Freakonomics Radio · 2025-08-01 · 47 min · 7,457 words

643. Why Do Candles Still Exist?

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Do you find it strange at all that so many people still love candles? I mean, ever since we got electricity, candles have been nonessential, let's call them, right? An obsolete technology, but they have not disappeared. Every generation seems to rediscover them. Why do you think that is?

Yeah, it's a very interesting question. It's interesting to think about. how the job that candles do has changed over time. You could go back 5,000 years to the first things that were like candles and I would describe it as portable fire. It's portable fire that lets you find your way or lets you do work when it's dark.

This might be a little clay lamp with oil in it and a wick or something. The earliest records that we know about would be in ancient Egypt, a pithy reed just dipped in some animal fat. I see. But we see wicked candles. Maybe 3,000 years ago, a lot of records that the Romans were using them, it's wick and wax and it's essentially what we still have today.

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