Now candles are more a decorative decoration indoors or on a birthday cake. It is believed that a candle burns longer in a cold room, but is it really true?
Candlestick Story
Even before the beginning of the Middle Ages, people used bowls with fat and a homemade wick as lighting. Later they began to make the first analogues of candles, which only rich people could afford. In the XV century, for the first time invented dishes for making them in a cylindrical shape. A hundred years later, they began to make candles from wax. They almost did not smell and burned well.
In the XVIII century, with the development of the whaling industry, people actively extracted fat-like substance from sperm whale, making production more affordable.
And in 1820, Michel Chevrel discovered a method for the synthesis of stearin, a waxy substance. It turned out to be much cheaper than other analogues used for production. Stearin burned longer, it had no smell, and the manufacture of candles became so low-cost that mass production began.
At the beginning of the 20th century, chemists learned to produce paraffin, which made manufacturing even cheaper. Thanks to this, candles began to appear in the homes of ordinary people.
Interesting fact: Now most candles are made from paraffin. Other materials are used in rare cases.
Will the candle burn longer in a cold room?
When the wick lights up, the wax, paraffin and other material bordering on it immediately begin to heat up and melt. They melt and gradually rise up to the fire. And the faster this process, the less time the candle burns.
But if it is very cold in the room, then more heat will go into space than at room temperature. Accordingly, the material heats up and melts longer, and the candle burns more slowly.
However, you need to understand that even in cold weather only a small part of the heat goes into the room, and a larger amount is still due to the substance. Therefore, the candle really burns longer in a cold room, but not by much.
In a cold room, the candle burns longer, but only for a short period of time. Since more heat goes into space during combustion, the material melts more slowly. This increases the combustion time of the wick.
