I’m sure that you have ever seen many kind of oil lamps. So the simple question is what an oil lamp is? I think it’s a very easy question to be answered. Well, an oil lamp is a simple vessel used to produce light continuously for a period of time from a fuel source (Wikipedia). Yes, a simple vessel to produce light from a fuel source. I have two oil lamps at home, the traditional oil lamps. Those lamps help us when there is no electricity. The size of the small lamp is about 5 x 15 cm, while the big one is about 7 x 20 cm. Each of them has a small wheel that when turned, moves the wick up and down adjusting the light produced. Those oil lamps made mostly of metal (the vessel), with a glass chimney. We don’t have the old-fashioned hurricane lamps (made mostly of glass, with only the wick holder assembly made of metal).
Basically, oil lamps were made from a variety of media like gold, bronze, silver, stone and terra-cotta (I don’t know what terra-cotta is). The most commonly used material for oil lamps was fired clay; many terra-cotta and bronze lamps have been unearthed. In most cases, the production and distribution of the lamps was local (just like ours), but in some instances they were produced by factories and exported to different areas.
It is a very long history of oil lamps and so difficult to say when and where the first oil lamp was used. The first manufactured red pottery oil lamps appeared in the Chalcolithic Age, c.4500 – 3300 BCE. And then the design and materials of oil lamps evolved from time to time. It is generally agreed that the evolution of handmade lamps moved from bowl-shaped to saucer-shaped, then from saucer with a nozzle to a closed bowl with a spout. And it’s also agreed that oil lamps are a basic form of lighting in the prehistory. More about this lamp history, please visit Wikipedia.
Tags: Oil Lamps
February 18th, 2009 at 2:21 am
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