: How did human beings learn that wax can be used as fuel for candles?
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I imagine that burning stuff was a great form of entertainment. When they noticed how wax reacted, somebody had an idea.
Edit: Read below my comment for a good explanation of what is actually burning, I learned my original understanding was way off:
The wax isn’t the fuel. The wax is the barrier/insulation between the fuel (wick) and the fire. The fire would burn the wick in seconds if there were no wax. Someone with more knowledge about it will probably tell you who figured it all out and when.
The discovery of fire goes back a million years and presumably bipedal primates have burned things out of experimentation since then for heat. Oil and oil-like compounds used as a fuel dates back as far as 1000 BC. So put those two together, it wasn’t long until someone realized that wax was a good fuel source.
At first, they didn’t. They just collected the stuff because they thought bees were assholes and they wanted to mess with them.
Plus the wax was soft and could be sculpted into big booby dolls that were so common at the time.
Then the bronze age came about. People at the time were looking to make everything they could out of bronze. It was weird. So one day, someone figured out that since wax melted, they could make a sculpture, cast it in what passed as mortar at the time and melt the wax out and use the mold they created to cast bronze.
The lost wax method of casting as it became known, was very popular. Then one day, disaster hit. And entire stockpile of wax was caught on fire because of lax safety rules regarding wax. The resulting conflagration resulted in the development of candles which were used as light so people could stay awake longer and work more hours.
This eventually lead to the Chinese using wax to make rocket motors and some pretty cool fireworks.
/s
As an adolescent male (years ago), the idea of burning things was very attractive. I’m sure that mentality is the same as it was thousands of years ago. Find something, burn it and see what happens. Probably some ancient species of woman realized it’s use while the guys were busy burning things and made something of it.
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Using fire as planned -> accidentally setting something else on fire that stays contained in a small area -> “wow that’s staying alight for longer than wood. Wonder what else does that” = the first experimental pyromaniac is created -> they talk about what they do -> others “cool. Sounds interesting. Mmmm wonder what happened if I give it a go”
Other alternative is they notice things with animal fats on them burn for a longer time and take it from there
Likely a bit of both and other things too
I didn’t that wax is fuel, I thought the wick is what burns. And that wax, because it doesn’t burn quickly, prevents the wick from being burned quickly
How did humans learn ANYTHING? Some dimwit did a dumb thing and saw it did a cool reaction, and everyone was happy, so they did it again.
Over many many MANY years, this evolved into the scientific method.
You know how kids (boys especially) tend to light things on fire just out of curiosity? That behavior is not new. Curiosity is an advantageous trait. Trying new things leads to discoveries that are helpful for our survival and advancement. Over thousands of generations, human populations that adopted an appropriate level of experimentation out innovated those who were more conservative. Those who were *too* experimental would have become victims of their own experimentation.
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