- Candle
It is difficult to attribute the invention of the candle to one society or country. The first “candles" may have been nothing more than melting lumps of animal fat set on fire. Later, these evolved into reeds dipped into animal fat, longer burning than their predecessors but still without a wick (a central slow-burning core to the candle, usually made from fiber or cord).
Archaeological evidence indicates that both the Egyptians and the Greeks were using candles with wicks (not dissimilar to those we know today) as long ago as 3000 B.C.E. Many ancient cultures appear too have developed some variation of the candle, using materials such as beeswax or tallow or even the product of berries to make the wax. This surrounded a wick made from fibers of plant material, rolled papyrus, or rolled rice paper.
Burning with a regular flame and at a constant speed, the candle remained the preferred way of producing controlled artificial light for millennia. Candles remained a cheap, efficient way of creating light throughout the Middle Ages and right up until the mid-nineteenth century, when paraffin first became commercially available and the paraffin lamp entered most homes. Since the advent of gas and then electricity, the role of candles has largely been to create a peaceful, reflective, and nostalgic atmosphere, either in a religious setting or in the home.
SEE ALSO: CONTROLLED FIRE, OIL LAMP, ARGAND LAMP,GAS LIGHTING, INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULB, LAVA LAMP
- Carpentry
Before the discovery of metallurgy, long before plastics, the materials that stone Age man used were those that he found around him in nature: stone, mud, bone, and of course wood.
Wood is an extremely important material, having numerous useful properties; it floats, it burns, and it can be shaped relatively easily into a variety of different objects. The craft of shaping and using wood-carpentry-has its roots in prehistoric times.
Early woodwork consisted of the use of wood for basic tools, but there is also archeological evidence that Neanderthals were shaping wood into new forms as long ago as the middle Palaeolithic (Old Stone Age, 300,000 to 30,000 years ago), using tools made from flint and stone. In this way many useful things were created from wood, including fire-hardened spears and logs hollowed out to create simple boats.
By the Neolithic (New Stone Age), basic woodworking had evolved into a more complex craft-carpentry. The largely nomadic cultures of the Palaeolithic era were settling down into more agrarian societies, resulting in an increase in permanent dwellings, and these were often constructed of timber. Researched settlements in Japan and elsewhere include wooden houses of circa 5000 B.C.E.
The word carpentry actually derives from the Latin word carpentrius, which means maker of a carriage or wagon. Even in ancient Rome, however, carpenters were producing not only wagons but a whole l l array of different wooden products, from weapons (bows, spears, and large rock-throwing machines) to beautifully crafted furniture.
SEE ALSO: STONE TOOLS, BUILT SHELTER, BOW AND ARROW, SPEAR, AXE, SAW