[Pseudoscience-is-malarkey (OP)]

Our ancients used to rely very heavily on them apparently.

[evan_au]

For ancient societies, beeswax was very expensive.
- So modern-style candles were only for the very wealthy.
- Most people looked at the position of the Sun or stars to tell the time - much cheaper!

[alancalverd]

Adequate for estimating elapsed time in a debate or a church service, useless for determining time of day because the indication all depends on what time you light it.

[Hayseed]

Probably good enough to have the meals served on time.  Or a before dawn breakfast.  Maybe the timing of church prayers.  Not that much was scheduled closely until organized transportation.

Trains(fast trade) made us all organize the same time.  Working for the man.   Rat race.

Most call it industrialization, I call it fast trade.  Fast life.  The quality too, must be fast.

[evan_au]

Not that much was scheduled closely until organized transportation.
Trains(fast trade) made us all organize the same time.

I'm afraid that more accurate timing came in a long time before the steam train - and caused social disruption at the time....

“The Gods confound the man who first found out
How to distinguish the hours
---confound him, too Who in this place set up a sundial
To cut and hack my days so wretchedly
Into small pieces
! . . . I can't (even sit down to eat) unless the sun gives leave.
The town's so full of these confounded (sun)dials . . .”

A sundial is only really accurate to the nearest hour (and the length of hours changes significantly from Summer to Winter).
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plautus

[Bored chemist]

I got bored during lockdown and wondered if I could calibrate my lux meter using an actual candle to produce a known brightness.
The results came out better than I expected- within 20% or so .
More relevantly, in making that measurement I wanted to know how fast a candle burned so I lit one + weighed it.
Here's the data

candle mass.jpg (43.21 kB . 329x244 - viewed 3708 times)
The first column is the time, the second is the mass and the other two are rates of burning.
As you can see, they are fairly consistent. CV is about 10%

[charles1948]

I got bored during lockdown and wondered if I could calibrate my lux meter using an actual candle to produce a known brightness.
The results came out better than I expected- within 20% or so .
More relevantly, in making that measurement I wanted to know how fast a candle burned so I lit one + weighed it.
Here's the data

candle mass.jpg (43.21 kB . 329x244 - viewed 3708 times)
The first column is the time, the second is the mass and the other two are rates of burning.
As you can see, they are fairly consistent. CV is about 10%

I intensely admire your zeal and devotion to science. 

People who might deplorably suspect that you just made a few observations, then mathematically interpolated, or extrapolated them, to produce your table, should be dismissed with contempt.

[Bored chemist]

Here is the data from the other candle. (The thin one)

candle mass2.jpg (86.58 kB . 893x317 - viewed 3274 times)

[charles1948]

Here is the data from the other candle. (The thin one)

candle mass2.jpg (86.58 kB . 893x317 - viewed 3274 times)

Again, a very impressive set of data.  Completely useless of course. But scientifically admirable.

You're not getting a bit obsessive about data-collection are you.

Shouldn't you, perhaps, get out more?

[Bored chemist]

Shouldn't you, perhaps, get out more?

No

I got bored during lockdown

[Juan25]

people relied on the position of the Sun to tell the time of the day, and that of the Moon to tell the time at night. However, both these methods would fail when the skies were cloudy.

[evan_au]

people relied on the position of the ... Moon to tell the time at night.

I'm afraid that this only works at best half of the time.

Because half of the time, the Moon is up during the daytime...

[scientistlover1]

Hey Guys,
the reading accuracy of an hour candle is about 5-10 minutes. The thicker the candle, the less accurate the reading, as it burns more slowly. If there is a draught, this can also influence the burning speed. On the other hand, temperature differences, have no significant influence on the burning speed. So I would say it depends on the thickness of the candle.
Best regards

[charles1948]

Hey Guys,
the reading accuracy of an hour candle is about 5-10 minutes. The thicker the candle, the less accurate the reading, as it burns more slowly. If there is a draught, this can also influence the burning speed. On the other hand, temperature differences, have no significant influence on the burning speed. So I would say it depends on the thickness of the candle.
Best regards

When you mention the problem of draughts of air affecting the burning-speed of the candle, this effect can be greatly reduced by surrounding the candle with shielding walls of glass, or horn.

[Petrochemicals]

Sand timers and water clocks

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hourglass

[Petrochemicals]

Hey Guys,
the reading accuracy of an hour candle is about 5-10 minutes. The thicker the candle, the less accurate the reading, as it burns more slowly. If there is a draught, this can also influence the burning speed. On the other hand, temperature differences, have no significant influence on the burning speed. So I would say it depends on the thickness of the candle.
Best regards

I would say the oxygen content of the air, humidity and the density of the air would all affect the burn speed, the temperature would vary with the changes, they affect the internal cumbustion engine. A volume of cold dry air contains significantly more molecules than wet hot air.