Lamp.
A device in which an artificial light is produced by the burning of a wick saturated in oil or liquid fat.
Lamps were used before candles.
The oil was conducted to the flame by means of a wick, before man learned to use the suet which hardened upon a wick and made a rigid rod of grease.
“The invention of artificial light has extended the available term of human life, by giving the night to his use; it has, by the social intercourse it encourages, polished his manners and refined his tastes, perhaps, as much as anything else, has aided his intellectual progress.” — Draper.
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Ancient lamps. |
Lamps were used in early ages in all the ancient civilized countries,
China,
India,
Egypt,
Greece, and
Rome.
Many beautiful forms from these countries are to be found in collections: especially from the excavations of
Pompeii.
Sepulchral lamps were commonly placed in tombs, and have thus been preserved in many cases.
Homer makes no mention of them, though they had been long in use in
Egypt, and it is understood that he had seen the Thebes he portrayed.
The upper three figures,
a b c, are representations of
Egyptian lamps found in the tombs.
The constellation
Leo, shown upon the largest lamp, was
the favorite sign in
Egypt, for then
Osiris (the
Nile) came forth and embraced all the fertile land of
Egypt even unto the desert, and retiring left the fertile deposit, from which sprung all the productions of the country.
d c f are ancient
European lamps.
The
Egyptians, according to
Clemens Alexandrinus, were the first who used lamps in their temples.
Green porcelain lamps were found in the great pyramids of Ghizeh and Sakkarah.
The festival of
Isis at
Busiris was called the Feast of Lamps.
The lamps had wicks floating in oil which rested on salt-water.
They were used in the tabernacle and in the temple of the Jews.
In Hero's “Spiritalia,” 150 B. C., is a description of a lamp (
g) in which a supply of oil from a reservoir below is driven up by means of air introduced into the base by an air-pump.
In another form of
Hero's lamp, the oil is raised by water, introduced below the oil by means of a pipe.
[
1247]
“Al-mansur first caused wax to be burnt in the interior [of the mosque of
Cordova] in addition to oil, thus combining the effect of both lights.” — Makkari's (Arabic) “History of the Mohammedan dynasties of
Spain.”
For varieties, see under the following heads: —
| Annealing-lamp. | Miner's lamp. |
| Aphlogistic-lamp. | Monochromatic lamp. |
| Argand-lamp. | Petroleum-lamp. |
| Astral-lamp. | Pump-lamp. |
| Carcel-lamp. | Safety-lamp. |
| Car-lantern. | Signal-lamp. |
| Clock-work lamp. | Singeing-lamp. |
| Davy-lamp. | Sinumbra-lamp. |
| Dobereiner's lamp. | Solar-lamp. |
| Electrical lamp. | Street-lamp. |
| Fountain-reservoir lamp. | Student's lamp. |
| Frost-lamp. | Submarine lamp. |
| Hydrogen-lamp. | Sun-burner. |
| Hydrostatic lamp. | Switch-lantern. |
| Lamp-stove. | Tar-lamp. |
| Lantern. | Vapor-burner. |
| Magnesium-lamp. | Vapor-lamp. |
| Mechanical lamp. |
