I stared in to a candle for way to long last night. Isn't interesting how on most properly-made candles, there's a sort of symbiosis between the flame and the wax? The flame never seems to get too large, and the wax doesn't melt so fast that it puts the flame out.
If one was to dump the molten wax out of the candle, the flame suddenly gets larger, and hotter, and starts melting the wax more quickly, eventually getting back to that same state. If the wick gets broken off, the flame stays really small, and doesn't melt so much wax that it goes out. This is true at least on the perfect candles.
I've been collecting wax leftovers from old candles with the plan of melting them down and making my own but I wanted to come up with something more interesting that just a single wick in a jar. My plan is to use a container that originally was made for three wicks, and just use one that slowly spirals (maybe at a 45° angle) around a point about half-way along the radius of the circle. I'm not sure what will happen, as there will be a more wick than usual to burn, but the flame and local molten area will be moving sideways at the same rate as it moves down, so my theory is that it will exhibit the same kind of symbiosis.
If this works, I feel like one could do a lot of interesting things with larger candles, to use up wax more efficiently, and maybe making some visually different layouts.
Aaaand thus ends a really boring bus ride.