Improvised Oil Lamp

[Rick]

If you don't own an oil lamp you don't have to rush out and buy one before the next storm hits. You can make one pretty easily and pretty cheaply from things you probably have around the house.

Cut a slice off a cork. Pierce the center of the cork and thread a thin piece of string through the hole, leaving about one inch (25 mm) to stick out either side. Fill a glass about two thirds full of water then very slowly pour some cooking oil on top to make a layer about 1 inch (25 mm) deep.

Gently float the cork on the oil. Allow a few moments for the wick to absorb the oil and light it.

If you don't have any string just twist a dozen strands of sewing thread together to form a single, thick strand. Tie knots along its length to keep the threads in position.

[bulrush]

Hi Rick,
I have done this and have found the following helpful hints:

- Use cotton wick or string only. Ok, some cotton string did just not work for me, so I simply bought a wick for an oil lamp and used it in my improvised lamp. Try out different materials for wicks before you really need them. (Try cotton socks, cotton shirt, cotton sweatshirt, cotton jeans, etc.)

- Corn oil can smell bad and be smoky. Olive oil is not smoky and smells nice.

- Gives off enough light to walk around by, but not enough to read by. Kerosene gives off more light.

- Thick oils like olive or corn oil won't travel much more than 1-2 inches up the wick above the oil level. This explains why all old oil lamps are very shallow, the oil is too heavy to go up the wick. And that explains why kerosene lamps became popular. Kerosene will travel much further up a wick because its thinner.

[Aurelius95]

How thick do you cut the cork? Do you have a picture you can post or a link? Sounds like it's pretty easy to do.

gracias

[Ridge Wolf]

Also, will the cork float upright? (need balast??)I haven't tried this as I have several oil lamps..

[crashdive123]

I've made them with the wick poking through as small piece of metal flashing. I used a square I cut out from soda cans that was about 1-1/2 X 1-1/2.

[Rick]

Bulrush - Good post. Thanks!! Great info.

Aurelius - You can cut the cork with a knife. You can use just about any size cork. The wick underneath will act as a counter balance to keep it upright. The only thing about size would be if the wick were too heavy for the cork.

I looked around and finally found an article that shows something similar:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.neworleansmistic.com/spells/images/lamps/floatingcork.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.neworleansmistic.com/spells/primer/magicoillampbasics.htm&h=165&w=120&sz=6&hl=en&start=53&um=1&tbnid=523A-iJUTBtI2M:&tbnh=99&tbnw=72&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dfloat%2Ba%2Bcork%2Bto%2Bmake%2Boil%2B lamp%26start%3D40%26ndsp%3D20%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%2 6client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN

I also found this, which looks like a really cool way to make a cheap oil lamp:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Glass-Bottle-Oil-Lamp/

[Tony uk]

Very nice rick, Thanks :D

[Wanderer]

That's a great idea Rick. I have an old masons jar I'm going to try this with, plus some jute cordage lying about. I've heard vegetable oil works pretty well, so I'll try and see how it works.
Alex