HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM 47 



printers, consists of a block of wood with a mass of fat inclosing 

 a rag wick set upon it. (PI. 41a,, fig. 2, Cat. No. 325642, New York 

 City, Paul Brockett.) A pottery bowl containing fat and a cloth 

 wick comes from the Zimi Indians of Ncav Mexico. It is an ex- 

 ample of adoption from the wdiite man, since none of the aborigines 

 south of the Eskimo had a lamp. (PI. 41a, fig. 14, Cat. No. 20345, 

 collected by the Bureau of American Ethnology, 5 inches (13 cm.) 

 diameter.) Figure 13 is a lamp consisting of a saucer filled Avith 

 fat, in which is embedded a sycamore ball as a very effective wick. 

 Such lamps were used on the old frontier of the Middle West. The 

 specimen is a model of those used in Iowa. (Cat. No. 325643, 

 collected by Walter Hough, 6 inches (15 cm.) diameter.) Plate 

 4:1a, Figure 12, is a lamp cut out of chalk and used by the flint 

 knappers of England. Chalk lamps apparently date far back in 

 England. (Cat. No. 211910, Brandon, England, Edward Lovett, 

 3.5 inches (9 cm.) by 2.4 inches (6 cm.) by 3 inches (5 cm.).) In 

 this connection mention may be made of improvised lamps of a 

 hollowed billet of wood or a turnip used in the United States in 

 emergencies. 



ANCIENT LAMPS 



As a rule ancient lamps refer to those of the historic period, the 

 classical lamps of pottery and bronze which are among the most 

 interesting relics of Greek and Roman times. Their use covers a 

 period of about a thousand years, during which neither the Romans, 

 to whom this type of lamp is accredited, nor the nations among which 

 it spread, gave any heed to its improvement in the matter of ef- 

 fectiveness. Throughout this period the lamp underwent many 

 changes in art and thus can be assigned to period and locality with 

 their various shadings of culture. For this reason there may be 

 selected from the multiplicity of culture forms series showing a 

 quasi-development of the minor appendages of the classical lamp. 

 In the first series both modern and ancient are arranged to show 

 the theoretical progress in the development of the covered reservoir 

 lamps of the Romans. Plate 41&, Figure 13, is a triangular open 

 lamp of soapstone from Skardu, Baltistan. (Cat. No. 164964, Dr. 

 W. L. Abbott.) Following are three baked clay lamps (figs. 10-12), 

 from Mirzapur, India. (Cat. Nos. 164920, 164929, Henry Balfour.) 

 An ancient lamp which shows what must be considered as the first 

 modification of the primitive saucer lamp to form a groove to hold 

 the wick steady is seen in Plate 41&, Figure 9. (Cat. No. 146073, 

 Cyprus, Henry Balfour.) Figure 8 is a pottery lamp from Kashmir 

 in which the reservoir is partly closed over. (Cat. No. 161972, Kash- 

 mir, India, Dr. W. L. Abbott.) A lamp from Leros, Greece (fig. 7), 

 shows further progress (Cat. No. 73168, M. A. Carindouas), and 



