From what I've read online, candles and oil lamps were the two primary tools used for lighting during this time period. Most recourses I come across, however, focus more so on candles, and some even neglect to mention oil lamps altogether. I've encountered others that say candles were more expensive to use than oil lamps, and were thus rarer. Also, candles appear to be inferior to oil lamps in every way that matters--dimmer, short-lasting, more expensive.
I understand that they both used a diverse array of fuels, some of which were superior to others. For candles, what were the properties of the various fuels when burnt? For example, I know that spermaceti burned brighter than tallow, didn't smell nearly as much, and lasted longer. I wish to know the same for the oils used in oil lamps, but if there significant differences, please inform me.
Finally, why did they differ so much in appearance? It seems to me that oil lamps tended to be their own structure, but candles were often held within a lantern. Why weren't oil lamps made smaller and put into lanterns, assuming they are superior in the ways I listed before?
Yes, the phrase " the game's not worth the candle" is based on the fact that candles cost you significant money...like, almost everything in the period. Spermaceti candles were the best, more commonly used when the whaling industry started booming in the 19th c. Beeswax for the 18th c. would be the most common. Bayberries also have a waxy coat, and it's higher temperature than beeswax and added a pleasant scent, Tallow ( beef or mutton fat) would be the cheapest, but has a lower melting point and generates more smoke, so it seems that larger candles at least would be a mix of tallow and beeswax. In England tallow would be commonly used for rushlights: a length of rush would be soaked in tallow , and held in a small stand. They don't seem to be as common in America, for some reason- or, at least, few rushlight stands seem to have been made in America, only imported. But tallow-soaked rushlights were less costly than candles.
An advantage to being a tallow chandler was the raw material, beef grease, was also an ingredient for making soap, so it was not a huge stretch to make both.. Because of that, in England there were guild restriction on the same shop doing both, but those restrictions did not exist in the colonies.
As to why oil lamps were not more common- especially lanterns- it's a good question. But the most common oils would be olive, linseed, and rapeseed. Olive oil will make a decent fuel for a lamp, but for northern Europe and the colonies it would be imported and so somewhat expensive. The other two, linseed and rapeseed, smoke and smell terrible ( rapeseed is now processed to make canola oil, but that's pretty recent). Whale oil lamps would become pretty common in the 19th c., again, when whaling became an industry, but I think were fairly rare in the 18th.
Benjamin Franklin's father was a tallow chandler. You can read a bit about his life and craft here :Nian-Sheng Huan : Franklin's Father Josiah: The Life of a Tallow Chandler