Ancient Oil Lamp Fuel

Most oil lamps were made in two piece molds that were made of gypsum calcium sulphate and plaster.

Ancient oil lamp fuel. Burning olive oil will smolder and put itself out or at least give you time to put it out. My understanding is that it is because olive oil has low. It does not produce smoke or soot and does not burn if spilled. You can see that though it is made of metal its operational design is identical to the pottery lamp above.

Olive oil is 99 pure fuel. A 2200 year old terracotta egyptian oil lamp operates exactly the same as 200 year old arabian brass lamp. People have used olive oil with cotton or linen wicks to cleanse the air around them and to keep flames burning for light for thousand of years. First oil lamps of manmade materials were found in the egypt greece and rome and are considered probably the first mass produced objects in history.

They first appeared some 70 000 bc and were made out of convenient nonflammable found object such are shells and hollow rocks. When the lamp was removed from the mold it was dipped in a slip of clay kind of a thick liquid clay mixture to further coat the lamp and make it more impermeable to oil. You can see how the molding process works here. An oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil based fuel source.

Moss drenched in animal fat would be put in it and moss would be lit to emanate. They were easier and safer to carry. Oil lamps are not always made from pottery. The long and short of it is that the oil does not need processing but you need the right kind of wick and lamp.

As the industry developed so did the materials of which the oil lamps were made as well the fuel. Starting in 1780 the argand lamp quickly replaced other oil lamps still in their basic ancient form. They were made from terracotta bronze stone and alabaster in a shape of a dish that would hold oil and a place for a wick that would prolong burning and prevented the whole surface of the oil to catch fire. Oil lamps are a form of lighting and were used as an alternative to candles before the use of electric lights.

This design is simply optimal for the fuel and available manufacturing technology. Generally they are in a shape of container which holds oil and has a funnel in which is placed a wick to control the speed of burning and keep the flame from burning on the whole surface of the oil.