when were candles invented

Candles were not invented at a single moment, but recognizable wicked candles appear by around 500 BC, especially in ancient Rome and China. Earlier, Egyptians used torch‑like “rushlights” soaked in animal fat more than 5,000 years ago, which are often treated as the earliest candle ancestors.

Early origins

• Ancient Egyptians made rushlights by soaking reed cores in melted animal fat, using them as primitive candles for lighting.

• True wicked candles, with a separate wick in a solid fuel, are most often credited to the Romans around 500 BC, using rolled papyrus dipped in tallow or beeswax.

Around the ancient world

• In China, early wicked candles used rolled paper wicks with wax made from insects, seeds, and sometimes whale fat, appearing by roughly the late first millennium BC.

• In India, some early candles used wax made by boiling the fruit of cinnamon trees, giving both light and fragrance in religious settings.

Middle Ages and improvements

• In medieval Europe, most everyday candles were made from tallow (animal fat), while beeswax candles, which burned cleaner and with less smell, were reserved for churches and wealthier households.

• By the 18th century, spermaceti wax from sperm whales allowed brighter, less odorous “standard candles,” which became a reference for measuring light output.

Modern candle invention

• Key 1800s breakthroughs include stearin wax (clean, hard-burning) and molded-candle machinery patented in 1834, which enabled mass production.

• The development of paraffin wax from petroleum in the mid‑19th century created inexpensive, clean‑burning candles, shifting them from necessity lighting to more decorative and ceremonial uses.

Today’s context

• Modern candles now use paraffin, soy, beeswax, and blended waxes, and are mostly used for ambiance, fragrance, and ritual rather than primary lighting.

• In recent years, there has been growing interest in “natural” and artisanal candles, such as soy or coconut blends, often marketed as cleaner or more sustainable options.

TL;DR: Humans have used candle‑like lights for over 5,000 years, but the kind of wick‑and‑wax candle people recognize today was developed mainly by the Romans around 500 BC and then transformed by new waxes and mass‑production technologies in the 18th–19th centuries.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.