By Tara Smith

Candles in Colonial America were a necessity. Obviously they didn’t have electricity and oil for lamps was costly. Candles were the light of the night. The common people made their candles out of tallow, which is animal fat and it burned rancid like the Roman candles made of the same substance. The well to do used beeswax candles; the average family couldn’t afford such extravagance.

The common colonist was out in the field quite a bit and even the women worked outside some. They made the discovery of using bayberries that they boiled to get the wax. These candles didn’t produce a lot of smoke and they smelled very good. It took so much time to make candles out of bayberry wax that it didn’t become popular. Plus, eight pounds of berries made one pound of wax. To recoup the finest form of the wax took many days. Time was of a premium; there was a lot of necessary hard work to do.

The main candle they used for their home was a tapered candle. Repetitive dunking of the cotton strands into the wax made these candles. The wax built up around the wicks of cotton strips. When burning the wicks had to be maintained as they didn’t have braided wicks. When the 1700’s rolled around the whaling industry flourished in the colonies. This gave the colonial candle makers the choice of whale oil and they made spermaceti wax. Wax made from whale oil didn’t smell much better than that of tallow though it did hold up better in the summer’s heat.

To make candles by the colonial method get a non-waxed tapered wick and weight the end with a washer. Melt the wax in a melting pot, a tall coffee can will do. The container should be tall and narrow. A tall can allows melting less wax. When the wax is thoroughly melted shut off the heat. Place the can or pot on a surface that resists heat. Start dipping the wick into the wax. The first time hold the wick in the wax while the wax quits bubbling. The rest of the dipping needs to be just dip in and take the wick out. Hanging the wicks between dipping is a good idea if you make more than one at a time. Leave the wick out briefly between each dip.

The dipping continues until you get the diameter you want for the candle. This can be time consuming. Patience is a part of this process. You’ll hang the candles to let them harden. Clip the candles onto a coat hanger and cut the end so the bottom is flat. Once you go through this process with a few candles the big job candle making was in colonial times will be quite clear. Think of how many candles a household used in a year. Imagine reading by candlelight, sewing, cleaning a gun. Any task they did at night was by the light of a candle. What difference electricity makes.

About the Author: Tara Smith is a crafter and candle maker. The head writer and co-owner of a Scented Soy Chunk candles, company Candle Scentsations. Join her as she writes about her passion and shares ideas and tips at her website that carries Highly Scented Candles.

Source: isnare.com

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By IPRWire Staff Writer

If you are like so many people out there, you probably have all of your old cellular phones hanging around your house in a variety of drawers, or perhaps you have an old box of them. Why do we seem to hold onto these things long after we have decided that there is a better product for us on the market? For many of us it simply does not dawn on us that we could earn a bit of pocket money and sell old cell phone units for cash. The fact of the matter is that many of those telephones that we have in drawers and boxes can make us an extra bit of pocket money.

You may have heard of the programs online that will allow you to sell old cell phone units for cash. This is a great idea. Some of these programs will even pay you within two days of when you offer it to them. However, if you care at all about the worth of your phone, you will probably not want to go with these programs. The fact of the matter is that you need to go with a program that will actually take into consideration the type of device you have. The reason that you would not want to go with one of these programs is because they usually pay low, flat rates for all of the units. Why should you settle for a flat rate when you have an expensive top of the line product? If you have a newer Blackberry, why would you want to accept the same price as those who have a bottom of the line Nokia?

There are some other options that will allow you to sell old cell phone units for a better price. These programs don’t pay out as fast, so they are not as appealing to some consumers. The programs that make a bit more sense if you have a cellular telephone that is actually worth something take about 30 days to pay you for the items you send out. The reason that they take longer to pay is that they inspect every single phone individually to give you the best deal for the units. While this type of program takes longer, you can usually make more of a profit in the end.

If you would like the opportunity to sell old cell phone units to one of these programs, visit sellyouroldcellphone.com. This is a website that takes a bit longer to pay, usually about 30 days, but makes it very simple to get rid of all of the cellular telephones in your home and get cash for items you don’t even use anymore. In addition, the company offers a solid recycling policy for unusable phones in order to protect and preserve the environment.

About the Author: Established in 2005 as one of the first companies that buys back used cell phones, SellYourOldCellPhone.com has been growing consistently over the last two years. For more information on how to sell your old cell phones please visit our site.

Source: isnare.com

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