70 BULLETIN 141, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Md.; Anton Heitmuller; 10.9 inches (28 cm.) long.) These lamps 

 were used in churches and public halls between 1850 and 1860. The 

 most costly and artistic camphine burners in the collection is a pair 

 of " torches " which came by some unknown donor to the Library of 

 Congress and transferred to the United States National Museum. 

 The reservoir is of repoussee silver swung between two arms and the 

 handles are of polished ebony. The divergent tubes of the burner 

 indicate the use of camphine, dating these lamps after 1830. They 

 were made by Gait & Bro., of Washington. It is suggested that they 

 were used in one of the great mansions to light guests to their car- 

 riages. (PL 62, figs. 11, 12, Cat. No. 301543, 301544; Library of 

 Congress; 28 inches (71.2 cm.) long.) 



LAMPS OF THE INVENTIVE PBRIOD 



In the decade between 1800 and 1870, marked by the production 

 in quantity of the ideal lamp fuel from petroleum, the tw^o-wick tube 

 lamps burning heavy oil practically disappeared. The glass chim- 

 ney nearly a century after its application or discovery, and the ven- 

 tilated burners long seen on certain types of heavy-oil lamps, came 

 into wide use. Wicks which had given infinite trouble to lamp users 

 for ages were flattened and raised and lowered by a spurred wheel 

 on a horizontal axis. The round wick inherited from old times was 

 insensibly retained by the inventors, who improved the lamp after 

 the discovery of Argand. The wick was given a tubular form, 

 recognizing the principle of aeration of both sides of the flame, 

 which was ventilated through the tube containing the wick. The 

 flat wick was used in models sent in to the United States Patent 

 Office as early as 1830. Many of the smaller hand lamps in the 

 period 1870-1880 were not fitted with chimney, both on account of the 

 survival of the chimneyless lamp and the uses for which they were 

 made. Figure 7, plate 64, is a brass lamp gilt, the burner incased 

 in perforated metal as in the safety lamp. This lamp was patented 

 in 1863. (Cat. No. 73824, Philadelphia, Pa.; Centennial Exposition, 

 1876; 4.5 inches (11.5 cm.) high.) Another of the same period has 

 a round wick and an extinguisher cap (pi. 64, fig. 9). The reservoir 

 is cotton-filled to absorb the oil. (Cat. No. 204895, United States; 

 C. A. Q. Norton; 4.3 inches (11 cm.) high.) Lamps collected by the 

 United States Fish Commission for the fisheries exhibition in the 

 United States National Museum show interesting adaptations for the 

 needs of the industry. Figure 10 is a well-made copper binnacle 

 lamp with socket for a stanchion, weighted and swinging like a bin- 

 nacle compass. It has a brass ventilated burner for a flat wick, and 

 was patented in 1864. (Cat. No. 75383, New Bedford, Mass.; J. T. 

 Brown; 6.1 inches (15.5 cm.) diameter, 6.5 inches (14 cm.) high.) 



