Coiled Beeswax Candle and Holder, a Primitive Timer

The Candle by the Hour is sort of a primitive auto-shut off feature for times gone by when people read by candle lights.

The coiled beeswax candle is fed through a clamp and then lit - so you choose how much candle to burn: every 3 inches provide about an hour of candle light and the entire coil will give you 144 hours. At $27 for a refill, it'll cost you about $0.19 per hour to burn this baby!

Link - via gadgets

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by Jake.


My brother has a cast-iron one like this, only the spool is horizontal which makes it easier to feed the candle through 'cos it doesn't have to twist. He hasn't run it for years because of the cost of refills.
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This is a courting candle. Candles like these were used to time young men's visits to the young ladies. A father might turn up just a bit for a suitor he didn't favor and rather more or one he did.

See
http://www.mountainstreamforge.com/Candles/CourtingCandle.html
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Monique, Thank you for posting the link, and you are right the beeswax candle is also called a courting candle sometimes. The ones I make are not reproductions, but my own design of the original idea. I have been making them for over twenty years, and saw my first "real" one in a museum in Oslo, Norway. I'm sure there are variations all over the world.
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