When we say that our ancestors worked from sunup to sundown, we are speaking the literal truth. After dark, with doors bolted and windows securely shuttered, colonial families gathered around the huge fireplace that was an invariable feature of the principal room. Flickering flames often provided the room’s only light and this did not penetrate to the shadowy corners.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, candles were the best means of illumination in the Old World and the New. They were of two kinds, wax and tallow, but burning expensive wax tapers was the prerogative of royalty, nobility and the Church.
Tallow. In England, candle tallow was made from the fat of sheep. In the colonies, where sheep were few, any sort of suet or animal grease—beef, pork, goose, deer, opossum, or bear, to name but a few—was used in candle making. Fats were carefully hoarded all year round in a barrel. In the autumn, great masses of the rancid mixture were added to huge kettles of hot water and were boiled and skimmed over and over until a clear tallow resulted. This unpleasant process took several days.
Dipping method. At first, candles were made entirely by the dipping method. In preparation, two long parallel poles were set up in a cool place well away from the fire—often in a lean-to shed. The candle rods, slender sticks about eighteen inches long, would rest across these poles. Each candle rod was hung with six or eight wicks, depending upon the size of the tallow kettle; the middle of a cord was folded over the rod and the two ends were twisted together.
When the tallow had been melted in a large kettle, the housewife dipped the wicks, a rodful at a time, into the pot. After dipping, the rod was returned to the rack until the tallow had cooled and hardened. When the last set of wicks had been dipped, it was time to begin again with the first rod; the candles grew fatter as they were repeatedly dipped and cooled. It was no easy matter to keep the contents of the kettle at the correct, even temperature. If the tallow was too cool, the candle emerged from it lumpy, and if it was too hot, it would melt off the layers that had already been deposited on the wick. Once the candles were completely hardened, the wicks were slipped off the rod, leaving a characteristic loop at the top of each candle. In spite of the tedious clarification process, tallow candles smoked and gave off the unpleasant smell of burning grease.
An expert candle maker could produce only about 200 “tallow dips” in a day of grueling labor. The dips were carefully stored away in a wooden chest where they were safe from mice. They were used sparingly, for they would have to last until a new supply of tallow accumulated.
Candle holders. Candle holders were rare. The average household might boast one or two of carved wood or cast iron, but usually the candle was affixed in a wooden saucer (or to a shelf or table) by settling its base in a splotch of its own dripped tallow.
Lanterns. In the colonial period, candle-lanterns lighted the belated traveler on his way, the watchman on his rounds, the farmer to the barn. The iron bull’s eye lantern was square, and had only one glazed side; this glass, like the windowpanes of the time, was green in color and showed a characteristic round and watery imperfection responsible for the lantern’s name. Tin lanterns were round with a hinged bottom centered by a candle-cup and a peaked top ending in a ring that could be slipped over the finger for carrying or used to hang the lantern inside the house. Like those still made in Mexico, they emitted light through holes punched in the thin metal with the point of a nail; the holes might be scattered or in vertical rows, but were more often arranged in a decorative pattern such as a sunburst.
Bayberry candles. All along the eastern seacoast, wild bayberry bushes grew in great profusion. It was a lucky day when some unknown New Englander first conceived the idea of gathering the waxy berries and boiling them down into clear greenish tallow. Bayberry candles had many advantages. First of all, the raw material was in abundant supply and free for the taking, and the berries could be gathered by children.
The sage-green candles hardened beautifully and kept straight even in hot summer weather; they burned slowly, with a clear and steady flame. Last but certainly not least, they gave off a spicy fragrance! Before long, the colonists were exporting as many bayberry candles as they could make.
Candle molds. Metal candle molds were an early American labor-saving device. They were made of sheet iron, tin or (occasionally) of pewter, in connected groups of slender, tapered tubes. Melted wax was poured into each tube, encasing a wick of twisted thread, and the mold was then set aside in a cool place. When the candles had hardened completely, the mold was dipped into hot water to release them; they were then lifted out of the tubes and polished with a soft cloth. Although tallow still had to be collected and clarified, molding candles seemed almost indecently easy to housewives accustomed to the laborious dipping process.
Women were much more liberal in the use of these new molded candles. Brass candlesticks (each with a short pointed spike on which the candle was impaled) and candle holders (ending in cups into which the base of a taper fitted) were placed on tables and tall candle-stands; in the homes of the wealthy, silver candelabra began to grace dining room tables and sideboards. Sconces were fixed to walls, and branched lighting fixtures were suspended from ceilings. Wall and ceiling fixtures of wrought iron were popular for kitchens that doubled as dining rooms. Even in primitive, rustic homes there were hanging candle holders: crossed wooden boards with candle-cups carved out along their length; wooden wheels, hung horizontally, with candle holders around their rims; wrought iron candle-cups with long handles ending in hooks that could be slipped over a nail on the wall.
An illumination. To welcome a royal governor, or to celebrate the king’s birthday, town fathers often ordered an illumination. Every householder was expected to place a lighted candle in each window that faced the street, and any homeowner who did not comply was fined. Along the dark streets, rows of lighted houses made an impressive and festive sight, but housewives resented the custom for its wasteful use of their cherished candles. During the Revolutionary War, however, spontaneous illuminations heralded the news of each victory of the Continental Army.