para-4780-pillar-30h
PARA-4780 free-standing pillar, 30 hours
A 57 mm pillar with a CD-12 wick and no vessel at all, which changes every number in the record. With no wall to hold heat the pool stays narrow, 42 mm at its widest, and the pillar burns down from the top like a well-behaved candle should.
Hourly record
| Hour | Pool ⌀ mm | Flame mm | Pool vs peak | Flame vs peak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30.0 | 52.0 | ||
| 2 | 36.0 | 56.0 | ||
| 3 | 39.0 | 55.0 | ||
| 4 | 40.0 | 53.0 | ||
| 5 | 41.0 | 52.0 | ||
| 6 | 42.0 | 50.0 | ||
| 7 | 42.0 | 49.0 |
The 42 mm pool against a 57 mm pillar means 15 mm of hard wax stays on the outside for the whole record, and that rim is structural: it is what keeps a pillar standing as it burns down. The moment the rim disappears the pillar starts collapsing into its own melt.
Soot at 6.4 is the highest paraffin figure on the site and it is not the wax alone. A CD-12 in a 57 mm pillar is at the top of its range, and the hot throw panel scored only 3, which together say the same thing: this wick is drawing more fuel than the flame can cleanly burn.
Vessel section
- Room
- 22.0 °C · 43 %RH
- Fragrance load
- 4.5 %
- Mushrooming
- 4 / 5
- Tunnelling risk
- 1 / 5
- Wet-spot risk
- 1 / 5
- Soot index
- 6.4 / 10
- Throw c/h
- 2 · 3
- Consumption
- 5.10 g/h
Failure modes observed
| Trigger | Threshold | Known failure modes |
|---|---|---|
| BURN-COLLAPSE | rim width → under 8 mm | Once the rim thins below 8 mm the pillar starts leaning into its own melt. Stop the record rather than propping it up. |
| BURN-MUSHROOM | wick series → CD-12 or larger in 57 mm | An oversized wick in a pillar grows a carbon ball that drops into the melt. Step down to CD-10 and accept a narrower pool. |
Reading of the record
- P-03 shrinkage by cast cylinderCast steel cylinder, dimensional measurement at three cooling stages
- PARA-4780Paraffin wax · 47.0–51.5 °C