A BRIEF HISTORY OF LIGHTING
David DiLaura

For many millennia, lighting relied on managing the combustion of fuels. The first records of fire-making appear in the Neolithic Period, about 10,000 years ago. In 1991, scientists discovered a Neolithic man, dubbed 'Otzi,' who was preserved in an Alpine glacier. Otzi carried a fire-making kit on his belt: flints, pyrite for striking sparks, a dry powdery fungus for tinder, and embers of cedar that had been wrapped in leaves. Wood was the first fuel used for lighting. Homer's poems from nearly 3,000 years ago recount his use of resinous pine torches. Resinous pitch is very flammable and luminous when burned. It was probably used in its naturally occurring state as it oozed from coniferous trees. In Roman times, pitch was melted and smeared on bundled sticks to make more controllable torches. Later, wood treated with pitch was burned in bowls or openwork metal buckets called cressets that made the light portable. By medieval times, processing pitch from coniferous trees was a trade governed by guilds. Evidence of oil being burned in lamps emerged more than 4,500 years ago in Ur, an ancient city in southern Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). The earliest lighting oils were made from olives and seeds. Olive cultivation had spread throughout the Mediterranean by 3,000 years ago, and olive oil became widely used for lighting. About 3,500 years ago, sesame plants were being cultivated in Babylon and Assyria, and oil from the seed was being burned. Olive and sesame oils were burned in small lamps, sometimes with a wick formed from a rush or twisted strand of linen. Lamps of stone, terra cotta, metal, shell and other materials have been found throughout the ancient world.

CANDLES By the 7th century, candles of modern form existed. The earliest were dipped and not commonly molded until about 1830.

1839 candle wax recipe:
10 oz mutton tallow
' oz camphor
4 oz bees wax
2 oz alum


GREASE LAMPS Grease lamps were used as early as 20,000 years ago in what is now Europe. Still a technique used until 1850 in U.S. Items used were stone or pottery with oil/water/moss. The first types of oil came from animal fat. Wicks were twisted cloth, rush or wood splinter.

LARD - Lard was a product made from boiling animal fat which was readily available and inexpensive. It was used from 1850s to the mid 19th century. Burners used, were either a round center draft or a flat wick, which also extended into the font. Lamps were made of tin, pewter, and brass.

To learn more about this unusual glass please click : URANIUM GLASS

GIMBAL - two rings mounted concentrically on axes (pronounced axees) at right angles to each other allow an object such as a ship's compass to remain suspended in a horizontal plane between them regardless of any motion.

WHALE OIL Whale oil was used as a fuel from the late 18th century to about 1840. Made from blubber or fat by boiling. Whale oil was expensive at the time and cost about $2.50 a gallon. Whale oil glass lamps were usually molded or partially blown and partially molded and attached by a wafer. Burners were usually one, two, or three tubes about ' to ' inch above the base. The tube extended into the font and the radiating heat kept the whale oil liquefied. Some burners were drop burners surrounded by cork to hold them into the lamp with no collar. Others used a threaded collar. The whale oil industry depleted some species of whales, almost to the point of extinction.

BURNING-FLUID LAMPS Burning fluid was a mixture of high-proof alcohol and distilled turpentine and it burned with a bright, smokeless flame. It was highly volatile and explosive. The burning fluid burner was made with tapered tubes entirely above the burner (1, 2, or 3 tubes). The flame had to be extinguished by a cone. If the flame was blown out, it could internalize in the font and explode. A cone-shaped extinguisher was attached to the burner with a small chain. The lamps were made of heavy molded glass for stability. Burners were tapered tubes that did not extend into the font. 1840s to early 1860s.

WAFER - a blown piece of glass that connects the top and bottom of a lamp or candlestick.

HOG SCRAPER CANDLESTICKS These candlesticks have a heavy base with a sharp edge which would remove bristles from a hog during the preparation of pork for food.

NURSERY FOOD WARMER LAMP    Nursery Lamp based on the 1812 Howe patent. This nursery lamp provides several functions for the nursery or sick room. A hinged door at the base controls the amount of light from a small two-tube whale oil lamp whose heat is used to warm food or liquids in a double boiler container formed by two nesting vessels. Small holes and a hooded vent at the top permit burning when the door is closed. A large handle in the back allows its use as a lantern when the door is opened.