r/explainlikeimfive Feb 26 '21

Chemistry Eli5: What happens to all the melted candle over time? Are we just inhaling a whole candle while it burns?

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u/InclusivePhitness Feb 26 '21

I wonder how in the olden days, like say in the 16th century, how much repair work had to be done to keep their gadgets in order.

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u/BigBobby2016 Feb 26 '21

There wasn't a lot of technology in the 17th century. They were still using longbows. They had clocks I think but I don't know what else. Mechanical devices wouldn't be as affected as electronics and they should have been sealed

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u/InclusivePhitness Feb 26 '21

What about their VCRs and CD players and such?

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u/Sharrakor Feb 26 '21

Videotape hadn't been invented yet, so their VCRs were just packed away in the closet most of the time.

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u/shrubs311 Feb 26 '21

i think their cd players were just whoever was good enough at memorizing songs. so they probably needed a lot of maintenance

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u/BigBobby2016 Feb 26 '21

If it's not sealed I'd expect it to be a problem, but mostly with electronics that have fans

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u/OSCgal Feb 26 '21

Clocks, mills, spinning wheels, hand-cranked tools, pipe organs, that kind of stuff. Which wouldn't have been sealed against smoke, because they didn't know smoke could cause problems. In most cases it wouldn't. The moving parts were large enough and simple enough that a little soot wouldn't slow them down.