A rushlight is a type of candle or miniature torch formed by soaking the dried pith of the rush plant in fat or grease. For several centuries, rushlights were a common source of artificial light for poor people throughout the British Isles. [1] They were extremely inexpensive to make. English essayist William Cobbett wrote, "This rushlight cost almost nothing to produce and was believed to give a better light than some poorly dipped candles." [2]
One of the earliest printed descriptions of rushlights was written by English antiquary John Aubrey in 1673. Rev. Gilbert White gave a detailed description of rushlight making in The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne , Letter XXVI (1789). Rushlights were still used in rural England to the end of the 19th century, and they had a temporary revival during World War II. [3] In parts of Wales the use of rushlights continued into the middle of the 20th century. [4]
It is not clear whether rushlights were ever popular in the United States and Canada. Antique rushlight holders are occasionally found in North America, but most were probably imported from England; "none are known to bear the mark of an American smith." [5] In New England, "rushlights were used little if at all in colonial days." [6]
Rushlights should not be confused with rush-candles. A rush-candle is an ordinary candle (a block or cylinder of tallow or wax) that uses a piece of rush as a wick. [7] Rushlights, by contrast, are strips of plant fibre impregnated with tallow or grease. The wick is not separate from the fuel in a rushlight.
Mature rush stalks are gathered in summer or autumn. The green epidermis or rind of each stalk is carefully peeled off to reveal the inner pith, but a single lengthwise strip of rind is left in place to provide support for the fragile pith. After drying, the rush is then steeped in any available household fat or grease. Bacon grease was commonly used, but mutton fat was considered best by some, partly because it dried to a harder, less messy texture than other fats. [8] A small amount of beeswax added to the grease would cause the rush to burn longer. [9] On more remote Atlantic islands such as St Kilda the stomach oil produced by fulmars was used. [10]
Sources give varying accounts of the length and burn-time of the average rushlight. The book of trades, or Library of the useful arts indicates that the average rushlight was 12 inches (30 cm) long and burned for 10 to 15 minutes. [11] Gilbert White reported that a rushlight 28.5 inches (72 cm) in length burned for 57 minutes; he wrote, "these rushes give a good clear light." There was much variation in the quality of rushlights; a 19th-century writer observed that "one might very well flicker and splutter for an hour, whilst a second was just as likely to flame away in ten minutes." [12]
A differently made rushlight in which two strips of the rind were left on the rush before it was coated with tallow produced a dimmer light but burned much longer. White referred to these as "watchlights". [9]
The burning rushlight was normally held by metal clips at an angle of about 45 degrees. [13] If the rush is held vertically, it tends to have a dimmer flame. If held horizontally, it may burn too quickly. [14] However, there were some devices designed to keep the burning rush in a vertical position, [15] including nightlights made from cylinders of tin or sheet-iron perforated with holes that would allow the light to shine out. [16]
The rushlight holder was usually mounted on an iron tripod or a wooden block. [5] Antique rushlight holders are now collectors' items. [17] They were never mass-produced but were individually made by local craftsmen and blacksmiths. [4]
One of Aesop's Fables, known in English as "the farthing rushlight" or "the vain rushlight," describes a personified rushlight bragging that it is more brilliant than the sun, moon, and stars. The rushlight is then blown out by a slight breeze. The person who re-lights the rushlight advises it to be more humble. [18]
In Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, at the beginning of Act IV, Scene V, Katherina mentions a "rush-candle".
Anne Brontë mentions a rushlight in the end of chapter XXXIII of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall . Her sister, Charlotte Brontë, twice describes the children at Lowood Institute dressing by rushlight in the early morning in Jane Eyre (once about a third of the way into chapter 5, and again at the beginning of chapter 6).
Washington Irving mentions a "farthing rushlight" in the short story "The Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap", which is part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. It also features as a cheap nightlight in his ghost story "Dolph Heyliger", in which the protagonist spends the night in a haunted house with nothing but a rushlight to illuminate a dilapidated room: "The rushlight, which stood in the centre of the deal table, shed a feeble yellow ray, dimly illumining the chamber, and making uncouth shapes and shadows on the walls, from the clothes which Dolph had thrown over a chair."
Ken Follett mentions rushlights numerous times in The Pillars of the Earth, as in "there might be a few people sitting up late, drinking ale by the glow of the fire or sewing by rushlights" in chapter four.
Pip spends a night staring at a nightlight in chapter XLV of Charles Dickens' Great Expectations . "Camilla have five pound fur to buy rushlights to put her in spirits when she wake up in the night." – Chapter LVII of Charles Dickens's Great Expectations .
Several magazines are named after rushlights. Rushlight is a literary and visual arts journal founded in 1855 by Lucy Larcom and published by Wheaton College (Massachusetts). The Rushlight is a quarterly newsletter of the International Association of Collectors and Students of Historic Lighting. Rushlight (The Belfast Magazine) is a journal of Belfast history and folklore founded by Joe Graham.
The name Rushlite was used during and for a while after World War II as a trademark of J. V. Rushton of Wolverhampton. "During the war Mr Rushton started to sell his own Rushlite Batteries through Halfords shop." [19]
Ezra Pound references rushlights at the end of Canto CXVI, the last of The Cantos that he completed:
Charity I have had sometimes,
I cannot make it flow thru.
A little light, like a rushlight
to lead back to splendour. [20]
The hymn "All things bright and beautiful" 4th verse "The rushes by the water we gather every day" [21]
A candle is an ignitable wick embedded in wax, or another flammable solid substance such as tallow, that provides light, and in some cases, a fragrance. A candle can also provide heat or a method of keeping time.
Ezra Weston Loomis Pound was an expatriate American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a collaborator in Fascist Italy and the Salò Republic during World War II. His works include Ripostes (1912), Hugh Selwyn Mauberley (1920), and his 800-page epic poem, The Cantos.
Stage lighting is the craft of lighting as it applies to the production of theater, dance, opera, and other performance arts. Several different types of stage lighting instruments are used in this discipline. In addition to basic lighting, modern stage lighting can also include special effects, such as lasers and fog machines. People who work on stage lighting are commonly referred to as lighting technicians or lighting designers.
Pemmican is a mixture of tallow, dried meat, and sometimes dried berries. A calorie-rich food, it can be used as a key component in prepared meals or eaten raw. Historically, it was an important part of indigenous cuisine in certain parts of North America and it is still prepared today. The word comes from the Cree word ᐱᒦᐦᑳᓐ, which is derived from the word ᐱᒥᕀ, "fat, grease". The Lakota word is wasná, originally meaning "grease derived from marrow bones", with the wa- creating a noun, and sná referring to small pieces that adhere to something. It was invented by the Indigenous peoples of North America.
Tallow is a rendered form of beef or mutton fat, primarily made up of triglycerides.
Pith, or medulla, is a tissue in the stems of vascular plants. Pith is composed of soft, spongy parenchyma cells, which in some cases can store starch. In eudicotyledons, pith is located in the center of the stem. In monocotyledons, it extends also into flowering stems and roots. The pith is encircled by a ring of xylem; the xylem, in turn, is encircled by a ring of phloem.
Juncaceae is a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the rush family. It consists of 8 genera and about 464 known species of slow-growing, rhizomatous, herbaceous monocotyledonous plants that may superficially resemble grasses and sedges. They often grow on infertile soils in a wide range of moisture conditions. The best-known and largest genus is Juncus. Most of the Juncus species grow exclusively in wetland habitats. A few rushes, such as Juncus bufonius are annuals, but most are perennials.
Rendering is a process that converts waste animal tissue into stable, usable materials. Rendering can refer to any processing of animal products into more useful materials, or, more narrowly, to the rendering of whole animal fatty tissue into purified fats like lard or tallow. Rendering can be carried out on an industrial, farm, or kitchen scale. It can also be applied to non-animal products that are rendered down to pulp. The rendering process simultaneously dries the material and separates the fat from the bone and protein, yielding a fat commodity and a protein meal.
A votive candle or prayer candle is a small candle, typically white or beeswax yellow, intended to be burnt as a votive offering in an act of Christian prayer, especially within the Anglican, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic Christian denominations, among others. In Christianity, votive candles are commonplace in many churches, as well as home altars, and symbolize the "prayers the worshipper is offering for him or herself, or for other people." The size of a votive candle is often two inches tall by one and a half inches diameter, although other votive candles can be significantly taller and wider. In other religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, similar offerings exist, which include diyas and butter lamps.
The Cantos by Ezra Pound is a long, incomplete poem in 120 sections, each of which is a canto. Most of it was written between 1915 and 1962, although much of the early work was abandoned and the early cantos, as finally published, date from 1922 onwards. It is a book-length work, widely considered to present formidable difficulties to the reader. Strong claims have been made for it as the most significant work of modernist poetry of the twentieth century. As in Pound's prose writing, the themes of economics, governance and culture are integral to its content.
Juncus effusus is a perennial herbaceous flowering plant species in the rush family Juncaceae, with the common names common rush or soft rush. In North America, the common name soft rush also refers to Juncus interior.
A light fixture, light fitting, or luminaire is an electrical device containing an electric lamp that provides illumination. All light fixtures have a fixture body and one or more lamps. The lamps may be in sockets for easy replacement—or, in the case of some LED fixtures, hard-wired in place.
Candle making was developed independently in many places around the world.
Price's Patent Candles, founded in 1830, is an importer and retailer of candles. The firm is headquartered in Bedford in England, and holds the royal warrant of appointment for the supply of candles. It is today the largest candle supplier in the United Kingdom, and the company holds an important place in the technological history of candle making.
A candelabra or candelabrum is a candle holder with multiple arms.
The Betty lamp is a lamp thought to be of German, Austrian, or Hungarian origin. It came into use in the 18th century. They were commonly made of iron or brass and were most often used in the home or workshop. These lamps burned fish oil or fat trimmings and had wicks of twisted cloth.
The Hindenburg light or Hindenburglicht, was a source of tallow lighting used in the trenches of the First World War, named after the Commander-in-Chief of the German army in World War I, Paul von Hindenburg. It was a flat bowl approximately 5–8 cm (2.0–3.1 in) diameter and 1–1.5 cm (0.39–0.59 in) deep, resembling the cover of Mason jar lid (Schraubglasdeckel) and made from pasteboard. This flat bowl was filled with a wax-like fat (tallow). A short wick (Docht) in the center was lit and burned for some hours. A later model of the Hindenburglicht was a "tin can (Dosenlicht) lamp." Here, a wax-filled tin can have two wicks in a holder. If both wicks are lit, a common, broad flame results.
A tealight is a candle in a thin metal or plastic cup so that the candle can liquefy completely while lit. They are typically small, circular, usually wider than their height, and inexpensive. Tealights derive their name from their use in teapot warmers, but are also used as food warmers in general, e.g. fondue.
Charles Domery, later also known as Charles Domerz, was a Polish soldier serving in the Prussian and French armies, noted for his unusually large appetite. Serving in the Prussian Army against France during the War of the First Coalition, he found that the rations of the Prussians were insufficient and deserted to the French Army in return for food. Although generally healthy, he was voraciously hungry during his time in the French service, and ate any available food. While stationed near Paris, he was recorded as having eaten 174 cats in a year, and although he disliked vegetables, he would eat 4 to 5 pounds of grass each day if he could not find other food. During service on the French ship Hoche, he attempted to eat the severed leg of a crew member hit by cannon fire, before other members of the crew wrestled it from him.
A luchina is a long thin sliver/chip or plate of wood, most commonly used as a miniature torch for makeshift lighting of the interiors of buildings in the history of Russia. Similar implements were used in other countries, e.g., Poland, Ukraine.
No bird is of so much use to the islanders as this: the Fulmar supplies them with oil for their lamps ...