Oil Lamps

Oil lamps are lighting fixtures that use oil or fat as fuel. They were an important source of artificial light for thousands of years.

The basic principle of an oil lamp is a container for the oil and a wick. Fats liquefy due to the heat of the flame around the wick. The essential element is therefore a container for the oil, a bowl made of stone, ceramic or bone, later also of metal. Candles were invented later and do not need this container, so they are not considered oil lamps. In modern times, a windscreen was added, often made of glass, a reflector and a mechanism for transporting the wick. Petroleum lamps also belong to the oil lamps, although petroleum is not oil, or at least not of plant or animal origin.

Along with fireplaces, pine shavings and torches, oil lamps were probably mankind's first sources of light. Archaeologists have excavated 10,000-year-old bowl lamps. The wicks were originally made of plant fibres, then of cloth scraps, or they were woven for this purpose. The trick with a wick is that as the oil evaporates, the wick itself is slightly less hot and therefore does not burn unless the fuel runs out.

A major problem was the contamination of the oil, which was solved early on by closed ceramic lamps. The oil was obtained from oil plants, the fat from farm animals, fish oil from fish, later also from whales. So we can say that the oil lamp first became widespread with the sedentary way of life and agriculture. With the Romans, they became a mass product, at least those made of clay. Because of the value of the material, the metal lamps were probably luxury products or for official religious use. They are rarely preserved because defective lamps were usually melted down and recycled.

Oil lamps had been used in mining for thousands of years, the most famous being the frog, a metal pit lamp with a hook to hang it in a cranny in the rock. It was not until the 19th century that new types of lamps emerged to replace oil lamps in mining. In many other areas, oil or petroleum lamps were widely used until the 20th century. Even today, because of their low cost and durability, they are often used in niches, for example in weekend and garden cottages. Problems with oil lamps are the smell, cause by the combustion products, as well as the fire hazard.

In cave research oil lamps were used only in the early days. Modern caving began at the end of the 19th century, and at that time there were already alternatives, especially carbide lamps, which were much less sensitive and also provided better light.