HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM /S 



325649, Baltimore, Md.; Walter Hough; 12.2 inches (31.2 cm.) high.) 

 About 1840 sinumbra, " without-shadow," lamps came into use. 

 Attempts at arranging the parts of the lamp to prevent shadows are 

 observed in the specimens of 1831 and 1833 on Plate 64. The sinum- 

 bra of real worth was an Argand with ring reservoir furnishing 

 gravity oil through two supporting tubular arms extending from the 

 reservoir to the wick tube. The specimen figured on Plate 65a, 

 Figure 3, is supported on a column of milky glass with base and 

 pedestal of brass. The globe rested on a flange around the margin 

 of the reservoir. The lamp was stated to have been in the possession 

 of a French family since 1847. (Cat. No. 176721, Quebec, Canada; 

 P. C. Boyle; 21.3 inches (54 cm.) high.) An old astral lamp famil- 

 iarly called "knitting lamp," being of convenient height when set 

 on the floor to light up the knitting circle, comes from Orange 

 County, Va. In its present form the Argand burner and reservoir 

 have been superseded by a reservoir of about 1850. The column 

 below the reservoir is French. Traditionally this lamp was used 

 in the 1800's by Thomas Jefferson. (PI. 65a, fig. 1, Cat. No. 150442, 

 Orange County, Va.; Miss Maggie Griffin; 27.2 inches (69 cm.) 

 high.) Another fine lamp which has been modified in the same way 

 is shown in Plate 68, Figure 1. The reservoir is of brass with gilt 

 striping.) (Cat. No. 258916, England; Miss Katherine Noyes.) 

 One of a pair of pulpit lamps from the Presbyterian Church of 

 Morgantown, W. Va., is shown on Plate 66&, Figure 3. The reser- 

 voir is mounted on a floriated brass bracket hung on a ball-and- 

 socket joint at the top of the fluted column. In an oval medallion 

 on the reservoir is the following : " Cornelius & Co. Philad., July 

 24, 1849 patent ; April 15, 1845." The burner was probably for cam- 

 phine and altered for burning coal oil in the late sixties. The coal- 

 oil burner is large, ventilated through wire mesh and has no marks. 

 (Cat. No. 175463, Morgantown, W. Va.; Walter Hough; 24.5 inches 

 (62 cm.) high.) The collection contains several lamps belong- 

 ing to the period of intense invention to supply the demand for 

 better light. It is not possible or desirable, however, to indicate 

 more than in a very limited way the great and intricate subject hav- 

 ing little practical bearing on the history of illumination. This is 

 borne out by the fact that the mechanical lamp devices which 

 harassed our ancestors were supernumerary. Chiefly a limpid fluid, 

 easily combustible without residue, readily drawn up by the wick, 

 and properly oxidized in the flame, was the thing needed. With the 

 heavy oils, vegetal and animal, at hand for ages up to 1830, when 

 camphine was produced, invention was spurred to do the almost 

 impossible. 



