Somewhat akin to the wood-splinter, and a forerunner of the candle, was the rushlight.  In burning wood man noticed that a resinous or fatty material increased the inflammability and added greatly to the amount of light emitted.  It was a logical step to try to reproduce this condition by artificial means.  As a consequence rushes were cut and soaked in water.  They were then peeled, leaving lengths of pith partially supported by threads of the skin which were not stripped off.  These sticks of pith were placed in the sun to bleach and to dry, and after they were thoroughly dry they were dipped in scalding grease, which was saved from cooking operations or was otherwise acquired for the purpose.  A reed two or three feet long held in the splinter-holder would burn for about an hour.  Thus it is seen that man was beginning to progress in the development of artificial light.  In developing the rushlight he was laying the foundation for the invention of the candle.  Pliny has mentioned the burning of reeds soaked in oil as a feature of funeral rites.  Many crude forerunners of the candle were developed in various parts of the world by different races.  For example, the Malays made a torch by wrapping resinous gum in palm leaves, thus devising a crude candle with the wick on the outside.

Many primitive uses of vegetable and animal fats were forerunners of the oil-lamp.  In the East Indies the candleberry, which contains oily seeds, has been burned for light by the natives.  In many cases burning fish and birds have served as lamps.  In the Orkney Islands the carcass of a stormy petrel with a wick in its mouth has been utilized as a light-source, and in Alaska a fish in a split stick has provided a crude torch for the natives.  These primitive methods of obtaining artificial light have been employed for centuries and many are in use at the present time among uncivilized tribes and even by civilized beings in the remote outskirts of civilization.  Surely progress is limited where a burning fish serves as a torch, or where, at best, the light-sources are feeble, smoking, flickering, and ill-smelling!

Progress insisted upon a light-source which was free from the defects of the crude devices already described and the next developments were improvements to the extent at least that combustion was more thorough.  The early oil-lamps and candles did not emit much smoke, but they were still feeble light-sources and not always without noticeable odors.  Nevertheless, they marked a tremendous advance in the production of artificial light.  Although they were not scientific developments in the modern sense, the early oil-lamp and the candle represented the great possibilities of utilizing knowledge rather than depending upon the raw products of nature in unmodified forms.  The advent of these two light-sources in reality marked the beginning of the civilization which was destined to progress and survive.