.

• (correction in above 1st line, it's:  Burn your candle 1 hour per inch of the diameter of the jar's opening).

*Important Candle Safety Guidelines:
These are some of the common cautions you see on candle labels.  Please take a moment to read them over and realize how important it is that you follow these serious cautions to ensure safe use of candles.  Product labels are only helpful if you read them and follow the directions!

• Never leave a burning candle unattended!  Stay in the same room with it!
• Never leave a candle burning while you sleep!  This is a huge cause of house fires!
• Keep candles out of the reach of children and pets!  Many candles smell so good, and some of them even look like a food product, so make sure kids don't mistake them! Watch for wagging tails near a flame. 
• Trim wicks prior to each use and keep trimmed to 1/4" to prevent smoke and soot damage to your home.
• Keep candles away from drafts, vents and flammable objects.  This means do not use near or under a fan or near a breezy window or vent, and do not burn candle near curtains or anything else that could easily catch fire.
• Extinguish a candle that smokes and trim wick before re-lighting.
• Extinguish and discard candle when only ½" of wax remains in bottom of container.  if flame is allowed to burn all the way to the bottom and touch the glass it will get too hot and could cause it to shatter!
• Use only candle holders that have been manufactured for use with candles and burn only on a stable heat resistant surface.
• Keep matches and other debris out of the candle's melt pool.
• Extinguish the flame if it burns too close to the container or holder.  If flame leans against the glass it will get too hot and could cause it to shatter!
• Do not move a glass container while the wax is still hot and liquid.

Candles are a pleasant accessory for your home, but they need to be taken seriously.  Always use common sense,
and remember you are playing with fire!

Read the Label

Candles are Labeled for Fire Safety

The National Candle Association is committed to the safety of candles and candle users.

NCA works aggressively to educate consumers on the importance of candle fire-safety, and has played a pivotal role in the development of national industry standards for the fire-safety labeling and design of candles and candle accessories.

You can't see the fire-safety designs that reputable candle manufacturers follow when making their candles, but you can see the fire-safety label.

Look for the cautionary label and read it carefully before burning a candle. It's the first step to ensuring your safety.

What You Should Know 

Every candle should have a cautionary label or tag listing the three key rules for candle fire-safety.

Most cautionary labels also include additional manufacturer instructions for burning the candle properly.

All NCA members label their candles for fire safety, and test their candles to meet fire-safety manufacturing specifications.

Beware of purchasing a candle that doesn't carry a fire-safety label.

Reputable candle manufacturers adhere to industry standards. If a candle doesn't meet the labeling standard, it probably doesn't meet other important industry standards for fire-safety design.

Introducing the New Look In Candle Fire Safety These graphic safety symbols will soon be seen on more and more candle labels worldwide.  Learn to recognize these important visual reminders of the candle fire-safety rules.
Burn within sight.	Keep away from combustibles.	Keep away from children.

Info. Provided By:  www.candles.org

History of Candles

Candles have been used for light and to illuminate man's celebrations for more than 5,000 years, yet little is known about their origin.

It is often written that the first candles were developed by the Ancient Egyptians, who used rushlights or torches made by soaking the pithy core of reeds in melted animal fat. However, the rushlights had no wick like a true candle.

Early Wicked Candles

The Egyptians were using wicked candles in 3,000 B.C., but the ancient Romans are generally credited with developing the wicked candle before that time by dipping rolled papyrus repeatedly in melted tallow or beeswax. The resulting candles were used to light their homes, to aid travelers at night, and in religious ceremonies.

Historians have found evidence that many other early civilizations developed wicked candles using waxes made from available plants and insects. Early Chinese candles are said to have been molded in paper tubes, using rolled rice paper for the wick, and wax from an indigenous insect that was combined with seeds. In Japan, candles were made of wax extracted from tree nuts, while in India, candle wax was made by boiling the fruit of the cinnamon tree.

It is also known that candles played an important role in early religious ceremonies. Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights which centers on the lighting of candles, dates back to 165 B.C. There are several Biblical references to candles, and the Emperor Constantine is reported to have called for the use of candles during an Easter service in the 4th century.

Middle Ages

Most early Western cultures relied primarily on candles rendered from animal fat (tallow). A major improvement came in the Middle Ages, when beeswax candles were introduced in Europe. Unlike animal-based tallow, beeswax burned pure and cleanly, without producing a smoky flame. It also emitted a pleasant sweet smell rather than the foul, acrid odor of tallow. Beeswax candles were widely used for church ceremonies, but because they were expensive, few individuals other than the wealthy could afford to burn them in the home.

Tallow candles were the common household candle for Europeans, and by the 13th century, candlemaking had become a guild craft in England and France. The candlemakers (chandlers) went from house to house making candles from the kitchen fats saved for that purpose, or made and sold their own candles from small candle shops.

Colonial Times

Colonial women offered America's first contribution to candlemaking, when they discovered that boiling the grayish-green berries of bayberry bushes produced a sweet-smelling wax that burned cleanly. However, extracting the wax from the bayberries was extremely tedious. As a result, the popularity of bayberry candles soon diminished.

The growth of the whaling industry in the late 18th century brought the first major change in candlemaking since the Middle Ages, when spermaceti -- a wax obtained by crystallizing sperm whale oil -- became available in quantity. Like beeswax, the spermaceti wax did not elicit a repugnant odor when burned, and produced a significantly brighter light. It also was harder than either tallow or beeswax, so it wouldn't soften or bend in the summer heat. Historians note that the first "standard candles" were made from spermaceti wax.

19th Century Advances

Most of the major developments impacting contemporary candlemaking occurred during the 19th century. In the 1820s, French chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul discovered how to extract stearic acid from animal fatty acids. This lead to the development of stearin wax, which was hard, durable and burned cleanly. Stearin candles remain popular in Europe today.

In 1834, inventor Joseph Morgan helped to further the modern-day candle industry by developing a machine that allowed for continuous production of molded candles by using a cylinder with a movable piston to eject candles as they solidified. With the introduction of mechanized production, candles became an easily affordable commodity for the masses.

Paraffin wax was introduced in the 1850s, after chemists learned how to efficiently separate the naturally-occurring waxy substance from petroleum and refine it. Odorless and bluish-white in color, paraffin was a boon to candlemaking because it burned cleanly, consistently and was more economical to produce than any other candle fuel. Its only disadvantage was a low melting point. This was soon overcome by adding the harder stearic acid, which had become widely available. With the introduction of the light bulb in 1879, candlemaking began to decline.

The 20th Century

Candles enjoyed renewed popularity during the first half of the 20th century, when the growth of U.S. oil and meatpacking industries brought an increase in the byproducts that had become the basic ingredients of candles – paraffin and stearic acid.

The popularity of candles remained steady until the mid-1980s, when interest in candles as decorative items, mood-setters and gifts began to increase notably. Candles were suddenly available in a broad array of sizes, shapes and colors, and consumer interest in scented candles began to escalate.

The 1990s witnessed an unprecedented surge in the popularity of candles, and for the first time in more than a century, new types of candle waxes were being developed. In the U.S., agricultural chemists began to develop soybean wax, a softer and slower burning wax than paraffin. On the other side of the globe, efforts were underway to develop palm wax for use in candles.

Today's Candles

Candles have come a long way since their initial use. Although no longer man's major source of light, they continue to grow in popularity and use. Today, candles symbolize celebration, mark romance, soothe the senses, define ceremony, and accent home decors — casting a warm and lovely glow for all to enjoy.



Information Found: www.candles.org