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Double wick candles
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Greenhorn
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The Book of Buckskinning IV, pg 193/194, Benjamin Franklin is credited with saying two flames together are more than double the light as two flames separate and that there were double wick oil lanterns in the 18th century. Does anyone have any information as to the historcal correctness of a double wick candle?
 
Posts: 4 | Location: Utah | Registered: 26 April 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Pilgrim
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Many years ago while consuming gin all candles had two wicks,have not seen any since.
 
Posts: 81 | Location: N W Florida | Registered: 23 September 2010Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Two lamps giving off twice the light would be obvious to us or to people back then..., but what Franklin found (I learned) was that if the two lamp wicks were just close enough so that the flame formed is barely a single flame, then more than twice the light is produced. It's odd, for you'd think that simply doubling the thickness of the wick or putting two wicks together, side by side, would also work, but it doesn't. They have to be spaced at just the point that the two flames meld into one. Somebody with a physics degree I'm sure can explain it. Maybe it has something to do with incomplete combustion, and the two wicks plus the spacing cause for more complete burning? Maybe the tiny space below the flame creates some sort of accelerated air flow? I don't know....

I made a "Franklin Candle" once, by dipping two wicks into melted beeswax, and when they had formed a sufficient layer on each, I then dipped them while they touched, to form a single candle. It worked, but I ended up with an oval candle, not round, and though it did shed more light than two single candles (used a light meter) it also burned at a faster rate.

I don't think anybody made them because first, you'd have to have either known Franklin and had a conversation with him about light, or if he ever published his findings (I don't know if he published the info or if scholars found the info among his personal notes), you would need to have read his paper. Second, the candles burn quick, and a suppose lamps of the same principal burn oil faster. Folks really needing extra light could either add candles, or use a lace maker's lamp. While expensive, they burned at the normal rate of a lamp, but magnified the light. When oil or kerosene became cheaper, I suppose the idea caught on, for today you find "duplex lamps" or adaptors to change one's single wick lamps into duplex lamps.

I don't see why one couldn't use such a candle though.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Greenhorn
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Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. I may not pursue the candle, but with your information, I think it sounds like a subject I would like to continue searching.
 
Posts: 4 | Location: Utah | Registered: 26 April 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Factor
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Good for you. I mean there is no objection to such a candle, or even if you had say a candleabra or chandelier, say of four candles, it would give off the light of say 10 single candles if you used "Franklin" candles.

If Lehman's sells both lamps and adaptors to change lamps into duplex wicks..., it must have some advantage.

LD


It's not what you know, it's what you can prove
 
Posts: 3843 | Location: People's Republic of Maryland | Registered: 10 November 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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