Most people wouldn’t think of butter as a flammable substance, but in this project they are! We’re making emergency candles that burn for hours .. using some toilet paper, and a bit of butter!
WARNING: An open flame poses a fire hazard. Do not use near any flammable or explosive material. Use of this video content is at your own risk.
To make butter burn, we actually need to vaporize it first!
A bit of rolled up toilet paper acts as a wick, and when pushed down into the center of a block of butter and ignited, we’ve may have created the worlds simplest candle.
The butter below the wick begins to melt and soak up into the paper. The heat aids the liquid butter to be released as a vapor, and it’s the vapor that’s flammable.
I used an 8oz block of butter and cut it in half. Each half burns for about 4 hours each, however, during the last 2 hours it seems most of the butter liquifies and your wick may need some support. I used a paperclip to give some stability.
Another idea would be to cut the butter into 8 sections of 1oz each and make 8 candles! Each ounce should burn for about 1 hour.