> TEOTWAWKI Blog: Bacon Candle

Pages

8/10/11

Bacon Candle


Lighting is an important thing, and when the batteries run dry, you can improvise a simple candle or lamp with whatever fat, oil or grease you have around. This lamp was made with an extra tin, the fat/drippings from about 3/4 of a package of bacon, a wick made from half a cotton ball and a wick holder made from a twisted paper clip. That's it - pretty simple and easily improvised with what you have on hand.

People have been using candles and simple lamps for thousands of years, and they work, even in our modern age of LED flashlights. A fuel and a natural wick material (cotton works well and is readily available, but a variety of other materials work, too) are the consumables that you'll need - no grid or modern tech needed.

So far, this particular lamp has provided about 1.5 hours of light, completely uninterrupted. It doesn't kick off a massive amount of light, but definitely better than a tea light and enough to provide navigation light for a normal room. Simple tasks, sure. Reading...probably not so much, at least for my eyes. We're heading off to bed soon so I blew the candle out; I would guess it's got another hour and a half or so of life left in it, maybe more. I'll light it back up tomorrow.

A shot of the interior of the can, wick and holder after the jump below. For scale, the can is around the size of a tuna can - it held blueberries for a packaged muffin mix.

Bacon grease, a cotton wick made from paper towel and a paper clip wick holder.