Lava Lamp

A lava lamp is an electrical accent that lights up and includes blobs of wax that take different shapes, suggest the flowing of lava. The lava lamp consists of a glass receptacle containing a transparent liquid, blobs of wax, a bulb and a metallic wire coil. The wax being a little denser than the liquid, when heated it gets less dense as it expands when it is heated. The bulb heats the container at the bottom and in turn melts the wax which rises in the liquid. As it reaches the top it cools down and falls back down to the bottom. This cycle continues giving you a feeling of flowing lava. The metal coil helps to overcome surface tension, thus keeping the glass container warm at the bottom and cool on the top. If the lamp is cold or too hot the movement of the wax will cease. That is why the temperature of the lamp is maintained at around 140 °F. Edward Craven Walker invented the lava lamp in the '60s. He called it the 'Astro Lamp'. In 1965 at a Hamburg trade show, an entrepreneur named Adolph Wertheimer happened to come across his invention. Adolph and Hy Spector, a businessman, bought the rights and began to produce it as the 'Lava Lite'. The lava lamp was the 'in' thing during the psychedelic '60s owing to its constantly changing shapes that aided hallucinations. The '60s hippie culture that talked of freedom and free-spirit will always be a vital part of history; and along with it the lava lamp will be immortalized.