Coloured flame candle ??

[mathew]

Hey Guys,

I was thinking about making a candle which produces a coloured flame (in my case blue) like in every horror/ seance movie ever.
My train of thought was to impregnate a candle wick and wax with a secondary chemical to create a blue flame. Has anyone ever tried this?
To make the candle look like an ordinary candle (so white),I could probably get away with applying a second (white) layer of wax on the outside.
Only the only chemical I can come up with is Calcium chloride and that would probably give off poisonous vapors. Does any one have an idea how to do this?

Mathew

 

[dhunpael]

no idea how to do this, but it sounds awesome.
Very cool idea

 

[doppelganger]

What you want is some cupric chloride ( copper chloride) readily available from ebay or other suppliers. You can either get a fresh wick and make a paste with brown powder, work it in and leave it to dry somwhere warm or mix it into the molten wax before you make the candle. The paste gives a better result but dont use too much water in the paste or will will take an age to dry out.
Hope that helps
Rob

 

[Mike J.]

Exactly what I was thinking: has to be doped with a metallic salt, like fireworks are. Ask your local high school chemistry teacher. I remember a brief lab experiment along these lines, many years ago.