alternatives - there's a reason people switched to electric as soon as they could. It's very moody and pretty, but not very effective.
Power outages are one thing -- I don't know if I'd want to have to make sure to buy enough light! (e.g. running out of candles)
@@FruitMuff1nWhen I lost power from Milton I was glad I was hoarding candles
It really sucks that I forget about this INCREDIBLE channel until a video is recommended in my feed. I’m changing that starting right now by making sure I get notifications from Townsends! Seriously this channel is such an important historical well of knowledge. I absolutely appreciate the hard work and pure dedication that you all put into running it. Cheers to The Townsends!!
Ditto. I have subscribed 👍
@ 💯❤️👍
Candle makers often competed with soap makers for animal fat. Around 1835, that led to Proctor and Gamble, who were married to sisters, to form their company. Their father-in-law told them they stop competing and work together. Thanks, Pop!
I never take electricity for granted. I think about how it would affect every day, everyday. I give thanks for hot water, medicine, easy transportation, A/C, and easy access to food ALL THE TIME. I think we'd be a lot more content if really understood how good we have it nowadays. I'd wager any king of the past would give up their kingdoms to live in our modern society.
I totally agree! I live in a humble single-wide mobile home and I think to myself, I am actually living better than the vast majority of people throughout human history. I might not have marble and gold and silver, but I have safe lighting, safe food storage, water at my fingertips; I have a vehicle out in my driveway that can run faster than any racehorse ever bred. I don't have to chop firewood, make my own candles. If I want to and have the money I can go to the airport and fly across oceans to places that once took months to travel to.
I had a conversation recently with a neighbor who was bemoaning how awful the world has become and how this is a sign of the End Times. I said, really? Things are getting worse? When we are living longer, when we have better nutrition, when we have better sanitation, when most babies born have a pretty decent chance of growing up to become adults, when women don't have to fear dying in childbirth? If you want to believe things are getting worse, you go right ahead. I don't believe it.
It's easy to take for granted, when they don't have to work for it, or learn about it.
That's gonna be changing, very soon, unfortunately.
I never realized how important a single candle could be until last Friday. My power went out around 6 pm, which is dark here in the northeast, right as my oven was heating for dinner. I'm in a wheelchair and was scared of running my dog over or bumping into things. So I crawled on the floor in the darkness carefully to find where my phone was so I could use its flash light. The other flashlights in my house had dead batteries, my head lamp wasn't charged, but I found a singular candle. That thing became by best friend for the next 8 hours until the power came back on. I used it to warm a can of soup and all. The very next day I ordered a lantern and a flashlight that uses batteries I regularly have on hand... and a few more emergency candles.
Every household should have a package of tea lights for just such an emergency. Light and , if you are careful, even enough heat to survive.
Glad it worked out for you. Nothing humbles modern man like a power outage. We learned the hard way to be better prepared when we lost power for almost 6 days in an all electric home (no water either).
if you need to stock up, dollar stores have those religious candles in glass for a dollar
I was in the scouts, and we had quite a few camps where we weren't allowed most modern comforts (except sleeping bags, clothes, knives, hatchets, and a single tarpaulin), so no compass, no flashlight, no watch, no matches, no tents... (We had many normal camps, but they wanted to give us survival knowledge with minimal tools).
We made many types of shelters: snow tombs, igloos, lean-to or tents (with the tarpaulin) and prospector tents. I don't know how the last one are really called elsewhere, it's basically a reinforced tent with the tarpaulin built on a wooden base, with a flapping entrance door and ideally an entrance room where you keep all the wood dry and where the cold gets stopped, with a raised platform where we sleep, they gave us construction wood to do that one and a stove to put inside the main room. It took us the whole summer camp to build (three days), and it was used in the autumn and winter camps, in winter we were sleeping in boxers ON our sleeping bags because it was almost too hot with the stove heating the tent, while it was under -35C outside XD
For light we also were given wicks and paraffin (I know, not an old method but the principle is the same) and/or oil canisters to make either candles or oil lamps, but we were not given the moulds nor the lamp itself. So we made the moulds or lamps ourselves with clay we collected, moulded and dried with the fire made from spinning a stick or hitting some pyrite ore and flint we both found near the river...
Anyways, way too long story to tell I still have many of these candles, so when I got my apartment, I brought many with me and each time there was a power outage I had candles in each room that I could light to pass through the outage for light and a bit of heat, one lasting two days after the worst snow storm.
Years ago my husband and I bought a house needing renovation. At the last minute the bank refused us our renovation money.
For a year we had three working power points and zero lights unless it was a lamp plugged in. I assure you romantic candle lit dinners loose their appeal quite quickly when there is no alternative.
That was in Australia but I enjoy these videos as much of our pioneering cooking etc was similar.
In the UK, in the early 70's we had power cuts due to industrial action & I remember doing my homework by candlelight, it was very comforting and I have great memories of that time.
My mother told me about this. Government enforcing a 3 day week to deal with miners union protests, they could not power the coal power plants without them.
@@cattysplat it was during winter time, when is was properly cold, but the candlelight always made it feel cosy.
My teacher in second grade taught us how to make dipped candles. I used to have the two candles I made, but lost track of them when I joined the Navy. She also taught us how to make butter in an old fashioned butter churn. Those lessons still hold in my mind.
we made sweet cream butter in my 1st grade class.. still to this day I will make the same recipe I learned because it was so delicious.
Dude, same here, though I was too excited and burned my candles once I got home that day. The butter we made was AWESOME.
Nice to see you returning to your lighting and candles roots! I remember the old videos you did on lighting!
8:32 in Hawaii as a kid Insat and watched this guy dip candles for almost an hour. The entire marrketplace was within this giant system of ficus trees, which people had built arbors, little rooms, and pathways with the roots... One of the most fascinating things ive ever experienced!
Hey man I have to say…I’ve been watching your videos for the past decade now. They’re always great, quality videos that I actually learn from. I just wanted to say thank you for everything you’ve done. Because of you, I’ve gained an incredible amount of knowledge that I’ll never forget. If I could shake your hand I would. Thanks again. For everything.
Even growing up on the farm in the 1980's, you always had candles and a kerosene lantern around for when the power went out. I don't think a year goes by where I don't need to use candles at least once, I still have various ones hidden through the house for when needed.
You have to imagine what a shock it was when people switched from candles to light bulbs. I just replaced some old incandescent tri-light bulbs in my house with led ones and it is incredible how much brighter they are. It must have been shocking for people back then to suddenly being able to see tour whole room lit and visible inside of having half of it in the shadows all the time.
growing up in the mountains around the same time we always had candles, oil lamps, kero lanterns, and a kero heater for backups around because if the power went out especially in winter it could be anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days for it to get restored depending on if it was overnight or on a weekend or how deep the snow was. even now i keep emergency candles and battery lanterns around.
I heard stories pretty often from my grandmother of when their farm finally got electrified, she was born in 1917 and got to see the whole valley change over time, and had stories of people crowding around the first storefronts to be electrified to marvel at the bright lights and going home to oil lamps and using candle lanterns to find the privy out back. she said the first lightbulbs at home made them feel like millionaires, quite literally the world changed overnight once lightbulbs were in homes.
We still keep kero backups. Even at 32 degrees, a power outage is mostly really inconvenient but possibly life threatening for the impaired. At zero degrees, it can be life threatening for all. Better have a back up plan.
growing up in Greece that was very early electrified for that part of the planet... old house in the late seventies had a wall with kerosene lamps wich they kept for emergencies
Yes, i grew up on a very tiny army base and then in a very small village where if the power went out. It be out for atleast over 24 hours. One of my fondest/weirdest memories is seeing my parents faces in a dark room candles illuminating their tired but trying eyes and faces. Us kids were all quite young during these times and in winter it was pitch black and we were all scared of the dark. My parents tried to make it fun. They took all our mattresses and layed them on the floor in the livingroom and we all had a big "sleepover". My mom read us stories from our favourite books, or made them up, using a candle close to the book while the rest of us fell asleep to her words in the dark. Weirdest blast from the past.
@@cracky-patty113 Why not flashlights?
My great Grandmother in the 60s and 70's used terms like "You left a light burning in the kitchen" or "Keep the door to the icebox closed" She grew up using candles or gas for lighting and the icebox was a wooden locker that used delivered Ice blocks to keep food cool. Oh yeah she called automobiles "Machines"
I remember in early 90s when my village lost electricity due to a storm or there was some kind of power cut. The TV was off, everywhere was so quiet and cosy and my parents were lighting some candles. Such a great time for a kid.
My family has a cabin in the middle of the woods on a river bank. The cabin doesn't have electricity, so we burn oil lamps and a lot of candles there. Of course we have battery powered lights, but nothing beats the atmosphere of the living flame.
Years ago I had an art studio with a candle maker. He and his wife were great people, and I’ll never forget the smell of the vats of wax, or how interesting it was to watch them work!
One of my favorite, very useful hobbies is candle making. Bee's wax is hands down the best, but as you say expensive. I've made them from everything from deer tallow to store bought ingredients. Most of my wax comes from yard sale finds. Remelted, that wax and cheap 100% cotton twine makes wonderful dipped candles. I live in a rural area with frequent power outages, making candles one of my treasures.
Have any recommendations as far as resources to help someone pick up this hobby?
Who would have thought something so simple as a candle would be so complicated. Thank you for your videos.
We went to Lincoln's New Salem for their candlelight event this past fall - whole village lit up with candles. It was gorgeous! We stuck around until the end of the night, and as the blacksmith shop closed up they put out the candles one by one - until a single candle burned on their chandelier. It was stunning how much light that 1 single candle put out - lit the whole place up! We live in such convenient times, but it's important to step back and see just how 1 candle could revolutionize your life if it's dark and you need some light. It was also so incredible to see the fireplace hearth that Lincoln once read beside - the actual fireplace. That is wild!
Lighting is certainly something we take for granted now and we generally dont appreciate just how much (quantity, quality, and convenience) light we have!
But it is nice to stop and appreciate candle/fire light alone every now and then!
Outstanding video Jon!!! Candles and oil lamps, kerosene lamps etc. just have something about them that makes ot so relaxing when you use them! Great content as always and keep up the good work!!
This was fascinating. I really had zero idea how much technology went in to a candle. Thank you so much for the gift of your knowledge and this video. 🙏🏼
these videos are so wholesome and cozy and your personality as a presenter is just so inviting.
I grew up with candles as our main light source. Off grid in alaska and Arizona
Dear Squire Townsends,
I love the way you dive in depth on even the most basic of subjects thank you
Would love to see a candle making tutorial for every type and info on which oils are best for oil lamps. Thank you for another high quality video. This channel brings me so much peace 🙏
There are loads of such tutorials on YT.
@@zyxw2000but do they have the voices and vibes of Townsend? 😁
This episode was quite “cozy-ness” inducing, on this sub-freezing Southern Indiana Sunday afternoon. Thank you so much.
Lifelong Wabash county resident here, thanks for the shoutout! I own two properties, one in Roann and one in North Manchester, both in Wabash county and both are by the covered bridges. If you haven't already, you should do a video about the covered bridges, I really enjoy seeing you highlight the great history of this area. Thank you, Sir!
My parents grew up in Mexico without power, so they had to rely on candlelight. I think they mostly made them themselves, as my grandpa had some beehives too. They eventually moved over to kerosene lamps.
Dear Mr Townsend, I've been watching your videos for some time now, and would like to tell you that I have enjoyed them immeasurably.
My grandmother used to tell the story that when she was first married, about 1934 her husband's parents lived in Northern Minnesota. They didn't have electricity so they lit with kerosene lamps, but kerosene was expensive so they burned rendered skunk fat. She said the rendering process smelled terrible but the lamps actually smelled pretty good.
Glad to see that the channel is starting to really grow and reach people, always wished more people knew about Townsends!
This certainly was a very enlightening video. Cheers!
Took enlightening to a new level
This is such a well made video. No extreme overstimulation either! This is the best style of video. Keep it up!
Living in 3rd world country where power outage are often happen, this is a great alternative!
So you also live in Texas, huh?
California I'm guessing.
I'm south African. They call it loadshedding. Then keep hiking your Bills. Consistently steal more through blatant corruption. Every SOE is bankrupt and they do not want to allow privatisation. They are even looking to start taxing guys who install solar and battery systems. Absolute joke. Man, my disdain is high for politicians is through the roof.
Connecticut?
The country of the 3rd world is the USA.
11:02 In my hometown, we even have a monument on a wall of a lampligter who used to work here.
A candle actually displays all four phases of matter: solid, liquid, gas, and plasma, which is where the light comes from. Awesome videos, thanks so much!
I've been a custom candle maker for many years now and there is so much you need to know if you want to make even simple candles. Many types of wicks for different applications, many types of waxes, additives, etc. I still love making candles and giving them away for holiday or birthday presents. Really enjoyed this video!
Thank you so much for all your videos including wonderful 18th century recipes. In France we (used to) call Chandelle the suet candle and Bougie the wax candle. Thank you again from a 18th century enthousiast :))
Ah 😊 thank you! I often wondered why why have two words for this in French. That makes sense.
I wrote that comment because I was surprised that there was only one word in english !! :))
_Chandelle_ can be traced back to the Latin word _candela_ that referred generally to a light or torch and specifically to a cylinder of either tallow (rendered fat) or wax used for lighting.
_Bougie_ has a much shorter history: it dates back only to 1755, by which time the Algerian town of Bugia had developed an important trade in wax and candlemaking that had extended to France. It would be unsurprising to find that a _chandelle de Bougie_ was considered especially effective or fashionable.
This brings back some bad memories of trying to keep some light at night when I was a kid in Bangladesh.
Thank you for your love and passion to teaching about history and historical living. It’s fascinating!
Your video production is so high quality I love it. I have been a fan of your channel for about 10 years now and am glad you continue to enrich my life, thanks Townsends!
We had a power outage recently and it felt pretty good to have a candle and a tea-light ready to go. It was kinda cosy but not a lot of light to do more then basic things.
That's it, I have to subscribe.
I'm writing a book and your videos give me so much insight, and lift up my mood. Brilliant!
I remember in the sixties I did the fad of making sand candles where you would pour melted wax into a depression in the sand and hang a wick down from a little stick.
When everything hardened you could dig up the candle and it would be sand covered. I guess that was “artsy”.
Thanks!
When we returned from a summer vacation visiting our grandparents in Florida, the decorative candles our mom had in a couple of wall sconces and in candle holders on the dining room table were all oddly bent over. Apparently, it had gotten unusually warm at home while we were away.
I had a very low tolerance for "weird" when I was young and I was completely creeped out seeing these candles bent all the way over.
I fashioned a very rudimentary oil lamp from a sheet of aluminium foil and a small rolled-up wad of tissue paper for a wick that burnt canola or sesame oil that I had lying around in the kitchen. (The latter smells great.) Just needed to cut and "advance" the wick on the spout once awhile as it wilted during use.
I love your cooking videos but I adore these kinds of your videos! Information about just daily things like lights from the 17th and 18th century can be so hard to come by comparative to other time periods I’ve found during my own research. Thank you so much for these informative and fascinating videos!
We still grew up with mostly just candles here. I still remember the unique scent when a candle goes out.
I love learning about things like this. The ordinary everyday things that were vital to people in the past but which are never talked about are always the most interesting topics for me.
Video on cold boxes, cold storage, keeping stores just outside a cabin or in other dependency when root cellar not available or to keep colder? Thank you so much for this amazing deep dive into an essential utility and timely in the dark depths of winter. Would be awesome if while still in winter, you could do a video on the history of letting a bit of cold air into a part of a cabin or enclosing an outside space - how this abundant asset of cold air was used snd harnessed to extend shelf life. We stick cider jugs just oustside out kitchen door and extend fridge space and shelf life. Would love to connect w the history of this. In this candle video you reach into the 19th and even 20th centuries. Would love to see the evolution of this cold box idea through the eras and think it ties in beautifully w your early focus on cuisine. Thanks so much. Townsends awesome!
Thank you for this. I've been reading a lot of Victorian-era novels recently and this is helping me picture what the indoor lighting would've been like during scenes at night.
You know it's cold in the tavern when they have all the candles lit❤ I'm actually jealous, it's -40 here
I read somewhere that a candle and a human heat a room about the same amount. 🤔
Where are you?
Northern midwest
@@asahearts1 so if I light a candle it will feel like I'm not alone all the time
@@ravenpineshomestead Northern midwest of what? Canada? Ukraine? Siberia?
I enjoy that you're branching outside of cooking you have a very homely vibe
Candles is still a better light source for emergencies, they have long shelf life, you store them anywhere, and they are ready to go.
The candle is still relevant even the old saying about burning the candle at both ends.
You would be surprised to find most people would be incompetent in understanding how to light a fire and keep it in a secured holder away from flammable areas. Thousands of burn victims and house fires still occur every year because of this.
@@cattysplat that is because their stupid
I don't see how they're better than LED flashlight with an extra supply of batteries. The light is much stronger.
I went to church with my parents yesterday on Christmas eve. Candles were the only light source in the place and it felt magical. I wanted to cry it was so lovely.
I recently found your channel and love it. This is my favorite video so far!
Dude, this is so cool! I have a pipe dream for the future of lighting my house with only candles after sunset.
Till a few years ago you could still buy tallow candles in my country but they were used to rub on your boots to waterproof them for winter. Very cheap and extremely effective! A little stinky for a few days but you had nice dry warm feet for the whole winter. Sadly I can't find these anymore but also almost impossible to find the leather boots. Everything is synthetic now. I am a city girl and I have hope that in the country regions these kind of products can still be found.
My mother grew up on an island without electricity and she tells stories of making and using oil lamps as their main form of lights. Candles were kind of luxurious.
I love these little tidbits of history about things we now take for granted...
You can buy either mink oil or beeswax in a can to waterproof boots.
As a long time 1700's re- enactor , this is an excellently presented lesson for our visiting pilgrims ( Tourists ) !
It must be extremely satisfying to make a candle in the manner of the historical era that interests you most. I've made simple oil lamps using just a jar and a metal wire stand to hold the wick (purchased). I used olive oil and though it gave off an odor it was not unpleasant. I saw someone on RUclips make a candle with I think it was tree sap and some dried plant matter but I forget what. Hey, I would try it if I truly needed it. But I cringe at the thought of using bacon grease.
When I bought my first house in 2001 in the town of Swansea MA, the town went bankrupt. The town council voted to shut down about half of the street lights in order to save money. But if you had a street light in front of your home, you could pay the electric bill for that light. Lol. For over a year I would fill up my dual fuel Coleman lantern and light it up every night. With a few pulleys, small piece of rope and resolve, I would fill it, light it up and pump it until I could not get any more pressure in the tank. It would last almost all night. My neighbors thought I was nuts. But it worked and I didn’t mind taking the effort to do what needed to get done at the time.
Public lights were not at all common in most places in the period, so you had to bring your own light to go out at night. The upscale resort town of Bath was the first English city to have extensive, constant public lighting, as well as legislation around it.
Amazing to think how dangerous it would have been to go out at night in a larger town, like a port city. Ruffians would have had great freedom. My (late) Aunt Ethel was born in the late 1800's- she was adamant that a woman never go out at night unescorted.
In fact, it was commonly illegal to go about without a light in the cities and towns, since you were probably up to no good.
So grateful for your videos!
Arc lighting was the first electric lighting, but it is extremely bright and is now most commonly used in commercial movie projectors.
Wow. That explains when Ebenezer Scrooge was trimming the wicks of his candle!!.Thank you! I've been curious about this since I was a kid!
For the longest time growing up, my maternal grandparents had a kerosene lamp setup in the bathroom. It hung on the wall in it's own little holder and there was a small mirror behind the lamp attached to the wood holder. I still have that holder but my more modern version of that lamp that runs on liquid paraffin doesn't fit. To light it you would take the glass top off, light the wick, and then put the glass back on...not exactly easy to do unless there was an able bodied adult to do so since it hung at a height that for a kid was out of reach for safety sake but was about the height of my grandfather...the nail it hung on is still in the wall in the bathroom now. It was a good little setup that gave a good bit of light to the small room it was in thanks to the mirror behind it small as it was.
The most underrated channel on yt. I think this is one of the best channels ever! So beautiful and informative content!
Very good video, well done. Could you do a video on the dangers of traveling from town to town. What it was like in a day travel.
You might enjoy some of these:
Public Transportation ruclips.net/video/yUX-m-BsoS0/видео.html
Hospitality to Travelers ruclips.net/video/3cPizm6i15A/видео.html
Boston to New York ruclips.net/video/0QQMzGqdNoI/видео.html
THANK YOU! I've been searching for so long about this topic! It's surprising how hard it is to find information!
Awesome video I love this subject! Lighting is so fascinating
This is a subject I think about often, and definitely every time the power goes out. Great topic/video as always!
I was waiting for a mention of or a contrast with the Safety of modern lighting devices compared to the use of flame for illumination. My parents lost their home (where I grew up) to a fire in the recent past, so I admit I'm a little sensitive about this topic.
Fires were a constant risk with candles and oil lamps. Lanterns for candles were favoured as not only did the glass prevent draughts blowing out the candle, but they kept the flame away from curtains and such. Oil lamps with enclosed reservoirs and double glass globes were useful containment, but they had to be put in very stable places to avoid being knocked over, automatically spreading fire.
Ironically, the resurgence of candles used for atmosphere and scenting rooms has become a major cause of house fires after all other safety improvements made house fires rare.
4:32 the rush going out almost on que! 😂
In the Netherlands, street lighting came in the 1600s, to prevent people from falling in canals and drowning, perhaps the cause of the many drink houses at the time.
These videos have been awesome since I started watching the channel about 6 years ago, but wow the production value has really improved! Glad to see the channel growing!
My bathroom lamp is dead and my ladder is broken so I can’t change the bulb so I have to take a shower in the dark for a few days, I appreciate people who lived before electricity.