My oil lamp. How to Make an Oil Lamp in Two Minutes Three Reasons to Fall in Love with Oil Lamps

The problem of lighting has bothered people since ancient times. To bring light into your home, primitive He took a burning stick from the fire and secured it in the crack between the stones of the cave. This is probably how the prototype of the lamp appeared - the torch.

Torch

For the base of the torch, people used a wooden stick, on which they wrapped tow or a rag and dipped it in flammable liquid. Torches were used not only for lighting rooms. With their help, the element of fire became a participant in rituals and religious ceremonies.

In the Middle Ages, the torch was the main means of illuminating knightly castles. At this time, people created a special forged clamp that was attached to the wall. Often such a holder was made in the shape of a hand. This mount served as the prototype for the sconce lamp, because “sconce” translated from French means “hand.”

Lucina

One of the first lighting devices was the torch, which illuminated the homes of peasants in northern Europe and Russia for hundreds of years. The splinter was fixed into a light - a special metal device, driven with the lower pointed end into a block of wood or other wooden stand. Luchins were used in peasant life until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Oil lamp

Along with a torch and a splinter, an oil lamp was a common source of light in a person’s home. The materials for making such lamps were clay and bronze. This consisted lighting fixture from a vessel and a wick. Animal fat and oil were used as fuel. Many such lamps have been preserved from the times of ancient Greece and Rome. Depending on the thickness of the wick, the oil lamp burned from half an hour to 2-3 hours. The light emanating from it was dim, but with two lamps lit it was quite possible to read.

The Romans lit their homes using an alfalfa oil lamp. Such lamps were made of terracotta. There were lamps with one, two and even twelve burners.

Oil lamps were painted with images depicting scenes of gladiatorial battles, exploits of gods and heroes. Like the designs on antique vases, the images on the lamps read like an encyclopedia of ancient life.

IN large rooms lamps were placed on a stand or hung on chains from the ceiling. Such hanging lamps became the prototype of a chandelier.

Today modern chandeliers and lamps are presented on the website

It often happens that the electricity suddenly goes out and there are no paraffin candles at hand. In this case, the oil lamp will optimal solution Problems.

In order to make an oil lamp we need:
1. Old burnt out light bulb (You can also buy a new one).
2. Tool set.
3. Cotton wick.
4. Steel wire.
5. Syringe.
6. Olive oil.

First you need to prepare a light bulb for further actions. To do this, we need to make a hole in the base for wiring the wick. It is enough to hook the protruding contact of the lamp with pliers and pull it. After you have deleted epoxy resin(black polymer around the contact) and everything that is inside the light bulb, you should get a glass blank like this.

Next, measure the required length of the cotton wick. In order to check the suitability of the wick, simply set it on fire. If it produces loose ash, then everything is fine. If it starts to turn into plastic, then such a wick will not suit us. So, we measure the wick so that it is completely immersed in the bottom of the lamp and comes out about a centimeter.

Now fill our container with oil. For this I used a syringe. And pour the oil into the lamp. 10 ml. will be sufficient. If you run out of oil, you can always top it up.

Now we take our wire and use pliers to make such a device out of it. The circular area is for attaching the wire to the lamp thread, and the top is for fixing the wick. When assembled it looks like this.

Every housewife dreams of her home being warm and cozy. But sometimes it’s not easy to choose accessories to create that very necessary comfort. The choice of lighting plays a special role in creating a competent interior. Today there are many options for this: sconces, original chandeliers and lampshades. And for lovers of twilight and romantic setting An oil lamp works great. Unlike all the options listed above, it serves more as original item decor rather than as a lighting fixture. Although it all depends on the size and wick. Some of these lamps are quite bright.

What is an oil lamp?

A familiar name that immediately evokes a certain image in your head, isn’t it? In fact, the oil lamp was not always the way we used to imagine it. From the name it is clear that such a lamp works by burning fat or oil. The principle of its operation is similar to the design of a kerosene lamp - a container with fuel, a wick and physics, according to the laws of which oil or fat always rises along the fibers.

About the use of lamps

The first oil lamps appeared in the Paleolithic era, but they were then made from clay, stones, copper, and later other metals. Such lamps were popular among the Eskimos, and until the 19th century, slightly modified, they were used as fire clocks (similar to sun clocks).

In Russia and Canada, so-called kudliks are widely used - stone cups with a wick lowered into them and filled with fat, oil or lard. In some places they are still used, and the peoples of the north have learned to heat their homes with the help of such lamps.

Today, the oil lamp is no longer so popular, and it looks different: all kinds of candles, bottles, jars with decorations and even original lamps in the form of ordinary lamps and spirals. And its functionality has changed - instead of lighting - decor.

Wick and oil for the correct lamp

It doesn’t matter whether you decide to buy a lamp or make it yourself, it is important to choose the right oil for an oil lamp, since the quality of the product and the brightness of the lighting depend on it.

Today you can find special lamp oil in the store. It comes in two types: Vaseline-based (clean, transparent in appearance) and olive with impurities (more cloudy), and if necessary, even ordinary sunflower is used. But in order for the oil to rise and evaporate well, it is important that the wick for the oil lamp is of high quality.

DIY oil lamps

Any souvenirs self made have always been valued much higher than factory ones and those distributed to the masses. This also applies to oil lamps, which are quite easy to make with your own hands. Even if you haven’t done hand made before, you can do it easily, and your family and friends will be pleasantly surprised. To work you will need:

• oil container;
• wick or string;
• large needle or hook;
• support for the wick (wire, cap or plug).

Any container will do: it can be a beautiful small vase, Glass bottle or even a regular jar. As a decoration, you can use glue to apply it to outside sparkles, drawings, etc. In general, whatever comes to mind. While the container is drying, proceed to creating the wick.

To do this, take a woolen cord or a special wick, which you can buy in stores. If you are making a lamp in the shape of a bottle, it is better to use a cork or a metal lid, but for a vase, cork material is suitable, because it does not sink and almost does not burn. Using a needle or crochet hook, thread it through the chosen base so that the lace sticks out 1.5-2 cm upward, and the long end is no less than the distance to the bottom of your future lamp.

All that remains is to fill the container with oil, secure the wick and let it soak for a while. Your gift is ready!

Hi all! I want to talk about how I developed my own version of an oil lamp, and what I ultimately came to.
The first, simplest option, I used in the 90s as home lighting during regular power outages. Sometimes I took such a lamp on hikes to check it out. field conditions. The design is extremely simple.
A tube with a diameter of about 7 mm is rolled up from a strip of tin about a centimeter wide, and a copper wire is wound to it. A wick made from a piece of bandage twisted into a flagellum is placed in the tube. All this is placed in a glass jar with a screw-on lid so that the wick, suspended on wire hooks from the edges of the jar, is located approximately in the middle in height. It is poured into the jar sunflower oil to the level of the middle of the tube. It is advisable to take refined, light oil. Dark, unrefined oil, burning on the wick, clogs it with products of incomplete combustion and combustion worsens.

A wick soaked in oil burns inside the jar with an even flame, approximately as bright as paraffin candle. The can protects the flame well from the wind, so the lamp also works outdoors. It is important to adjust the length of the wick so that the flame does not smoke. A high and bright flame can quickly smoke the glass, so the length of the wick must be reduced. As the oil burns, its level decreases and the lamp must be topped up. It is not necessary to top up with oil, you can also use...WATER!


Water is heavier than oil, it will settle underneath it and simply lift the oil towards the wick. Even when there is no oil left thin layer, it will burn on the wick, and the water will not wet the wick because it is soaked in oil. In the “stowed” position, the wick with wires is lowered to the bottom of the jar, and the jar is tightly closed.
I recently learned from the Internet that Leonardo da Vinci, while improving the oil lamp, placed a tin pipe above its flame to enhance draft and combustion. I tried this too. I placed a tube with a diameter of 1.5 cm and a length of about 10 cm over the flame. The effect was zero. I took a larger tube: diameter about 2 cm, length about 20 cm. The effect is the same. I didn’t experiment further with the “chimney”; I decided that we would go a different route.
I decided to enhance the brightness of the lamp with a reflector. From an aluminum beer can I cut out a rectangle with a length slightly less than the height of the glass jar. At the bottom, cutting on the right and left, I twisted a tube for the wick. To prevent the flame from smoking the reflector, I moved it away from it by about a centimeter. The photo shows how this is done.

The rest of the rectangle, maintaining the cylindrical shape of a beer can, was a reflector. By placing the reflector in glass jar so that the wick is on optimal height, on the protruding part of the reflector from the sides I made two cuts and straightened the resulting “wings” so that they lay on the edges of the jar.


Inserted the wick and filled in the oil. Ready!
The brightness of the lamp has increased noticeably. The picture shows that light is provided not only by the flame itself, but also by the reflector.

The next step to improve the lamp was to increase the brightness by adding another wick. This time I twisted two wick tubes in front of the reflector. The reflector itself was made a little wider, its upper part was slightly changed so that the narrowing of the neck of the can would not compress the reflector.

A little more fiddling with adjusting the length of the wicks - and voila: it burns! It became brighter. Compare the brightness in the photo. Which lamp has two wicks – you’ll figure it out!


At this point I suspended my experiments for now. But there are still ideas!

There are water fittings in every home. In addition to the fact that they can be used for their intended purpose, you can do a variety of things with them. There are designers who use water fittings to create new masterpieces and decorative elements. Such decorative element we will try to create it now.

Let's watch the process of creating a beautiful and original oil lamp in the video:

So what do we need?
- Plumbing fittings;
- Tee;
- Adapter 3/4 to 1/2;
- Adapters 1/2 for hose;
- Rubber gasket;
- Cord from natural fibers;
- Plumbing tape;
- Oil intended for lamps (kerosene can also be used);
- A kopeck is two rubles.

The materials have been collected, let's get to work. We take a penny and insert it into the adapter along with the rubber gasket.

Now you need to take care of the wick holders. To do this, we take 1/2 adapters for the hose, into which we insert our natural fiber cord. Such ropes cannot be purchased in every store, but you need to look hard to eventually find a cord made from natural fibers. The fact is that an identical cord made of artificial or synthetic fibers It simply won’t work, because synthetics melt and burn.

The wick holders are ready, which means that they can be installed in their places, namely in the tee.

All materials are ready. You can assemble our lamp. You can do this as shown in the picture, or you can get creative and create your own unique and inimitable lamp.

That's the simple process of making an oil lamp from water fittings. The finished lamp can be used like this, or you can take a little galvanized acid and give it a slightly rusty and tarnished look, which will make the lamp more colorful and stylish.

All that remains is to add oil and make sure that the tips of our wicks protrude about one or a couple of millimeters. Otherwise, the flame will be very large and may cause serious damage to the lamp and objects located nearby. It is also worth noting that the lamp will not have any mechanism that will allow you to adjust the flame, so it is better not to experiment with the length of the wicks.