How to make a simple olive oil lamp

[tim-from-pa]

OK brothers and sisters in Christ. Let's put our debating differences aside and I want to show you a video how to make a simple olive oil lamp using things in your own home. We not only will get the feel for how the ancient Israelites lived, but also we have BRIGHT light during those infamous power failures. :D

I experimented this myself and found it works a good long time. There's only two tips I can offer the video does not.

1) Use an old jar as this gets rather hot as it burns --- keeping it on a plate and in a safe location where nothing catches fire (although this lamp is safe. If it was knocked over most likely would go out). The size of the paper ball determines the size of the flame.
2) To outen it (as us Pa Dutch men would say) :D, Just place the plate over the jar to cut off the oxygen and let it cool awhile. Once it goes out, you will find your house has a pleasant smell of a BBQ grill! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot4o6mBFAgs

 

[handy]

Very cool! As I live in a place that experiences power outages quite often... and I always have olive oil on hand, I'll keep it in mind!

We have lamps and use lamp oil in them...but the smell and fumes kind of get to me after a while. Even though I can't smell any longer, the lamp oil fumes still bother me. I'm going to try the olive oil and see if it's a little easier on the senses.

 

[Danus]

Hey that's pretty cool Tim. Good post.

I may make something like that to show my kids. We where talking about Olive oil lamps not long ago. Thanks

 

[Mike]

That is neat!

And not a single slam against Microsoft in the entire OP! Tim, you're getting soft.

How long is that amount of olive oil likely to last? I think I'll be doing some demonstrating with the kids this summer, too.

 

[Classik]

What kind of paper ball? I love the color of the flame

 

[tim-from-pa]

What kind of paper ball? I love the color of the flame

I used a piece of old envelop and got a yellow flame like a giant flickering candle. The paper turns to black ash (typical of burning paper) until the fire hits the oil then the paper underneath draws the oil without being consumed and the burnt paper on top does not get any worse. However, there's some fall-off into the oil but not like what I would expect. Also, I would expect that the oil is what gives it the color since that's the fuel.

I discovered my menorah can hold oil --- with little paper balls this could get interesting. Who would have thought that people in the 21st century would find something like this so fascinating?

 

[Classik]

Thanks
That's quite interesting!

 

[tim-from-pa]

OK, here's an update from my experimentation. Get several small glass desert bowls. Put just a little olive oil in each (say, a half ounce or ounce at most). Cut a paper towel into 4 parts and make each one into a little ball. This will act like a wick for 4 lamps.

So... 4 little glass bowls, one paper towel and 2-4 ounces of olive oil and you have 4 bright lamps lasting awhile. Amazing!

 

[Classik]

Yeah: I was thinking fabric or such materials should be better.

----
One thing more: Give us another than will run our radios If power fails we still have a wonderful source of illumination....then audio

 

[tim-from-pa]

Yeah: I was thinking fabric or such materials should be better.

----
One thing more: Give us another than will run our radios If power fails we still have a wonderful source of illumination....then audio

Yeah, I'm not sure. Paper tends to burn with a larger flame, and then when it hits the oil the flame continues at that size. If you want a smaller flame, in other words, make the paper ball smaller and/or immerse it more into the oil.

As for fabric. It sounds like it would last longer, but fabric would (IMO) make a smaller flame and not as flammable, perhaps just a glow and I'm not sure it would be more than that once it hit the oil --- I envision a small, broad flame.

Keep in mind even if the lamp using paper burns out after say, half an hour, it's only paper and there's plenty more you can add to feed the flame.

But I will experiment with fabric at some point as I may be wrong. After all, a wick in a kerosene lamp is fabric, but the whole set-up is different. My lamp is more crude and less controllable beings it's without the wick height adjustment.

 

[Classik]

After all, a wick in a kerosene lamp is fabric,

It is. I was actually saying fabric is (may be) better than ordinary paper.

Let's establish this company of ours.

 

[tim-from-pa]

OK, which is better, fabric or paper? My little experiment last night (this time I kept the lamps on my deck) showed there is no difference as the size of the flame and the amount of oil is what determines how long the flame lasts. Actually, I placed only 1/2 ounce of oil in the paper bowl and one ounce in the cloth one. Yet they lasted the same time. Both burned out in about 1/2 an hour the cloth one going out slightly first. I am not yet ready to declare paper the winner since I knew the cloth had to soak up extra oil to saturate it. Once it was so, there was probably the same oil in reserve left (or so it appeared) and by adding oil on occasion it would probably use up no more than the paper.

In a nutshell, they performed the same, and if one has leftover T-shirts around I say by all means, it's no more expensive than cutting up paper towels. However, contrary to intuition, the paper nor the cloth are consumed by the flame unless the oil goes down and the flame burns what is left, so one has to keep it topped.

However...... the clean-up was worse for the cloth one. I really needed some elbow grease to steel-wool off the black residue of that glass bowl. The paper one was only half the effort. But, don't fret.

I would suggest buying Pyrex bowls dedicated for this purpose and not use desert bowls like I am doing. Here in Pa, Giant sells 4 small Pyrex bowls for between $6-7. Therefore, if it does not get perfectly clean, who cares? And while one is at it, be a hypocrite like me and use Canola oil. It is only just over $3 for a quart and a half whereas olive oil is around $9, although olive oil smells nicer. Canola has clean burning smell to it, not overly powering. Since I did this experiment for awhile, I decided not to burn up all our olive oil.

From last nights experiment, it looks like with a reasonably sized flame using paper at least, an ounce will burn for about an hour. So, this is good to add romantic ambiance at parties and short power failures (just one night). Keep in mind this is a crude lamp. It would probably be just as efficient to buy a cheap kerosene lamp and some kerosene--- but then that takes all the fun away.

 

[Classik]

OK, which is better, fabric or paper? My little experiment last night (this time I kept the lamps on my deck) showed there is no difference as the size of the flame and the amount of oil is what determines how long the flame lasts. Actually, I placed only 1/2 ounce of oil in the paper bowl and one ounce in the cloth one. Yet they lasted the same time. Both burned out in about 1/2 an hour the cloth one going out slightly first. I am not yet ready to declare paper the winner since I knew the cloth had to soak up extra oil to saturate it. Once it was so, there was probably the same oil in reserve left (or so it appeared) and by adding oil on occasion it would probably use up no more than the paper.

In a nutshell, they performed the same, and if one has leftover T-shirts around I say by all means, it's no more expensive than cutting up paper towels. However, contrary to intuition, the paper nor the cloth are consumed by the flame unless the oil goes down and the flame burns what is left, so one has to keep it topped.

However...... the clean-up was worse for the cloth one. I really needed some elbow grease to steel-wool off the black residue of that glass bowl. The paper one was only half the effort. But, don't fret.

I would suggest buying Pyrex bowls dedicated for this purpose and not use desert bowls like I am doing. Here in Pa, Giant sells 4 small Pyrex bowls for between $6-7. Therefore, if it does not get perfectly clean, who cares? And while one is at it, be a hypocrite like me and use Canola oil. It is only just over $3 for a quart and a half whereas olive oil is around $9, although olive oil smells nicer. Canola has clean burning smell to it, not overly powering. Since I did this experiment for awhile, I decided not to burn up all our olive oil.

From last nights experiment, it looks like with a reasonably sized flame using paper at least, an ounce will burn for about an hour. So, this is good to add romantic ambiance at parties and short power failures (just one night). Keep in mind this is a crude lamp. It would probably be just as efficient to buy a cheap kerosene lamp and some kerosene--- but then that takes all the fun away.

It is interesting that the fabric/paper doesn't burn up unless the oil is used up.

There is a region between the surface of the paper and base of the flame that has much lower temperature, I think. I will be trying the chemistry soon.

Thanks

 

[tim-from-pa]

It is interesting that the fabric/paper doesn't burn up unless the oil is used up.

There is a region between the surface of the paper and base of the flame that has much lower temperature, I think. I will be trying the chemistry soon.

Thanks

Yeah, i think you're right. I don't want to sound like it's never consumed. It's like a regular wick that needs to be trimmed and brought up. I would imagine over time and as one fills, the paper or fabric underneath would come to the surface and eventually burn up, but that takes longer than the oil fillings. In my case I did not fill and the oil level kept going down until it was empty and all the paper was exposed to air, and then finally burned.