Mega Birthday Candle of Doom!!!!111!!!ELEVEN!!!!

I recently procured about 18 birthday candles leftover from a friend's cake. Of course, I decided to melt them all together to make one normal-sized candle with 18 wicks. Please be carefull if you try this. I am not responsible for any loss of limb, life, eyebrows, or property that might result from the use of this instructable.

Step 1 Tie candles together, then melt them into one piece

enter longer description for this step

Comments

[seasonticket1256]

coolness yo.

[Sunny124613]

so would you melt all of the candles together?

[trebuchet03]

One thing about a flame I have never understood... When you add more candles in parallel (or would this be series?) the taller the flame becomes. You're not adding more fuel (compared to each individual candle on its own) but you still get such a result. Anyone have some insight on this phenomena?

[PyromaniacDaniel]

the center of the new candle gets very hot. much hotter then it would if it were by itself because of the surrounding flames. It gets hot enough to boil the parrafin wax without need of a wick. the gaseous parrafin is what burns. the hotter the center the faster the boil, the more gas produced, the more fuel to burn the bigger the flame. You can do this with a normal big candle by heating the wax to boiling point and lighting it on fire. BEWARE extremely dangerous as this is the reason you use a double broiler for melting wax. It can go up in a rather large fireball.

[CameronSS]

My guess is that the heat carries the flaming gases upwards, more flames=more heat=higher flames. For example, astronauts lit a candle in space, and it formed a little dome shape because there was no gravity.

[trebuchet03]

Now that's a really cool picture, and it makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the input :)

[Temo Vryce]

This would be parallel, they are all beside each other. If it was series then when one candle finished burning it would light the next candle in line. That being said this is pretty cool. Needs a little more work but pretty cool all the same.

[masterhibb]

This is because even though the wick does not burn, it is the mechanism by which the fuel is provided to the fire. As the fire melts the wax, the wick pulls the wax up to the flame, which is then consumed as fuel. The wick is actually a fine braid, which causes the liquid wax to flow through its crevices by capillary action. This process is actually known as "wicking" in some circles, though I do not know if the name of the process came from the name of the device, or vice versa. Therefore, when you add more (or bigger) wicks to the candle, more fuel is carried to the flame and you get, in this case, your bonfire.

[Tool Using Animal]

I disagree, I think trebuchet's point is that the sum of the flame seems greater than it's parts. I think it had to do with surface area, good old square cube law. Lower proportional surface area, flame burns hotter therefore more efficiently, so larger flame.

[FunkNattidelic]

someone said "Try this with 100 candles" . I am willing to go to 300!!! i might out it on youtube...

[Einsteins Circuitry]

I've done 50 sparklers at once! :D It made a HUGE cloud of smoke. We lit them all at the same time with some aerosol and a match.

[FunkNattidelic]

heh, sounds like alot of fun. tehe, thats awesome, props.

[FunkNattidelic]

sorry i meant "put it on youtube"

[altaria1993]

i once did this with 14 normal sized candles, burned like hell, but hey, i did manage to get some nice chicken :P

[DeimosOne]

I've done this before with larger birthday candles, about 8 of them. They burn very fast, it was only lit for about 40 seconds and about half of it had already been burned away.

[pokefreak501]

Me: are you sure that it safe to get that close? cousin: ill be fine just wa... OW OWCH THATS HOT!!! me: *throws bucket of water on his cousins head* the next day... cousins mom:oh i don't think they will notice. cousin: yeah ill be the 1st guy in my class without eyebrows. i can see that happening to him (My cousin) BTW this is a pretty decent instructable.

[discontinuuity]

My friend suggested that the extra wax in the middle doesn't have enough oxygen to burn, so it has to travel upwards until it gets enough air, which makes the flame taller.

[dominator027]

i like it!!!!!!!!!

[TheCheese9921]

who cares lets just not think about it and play with fire. lol i think its more wick=bigger flame because if you have a bigger candle and 1 wick its still a teeny tiny flame unles you dont trim the wick which makes it bigger

[ARVash]

Somebody needs to try this with 100 candles :3

[keng]

candles burn cause the wax becomes a liquid/gas and ignites (not the wick-the wick is very incidental and burns cuz the gas cannot get high enough). when you put all that heat in such a small place much more of the wax gets turned into a liquid/gas and ignites thus more flame.....or as I say, "FLAME ON!!!"

[Crash2108]

It is the equivalent of adding more wick to a single candle, or adding a bigger wick.

[HarryM]

I think, the more flames produces more heat together, so melts more wax, so there is indeed more "fuel" to burn Thats my idea...