Lamps
Created | Updated Feb 5, 2005
Ah, lamps. They brighten up our lives, from hollow rocks stuffed with moss to Thomas Edison't light bulbs. But are they really the best thing since sliced bread?
When were they invented?
The first lamps1 were invented in 70,000 BC. At that time they were hollow rocks, shells and any other round hollow object, filled with an ignitable material such as moss that had been soaked in animal fat. Humans began to use alabaster, pottery and metal to imitate the natural shapes of the rocks. Later, wicks were added to control the burning rate. Around 7,000 BC, the Greeks began to make terracotta lamps to replace the handheld torches previously used.How did lamps progress?
In the 1700s, some bright spark (pun intended) invented the central burner, a great lamp design improvement. Interesting points number 1: There is a road from Athens Airport to the City Centre, a large stretch of which is devoted to 2-3 storey buildings selling lamps! (Contributed by Edward the Bonobo.). Now you had a tightly enclosed fuel source and a tube to regulate the flame intensity. Glass chimneys were invented around the same time, to protect the flame2 and control the flow of air to the lamp. A Swiss chemist called Ami Argand is credited with first developing the principal of using an oil lamp with a hollow circular wick surrounded by a glass chimney in 1783.What fuels were used?
Olive oil, fish oil, whale oil, nut oil, sesame oil and beeswax were used to fuel lamps, though other substances similar to these were also used. The Chinese were already using natural gas by this time, held in skins for illumination.Interesting points numbers 2-4: 2) Thomas Edison lit New York. On his death it mourned by the fitting tribute of going into darkness. 3) Chinese Lanterns are an age old custom. 4) There are some birds that light their nests with glow-worms. (Contributed by flyingtwinkle).In 1859, the kerosene3 lamp became popular, mainly because of the petroleum drilling that started around this time. Kerosene was first introduced in Germany in 1853. Other popular fuels around that time were coal4 and natural gas. William Murdoch was the first user of natural gas and the discoverer of it's illumination properties. Eventually, a gas lamp design was patented in 1804 by a German inventor called Freidrich Winzer. Five years earlier, a "thermolampe"5 was patented.
So where does the electric light come in?
Early in the eighteenth century, most cities in Europe and the United Kingdom had gas lights. However, in the 1930s, most gas lamps were replaced with sodium and mercury. At the turn of the 20th century, electric lighting appeared and the gas lamps vanished from homes.How are lamps and lights used today?
Lamps are used in all sorts of places. If you take a look out onto the street, you see lamps. Look inside a house, you see lamps. But even today, when the power goes out, we return to that design that has worked again and again and again, the flame on a string coated in wax - the humble candle.1From lampas, Greek for torch.2And other people!3A derivative of petroleum.4First used as a fuel in 1784.5A lamp that used gas distilled from wood.
