Soft Glow Outdoor Flicker Candle – Frontgate

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. Candles have been used for over two millennia around the world, and were a significant form of indoor lighting until the invention of other types of light sources. Although electric light has largely made candle use nonessential for illumination, candles are still commonly used for functional, symbolic and aesthetic purposes and in specific cultural and religious settings.

Early candles may be made of beeswax, but these candles were expensive and their use was limited to the elite and the churches. Tallow was a cheaper but a less aesthetically pleasing alternative. A variety of different materials have been developed in the modern era for making candles, including paraffin wax, which together with efficient production techniques, made candles affordable for the masses. Various devices can be used to hold candles, such as candlesticks, or candelabras, chandeliers, lanterns and sconces. A person who makes candles is traditionally known as a chandler.

The combustion of the candle proceeds in self-sustaining manner. As the wick of candle is lit, the heat melts and ignites a small amount of solid fuel (the wax), which vaporizes and combines with oxygen in the air to form a flame. The flame then melts the top of the mass of solid fuel, which moves upward through the wick via capillary action to be continually burnt, thereby maintaining a constant flame. The candle shortens as the solid fuel is consumed, so does the wick. Wicks of pre-19th century candles required regular trimming with scissors or "snuffers" to promote steady burning and prevent smoking. In modern candles, the wick is constructed so that it curves over as it burns, and the end of the wick gets trimmed by itself through incineration by fire.

Flicker may refer to:

• Flickers, woodpeckers of the subgenus Colaptes
• Flicker (screen), a darkness artifact that occurs on a video display not present in source material
• Flicker (light), a perceptible change in brightness of a light source
• Flicker, a guitar tremolo made by ESP Guitars in the late 1970s and early 1980s

Science/Engineering

• A system may flicker (jump between basins of attraction) as it approaches a critical transition.
• Power-line flicker, a fluctuation in the voltage of AC power lines, whose compliance is regulated by IEC61000-3-3
• Flicker noise, electrical noise with a 1/f spectrum.

People

• Tal Flicker (born 1992), Israeli judoka
• Theodore Flicker (1930–2014), American playwright
• Yuval Flicker (born 1955), American mathematician

Popular culture

• Flicker, the sophomore album by Ayria
• Flicker, the original bass guitarist for the band Manic Street Preachers
• Flicker, a character in the cartoon and video game Blazing Dragons
• Flicker (novel), by Theodore Roszak
• Flicker, a candle maker transformed into a candle man appearing in The Ice King of Oz and subsequent books by Eric Shanower
• Flicker, a 1973 pinball table made by Bally
• Flicker Records, a record label belonging to Sony
• Flicker (album), the debut studio album by Niall Horan, or its title track
• The Flicker, an experimental film created in 1965 by Tony Conrad
• Flicker (film), a 2008 Canadian film
• "Flicker" (song), a song by Porter Robinson from the album Worlds
• "Flicker", a song by Audio Adrenaline from the album Some Kind of Zombie

Slang

• A remote control device (especially for televisions)
• A flyswatter

Outdoor(s) may refer to:

• Wilderness
• Natural environment
• Outdoor cooking
• Outdoor education
• Outdoor equipment
• Outdoor fitness
• Outdoor literature
• Outdoor recreation
• Outdoor Channel, an American pay television channel focused on the outdoors

Soft may refer to:

• Softness, or hardness, a property of physical materials