Thursday 15 September 2016

The Afterburner Candle

Okay, this was one of those accidental discoveries which turned out to be both cool and disconcerting at the same time. 

I found that the latest batch of tall white candles were tapered at the bottom of it and so wobbled a bit in the candleholder.

I decided to wrap the bottom of the candle in some Kleenex to make it sit more solidly in the candleholder . . . it worked.

Now, I figured that the bit of Kleenex would just burn a bit when the candle got down there, (the way that Kleenex always burns, quick) no big deal . . . it didn’t work out that way.

What happened was that the wax that dripped down the candle while it was burning its way down to the bottom was absorbed and spread equally throughout the Kleenex. 

So, when the flame burned down to the level of the top of Kleenex, things got interesting. 

The heat from the flame actually ignited the now wax-soaked-Kleenex-ring. It lit up like the circular wick that it had become. 

This ring of fire (cue Johnny Cash) combined with the centre flame (the one that was supposed to be burning alone) and they became one large flame.

This flame then heated up the wax even more and became a captive pool of hot wax. This pool of hot wax happily fed both the centre wick and the wick ring. It looked like this . . . 
  

While it looks cool, it is also very dangerous so don’t try this at home, or if you do, I’m not responsible. I blew the candle out shortly after this picture was taken.

Needless to say I won’t use Kleenex to secure a candle again. Oops.

As always: Keep your head up, your attitude positive and keep moving forward!

No comments:

Post a Comment