Tallow Candles

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Fargo
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Tallow Candles

Post by Fargo »

I am assuming that in the Victorian Era ( and well before that ) that Candles made of Tallow ( animal Fat ) were common.

My Great Aunt in Nova Scotia told me that when she was a little girl, that the family had a Candle mold for making Candles from the grease that came off of the food they cooked. That way they didn't have to buy Kerosene. Tallow could have been used inside for candle lamps as well as outside for candle lanterns.

It makes sense, if you were just going to throw the fat away anyway at least that way you would get some use out of it. I would think that it was probably more common with people that didn't have much money.

I made a Candle from animal fat and it works. I used Bacon grease, an old soup can, and a regular candle wick. After I lit the Candle, it smelled like someone was cooking bacon.

I found a write up mentioning Tallow Candles in my Nature Crafts book, it shows how to use shells to hold the Tallow and how to use leaves for wicks.
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Kat
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Post by Kat »

I was thinking along the lines of the candle smelling like the fat source! Hmmm... at least it is natural- rather than those over-scented chemically perfumed candles that are so strangely overpowering!
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Post by FairhavenGuy »

Animal fat had pretty much been replaced by kerosene by the 1860s.

New Bedford had been the whaling capital of the the world when whale oil was being used for lamp light and candles in the 1820s-1850s. By the time of the Civil War, the "Great Stone Fleet, a group of obsolete whale ships loaded with stone were sailed south to be sunk as blockades in Confederate harbors.

Kerosene was being made from coal prior to the 1857 drilling of oil wells in the Titusville, PA, region. By the early 1870s John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Trust had already taken over most of the independent oil refineries to become one of the most powerful companies on earth.

Clean, bright gas light was also in widespread use.

By the early 1880s, Edison's bulb was revolutionizing lighting for home and business.

Fairhaven had electric lights beginning in December 1889.

Certainly the use of tallow candles continued all through the period, during much of the Victorian time, the primary sources of light were kerosene, gas and electricity.
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Post by FairhavenGuy »

Oh, as a side note, the last American whale oil company was Nye Lubricants of Fairhaven, MA, which is still in operation today. They were still selling whale oil for watches, clocks and fine machinery until the Marine Mammal Protection Act was passed in 1972. Today they specialize in fine synthetic lubricants.

But even though their greatest claim to fame was being the leading supplier of whale oil for clocks and watches, Nye was also selling petroleum products in the late 1800s.
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Post by 1bigsteve »

I saw a show in the '60s about Eskimos making candles of some type out of whale blubber. There is also a small fish that has so much oil that they are used as candles. You put the fish in a jar and stick a match to him and he burns like a wick.

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Post by Fargo »

You might be talking about ooligans 1bigsteve. We get them here. They catch them in the spring of the year. I ate them but I never cared for them, they are real greasy. People have told me that you can light the fish and use it as a Candle but I have never tried it. I know the Natives used to use the ooigan grease for just about everything.

Maybe its just me but my new Tallow candle seems to be lasting a lot longer than my wax candles do.
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Post by Fargo »

I used Bacon grease on the bottom of the candle and peperoni grease on top. I never noticed much smell with the peperoni but when it got to the bacon you could really notice it. The smell is driving my cat nuts, whenever I light the candle she keeps coming into the room looking for the bacon.
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Post by nbcatlover »

Check out:

http://www.regencylibrary.com/Tallow.htm

Any article that has to use words like "oppressive odour," "rancid" and "offensive" as things to avoid in processing suggests that some people had very smelly homes from their tallow candles.
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Post by augusta »

Fargo, that's funny that the candle drove your cat to distraction. :grin: I'm glad someone tried making a candle like this because I've thought of it but never did it.

I love scented candles, but there are some that are too scentful and I can hardly stand them. "Wild Pansies" and "Ocean Waves", both by Yankee Candle, were almost unbearable when I first burned them but got mellower as the candle burned down and time went by. I buy mostly soy candles nowadays that can be nicely scented but give a cleaner burn and is more "green".
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Post by Fargo »

There was a thing awhile back about candles being a hazard because of lead. When I checked into this it was in the candles that have the slow burning lead wick, which I do not use.

A year ago I was at our cabin on the lake when the hydro went out. I was watching the show Corner Gas on TV. It was almost dark but not quite. I got to thinking here I am in the middle of nowhere, in a cabin that has almost nothing in it to get by without electricity. I don't even have a candle.

The cabin was built before the power lines went that far, so originally it had things to get by without hydro power. After the hydro was hooked up one by one all of these things were taken out of the cabin with the exception of the woodstove.

I cut up some kindling from the woodpile and got a fire going in the stove while it was still light out. I thought after that if that had happened after dark, I would have had trouble. I had nothing except matches for light. I would not have wanted to cut kindling and get a fire going in the woodstove in the dark.

We had gotten used to using the electric heat so no kindling was cut up for the woodstove. In fact the woodstove itself had not been used for a few years. Luckily the wood pile was still there.

There were flashlights there but the batteries were run down.

The gas lanterns and propane lanterns had long since been taken out.

The propane stove and fridge had been taken out.

The battery powered radio was gone.

It was in the fall of the year and it was cold out. About 3 hours later the power came back on.

The next day I bought some candles when I went into town. Since then I have bought a hand crank powered flashlight and a combination handcrank powered lantern and radio. I still have the candles in case I need them.

That experience made me think about modern conveniences and how much we rely on them. We should all be ready to do without them in case we have to. We can use new technology like the hand crank powered gadgets I mentioned. We can also use the things that have around for a very long time, like wood stoves and candles.
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Post by augusta »

You sure were roughing it, Fargo. :smile: Yes, it is so true how dependent we are on electricity and stuff. Remember a few years back when a big area of the country's power grid made so many states lose all power for a week or two? I never knew such a thing could happen. I was blessed and was on vacation throughout the whole thing and got home the day after power was restored. :cheers:

I was reading this book recently about this school teacher who was teaching during the Civil War in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He described the candles the household he boarded with used as being made of animal fat leavings and how horribly they smelled. He described the mother of the household as being a horrid cook, and I don't think she used anything good like bacon.

Living in the house with no amenities the man described summers as nearly unbearable and his bed loaded with bedbugs seasonally. The little town had a lot of deaths, due to a lack of all sorts of things maybe some of us take for granted now.

I loved the 'fish candle' posts, Big Steve & Fargo! I'd imagine that smelled. I wonder if whale blubber candles smelled like fish?

I wonder if there's a tallow candle you can make that won't smell at all? Like maybe some kind of animal isn't as 'fragrant' in candle form?

We have a generator that we crank up if our power goes out for long and only use it for a few hours at a time to do a few things we have to, like take a shower. That isn't easy to do by flashlight. In the winter, we'll turn on the furnace to warm up the house every so often.

Was kerosene pricey in 1892? I ask because on the night of August 3, Andrew wouldn't even light his kerosene lamp and he and Morse sat and talked till about 10 pm. I wonder how dark it gets at 10 pm in Fall River in August?
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Post by Fargo »

Much has been said about Andrew not lighting the lamp in the sitting room on the night of Aug 3 1892. Many have used this as futher proof that Andrew was a miser. I have wondered if there were other reasons for Andrew not lighting the lamp.

Kerosene lamps put out heat, lighting the lamp would have contributed more heat to the room that may have already been too warm. Maybe Andrew never lit the lamp to avoid more heat.

Light attracts flies, if the windows were open ( as I think they were because Lizzie could hear their voices from her room upstairs) and or there were already flies in the house, this could have been considered.

It could have just been one of those things where Andrew just never got around to lighting the lamp. Perhaps Andrew never planned to stay up for long after it got dark so he never lit the lamp. Then Andrew and Morse just kept talking, as it got later into the night they always intended to retire in the next few minutes. Then another few minutes go by then another few minutes and so on and so on.

Then Perhaps Andrew and Morse get into the heated discussion that Lizzie could hear from upstairs, this keeps them up even longer. Since Andrew is caught up this heated discussion, lighting the lamp could be one of the furthest things from his mind.
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Post by Kat »

Wasn't it Wednesday daytime that Lizzie said she heard them ~ not Wednesday night?
I ask, because I have read this similar comment before and am wondering where folks got that tid-bit from?
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Post by Fargo »

Rick Geary's book The Borden Tragedy has Lizzie hearing the voices at night after she returned home from visiting Alice Russell.
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Post by SallyG »

Back when I was a kid (late 1950's, early 1960's) on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, summers were stifling hot...few people had air conditioners. We made do with fans, and windows were opened. Despite the screens, mosquitoes, gnats, and other various insects made their way in.

In the evenings we got a small respite from the heat of the day...barely. The adults would sit up chatting after the kids were put to bed. Sometimes we would stealthily sneak down the stairs and crouch on the steps listening in. It was easy to do because the lights were out. Any lights, even small ones, would attract the bugs. So they sat in their rockers, talking, fanning themselves and drinking iced tea, in the dark. A small amount of light came from street lamps, but otherwise, it was dark.

It was a common practice when I was a kid. Turning on lights meant bugs coming in, which meant you had to spend extra time hunting them down and killing them before you went to bed. If you didn't, you spent the night with the little suckers buzzing around your ears!

So, really, I find nothing unusual in Andrew, Abby, and Uncle John sitting up in the dark talking.
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Post by augusta »

I believe it was Wednesday afternoon that Lizzie heard the voices downstairs and shut her door. I don't know that she heard them from the open windows. Talking from downstairs can go quite audibly way up to the attic in that house.

One day Stef, Kat and I were at the B & B. Kat and I were upstairs. And unexpectedly Stef called to us - and not real loudly - and we heard her crystal clear. I think she said, "Kat - Sherry - come quick." (And Kat and I in tandem said, "Someone has killed father!") I never heard people talking downstairs in my house from our windows being open. I don't even know if that's possible unless the people were yelling out the windows.

Ah, the heat of the kerosene lamp. And the attraction of bugs. You guys - Fargo and SallyG, make much more sense than Andrew's frugalness stopping him from lighting the lamp.

Yes, on real hot nights when I was a kid, we would bring our mattresses into the living room where it was cooler. The only light would be from the tv until bedtime. I remember my dad sitting in the dark in the next room (very near us) and telling us scary stories.
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Post by Kat »

Thanks Fargo for the cite of Geary!

Yes, I think Augusta/Sherry and I were in the attic front bedroom- the "Knowlton Room" I believe? Looking in the closet. :smile:
And we didn't know Stef would call us from downstairs and we clearly heard her~ meaning we could also identify the voice, as well as the summons.

Bugs attracted to light is so smart! Thanks for that insight, SallyG!
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Post by augusta »

That was so cool, Kat, when Stef did that.
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