Before electricity, a working-class family in England spent nearly 10% of their entire income on candles. More than clothing. More than medicine. Just to see in the dark. In this episode of The Hidden History Project, we uncover the surprising story behind one of the most overlooked objects in your home — the candle. From 5,000-year-old Egyptian rush lights to medieval guild wars fought over wax, from a whale oil revolution that drove sperm whales to near-extinction, to the French chemist who accidentally built a $3.2 billion modern industry — the history of the candle is the history of human civilization itself. You'll learn about the working-class women whose labor made affordable candles possible. About Michael Faraday — the greatest scientist of his era — who used a single candle to explain scientific phenomena. And about how the candle survived electricity, gas lighting, and every technology designed to replace it. The history of the candle didn't start with ambiance. It was survival. 0:00 - The World Before Reliable Light 0:55 - Before Electricity 2:13 - The First Candles — Egypt & Rome 3:54 - Medieval Chandlers & The Guild Wars 5:17 - Understanding Tallow Candles 5:59- The Smell That Defined Social Class 6:14 - The Whale Oil Revolution 8:22 - Stearine & The Women Who Changed Everything 9:53 - Michael Faraday and the Candle as Science 11:22 - Electricity Nearly Kills the Candle 11:47- Why We Still Can't Stop Buying Candles 12:55 - The Longevity of the Candle 📺 Watch the full Hidden History series: 🔧 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnx0ecK8y1BYIyDw27LYZMAehgxORkG87 🔔 New hidden history every week — Subscribe: 🔧 https://www.youtube.com/@The-Hidden-History-Project?sub_confirmation=1 #hiddenhistory #CandleHistory #historyexplained #interestingfacts #didyouknow #inventionhistory #everydayhistory #History #hiddenhistoryproject #documentary
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What would humanity be like without light bulbs?
The Roman Vatican burned 1 thousand beeswax candles a day, peasants zero.
Good one. Have read Faraday's Candle Lecture. Faraday had no formal education.
The Consonant digraph “ ch” in “ Chandler “ is nit pronounced as /sh/ which is German pronunciation. It’s pronounced as thr “ ch” in “ church”. It’s amazing to me that every day I hear common words pronounced in weird ways I have never heard in my life. It’s usually AI but not so sure here. My actual job is pronunciation and Phonemic Transcription Analysis.
I can’t imagine living in a hovel with just a candle for lighting.
We killed almost all the Sperm whales for fuel. Yeah! Go Us! Is there life elsewhere in the universe? I wonder if it burns?
Home Sweet Home
It's amazing we killed whales to just make candles.
More AI slop.
I want to hear Faraday candle lecture
No electricity and no gas. My light, for the first 13 years of my life, came from wax candles. That was 56 years ago. Not the 15th century. 😂
No viable street lighting until gas lamps were invented, so you were vulnerable in the streets after dark either from thieves or from stepping in something repugnant and foul - the streets were treated as common lavatories.
Use of AI? 👎 Claims of underappreciated women? 👎 End result? 👎👎
AI can't pronounce words correctly. lol
Im now pondering as to whether the sight of a candle flame stirs up genetic memory's from a time of cave men around an open fire. By genetic memories I mean the stuff that birds have for building nests etc.
It's slightly misleading to say candles were the ONLY source of light for the poor- they'd have had some kind of fireplace producing light, and in the communal residential building past, those would have been quite large. Plus of course moonlight is quite bright. Having said that, in my history graphic novels I do try to capture just how dark night would have been for the majority... which isn't easy on a printed page.
10% of their income on candles? Oh BULL SHIT!!
Flame Gaze? more like cultural inertia. some people dont like change.
Electric light its a boit more complicated. Edison, Light Builb. His team made a more efficient one from bamboo. Joseph Swap made a better one than the ones before that. The incadecent lights buld took many to develope. Its was East Europe that finally created a proper working one made form Tungsten.
To day Candles is used for l Stress free 🎉😂 Healing mind set