Once
upon a time, in a far away England there ruled the good king Alfred the great.
He couldn't give up his love of studying and reading and yet he had so many
kingly obligations. What a dilemma!
Clocks were still not invented and the idea of candles as time indicators were still to be thought of.
One night, in his royal bedroom after his personal servant has just
departed, king Alfred set all alone, at last, for the first time during
his awake hours.He was looking at the last candle still lit on his night stand.
The
flickering light of the candle was trying to tell him something. Something
important, he was sure. The circle of light was small but bright and in it, next
to the candle, where all his precious books, lonely and unopened for a long
time.
"Too long", thought the good king Alfred. Maybe he could read
some now, just before he goes to sleep. "Maybe this is what the candle wanted to
tell me".
He was ready to get up, choose a book and go to his desk but the light
of the candle flickered side to side as if saying "no!" He looked at
the candle, his eyelids almost closing up on his eyes. He was too tiered. What
if he falls asleep, reading a book and the candle will fall on the pages and
they will catch fire? He got into his royal bed and blew the candle off and
even before his head reached the pillow he was fast asleep dreaming.
In the morning he ordered his chandler in and asked him to invent a candle
that will let him read not too long because he needed the sleep and in a safe
way so he will not fall asleep on his book with the candle beside. He presented task to the chandler and sent
him away.
That same night, just when got ready for bed there was a knock on the
door. "It's me, the chandler! Sorry to disturb you but I think I found a
solution".
Candles as time indicators
"Come in!" said king Alfred. The chandler had in his hand a
brand new candle in a massive gold candle holder. He lit the candle and asked
the king to sit down and start reading. The king was startled by the strange
request, but complied anyway. The chandler was sitting in an extra chair,
counting the turning pages of the book until the king's head started to sway
then fell on the opened book. The chandler then gently woke the king up and
helped him get into bed, not before he blew off the candle on the king's desk
and got out smiling to himself with the candle in the golden candle holder in
his hand.
The rest of the story of Candles as time indicators, will be told in the
next blog in my new website together with modern uses of them.
