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The earliest Chinese oil lamps are dated from the Warring States period (481–221 BC). The ancient Chinese created oil lamps with a refillable reservoir and a fibrous wick, giving the lamp a controlled flame. Lamps were constructed from jade, bronze, ceramic, wood, stone, and other materials. The largest oil lamp excavated so far is one ...
It came into use in the 18th century. They were commonly made of iron or brass and were most often used in the home or workshop. These lamps burned fish oil or fat trimmings and had wicks of twisted cloth. The Betty lamp differs from earlier oil/grease lamps in that it uses an internal wick holder to eliminate fuel drip common with older lamp ...
Lamps from the 1890s consisted of a stand, font, chimney, and often a shade. [24] The font (also spelled "fount") held the kerosine for the lamp. [ 25 ] The chimney was a glass tube placed around the lamp's flame that had a bulge at the base that kept drafts away from the flame and added extra illumination. [ 26 ]
Aladdin Lamps is the only maker of this style lamp today. [16] Even they, are now marketing electric fixtures that fit the old style lamps. Large fixed pressurized kerosene mantle lamps were used in lighthouse beacons for navigation of ships, brighter and with lower fuel consumption than oil lamps used before. [17]
A bottle of whale oil. Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. [1] Oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train-oil, which comes from the Dutch word traan ("tear drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil used in the cavities of sperm whales, differs chemically from ordinary whale oil: it is composed mostly of liquid wax ...
Seal oil lamps. The Inuit oil lamps were made mainly of soapstone, but there are also some made of a special kind of pottery. [12] Sizes and shapes of lamps could be different, but most were either elliptical or half-moon shaped. [13] The taqquti or wick trimmers, also known as lamp feeders, were made of wood, willow, soapstone, bone or ivory. [14]
A moderator lamp provides a pressurized supply of oil to the lamp wick by use of a spiral spring-loaded piston operating on a cylindrical oil reservoir. A regulating mechanism, the "moderator", compensates for the varying force of the spring as the piston descends.
Burning fluid lamps had two long tapering wick tubes that looked like the letter V. The tubes had caps resembling thimbles to extinguish the light and prevent evaporation when the lamp was not in use. Camphine lamps had a single fixed wick with a flame spreader and a central draft system. [6] One type of camphine lamp was called a Vesta lamp. [23]