An irreverant history of candles

There seems to be no single "authoritative" history of candles that I can find so I will go with what I "know". Depending on the source, candles were first developed in either China or Egypt about 4000 years ago although the Romans are generally credited with making the first truely wicked candles. These first candles were made from tallow, a by-product of rendering animal fat. As a result they smoked badly and smelled even worse. I can only imagine the "eureka moment" when someone realized that the fat dripping off the porkchop hanging over the fire was actually more flammable than the wood. Later on, sometime in the middle ages some poor guy that dealt in honey for a living decided he needed to find a use for the beeswax he was getting all stung up for as he was collecting honey and came up with the beeswax candle. It burned clean and did not cause the house too reek of dead animal. But it was expensive compared to tallow so the "common folk" stuck to what they could afford and left beeswax to the wealthy. The whaling industry brought the next breakthrough in the form of spermaceti wax from whale oil. Again this burned clean and did not smell bad but it was cheap enough that most people could afford them. Please bear in mind that at this time there was no other practical source of light for nightime in the house other than the fireplace which was not a good idea during the summer months. Then along came the oil drillers. After they were done refining the oil they had this leftover goopy stuff that they needed to get rid of. Selling it was obviously better than throwing it out so they came up with parrafin wax. Parrafin was effectively the "holy grail" of candlemaking. It burned cleaner than tallow, produced a good amount of light, was plentiful and easy to work with and did'nt stink up the house. HOWEVER,,,, they had a tendency to soften in the hot weather. Then along came stearic acid additives and that problem was fixed. Candles today are not the primary source of light as they were in the past but more so a luxury/spiritual item that has taken a new spot in the marketplace. Candles can be found in a myriad of shapes ,sizes, colors, scents and prices. Many different wax blends are available each with its own particular pros and cons. Parrafin in its many blends is still the predominant wax on the market followed by soy and then palm wax. Soy has become very popular for eco-friendliness and ease of use while palm is popular for its crystal structure and hardness although it can be difficult for the candle maker to work with until they have a few years of experience with it.  There is a candle out there that each of us can love and for some like me, there are many.