How does a candle wick work?
A candle without a wick is just a hunk of wax. The wick is what a candle is all about. The earliest known candles were basically a wick-like material coated with tallow or beeswax, not even resembling a candle at all. In taper candles the wick is the structure which supports the first layers of wax that create the candle. In all candles it acts as a fuel pump, supplying liquefied wax up to the top where all of the action takes place. As a regulator, different size wicks allow different amounts of wax up into the combustion area providing different size flames. The wick is pretty much the most important element of a candle. The word wick comes from Old English “weyke or wicke”, Anglo Saxon “wecca”, and Germanic “wieche or wicke”. It is a name for a bundle of fibers that when braided or twisted together are used to draw oil or wax up into a flame to be burned in a lamp or candle. A wick without wax around it is just a piece of string. Because the wick is fibrous and absorbent, melted wax
