Lighting has certainly progressed a lot in the past century. Before the 19th century candles, torches, and crude lamps were the only forms of lighting used. Read on to discover the tale of the antique oil lamps.
Torches were very primitive tools made from a handful of reeds that had been soaked in either pitch or oil. Sometimes a rag was soaked with oil and then wound around the stick before it was lit. These torches actually gave off very little light.
The most primitive lamp actually dates back to the stone age where a sliver of wood has some animal fat applied and then lit by the fire. The first true lamp was made from a rock or shell and then a natural fiber like moss was soaked with animal fat, oil, or tallow which was then lit.
Over time man's skills developed and lamps made of stone, bronze, iron, and clay appeared. In the early 1800s during colonial times the Betty Lamp was born. This was considered a very modern form of lighting and today Betty Lamps are very collectible.
For those of you that haven't heard of a betty lamp. It allowed for up to 4 wicks and it had a pine pitch pick that was used to dig in the fuel. If not pine it would be something similar. It also had a spike that was used to attach the lamp to the wall.
Candles have been around since about 3000 BC. Originally they were not made from wax but instead from tallow which is a form of animal fat. During the 17th and 18th centuries sperm oil was used for the wax and today paraffin wax is the choice fuel for candles.
Candles have lost a great deal of their importance over the years, although we still have them in our homes they are generally used for decorative purposes and for emergency lighting. And of course occasionally they are used to set the mood for a relaxing or romantic evening.
During the early 1800s whale oil was burned in lamps. This was a very expensive fuel costing around $2.00 a gallon so there were few families that could actually afford to burn it. Instead they would use lard oil or some other type of animal fat. They would also candles. And the day revolved a lot around the rising and setting of the sun.
You can identify a whale oil lamp by the type of burner it has. The wick holder has one or two ¼" diameter tubes that are close to each other. One common problem with the whale oil lamps was the ability to keep the oil liquid enough so that the wick could absorb it. As the oil cooled it thickened so the lamps were designed with the flame close to the front which was suppose to help keep the oil warm enough to remain liquid.
The cost of whale oil continued to grow resulting in pressure for a different fuel source. What evolved was called the burning fluid which was a combination of alcohol and turpentine. This was a very dangerous fuel. It was so volatile it was known to spontaneously ignite and explode. Because it too was relatively expensive families began to make up their own mixes.
The problem was these home mixes were even more dangerous than the "burning fluid," and resulted in many homes burning to the ground and many people suffering serious burns.
But in 1850 things were about to change. A Scottish man named James Young patented a process of distilling coal that produced a lubricant that was called paraffin oil. The trouble is Young himself never completed the process of turning this paraffin oil into a liquid.
But during the same time a Canadian geologist named Dr. Abraham Gesner had developed an illuminating gas which was essentially the same product as the paraffin oil except it was called kerosene gas. It burned well in lamps and was affordable.
When refined oil began to be processed in Canada and the United States the days of burning whale oil and other fluids would quickly come to an end because the clear kerosene fuel which would become known as lamp fuel was cheap to produce. However, even with a more affordable fuel source improved illumination would not occur until the invention of a better mantle.
The first decent burner actually was invented back in 1783 by Francois Argand and it was called the Argand burner. It was the first burner to use an adjustable round wick with a draft tube for combustion. It produced more illumination than several candles did.
The last important invention was the mantle by Carl Auer Von Welsback, which increased the amount of light from the Argand burner by ten times. The mantle is a small bag made of a rayon mesh which has flamed off leaving an ash residue which produces an incandescent light from the Bunsen flame. It also produces a great deal of heat. This type of mantle is still used today on camping lights.
It's hard to picture how our ancestors might have worked and lived with minimal lighting. Today we have so many choices and good illumination is never a problem. But it wasn't' always like that. Antique oil lamps certainly posed their problems but they were also a very important tool to daily life.
