Q 01/05

Paraffin wax, the most common candle wax, is a by-product of what?

A) Petroleum refining

B) Beekeeping

C) Soap making

D) Coal mining

Answer · why

A) Petroleum refining

A Scottish chemist worked out how to distil paraffin wax from coal and oil shale in the 1850s, and it burned cleaner than tallow.

Q 02/05

Roman dipped candles were made from beeswax and which animal product?

A) Lard

B) Lanolin

C) Bone marrow

D) Tallow

Answer · why

D) Tallow

Tallow is rendered beef or mutton fat; it was cheap, smoky and smelled of the farmyard.

Q 03/05

Some of the earliest Chinese candles, from before 200 BC, may have used which animal's fat?

A) Yak

B) Pig

C) Whale

D) Camel

Answer · why

C) Whale

Two thousand years later another whale product would give the West its brightest candles.

Q 04/05

Which superior candle wax of the 18th century came from the head of the sperm whale?

A) Ambergris

B) Spermaceti

C) Blubber oil

D) Baleen wax

Answer · why

B) Spermaceti

A single whale's head could hold up to 1,900 litres of it, and Nantucket fortunes were built on the trade.

Q 05/05

What does a candle wick use to draw melted wax up into the flame?

A) Capillary action

B) Osmotic pressure

C) Convection currents

D) Static attraction

Answer · why

A) Capillary action

The wax itself is the fuel; the wick just delivers it, which is why an untrimmed wick smokes.