The Lava Lamp

February 1, 2021

This iconic decorative lamp of the 60s is still well-known today. It’s not very functional, but it is hypnotic: the neon-bright “lava” inside grows and shrinks, soars and sinks, mesmerizing us like the flickering hearth that hypnotized our ancestors. Let’s follow the rise and fall of the lava lamp and make our own just from what we can find in the kitchen.

ISSUE: #03 FEBRUARY 2021

Topic Last Updated on 12-07-2024

The story of the beloved object began immediately after World War II, in an English pub in the county of Dorset. The owners of the pub used a clever homemade timer for cooking eggs, which was made by one of their regular customers, Alfred Dunnett. A glass shaker was filled with a liquid containing blobs of oil. It was then thrown together with the eggs into boiling water, and the blobs in it rose through the thickness of the liquid exactly in the time it took to hard-boil the egg. This clever device interested another frequent guest of the pub — Edward Craven Walker, a British accountant. He bought the patent from the widow of Alfred Dunnett and spent the next 10+ years modifying the device in his backyard. The Dunnett timer became the prototype of the lava lamp.

Prototype of the lava lamp manufactured by Alfred Dennett

From Luxury to Rebellion

In 1963, Craven and his wife Christine Craven Walker founded the Crestworth lighting company and produced the first units for sale. Initially, the lamps were marketed as luxury items, but they quickly gained popularity among young people, hippies, and fans of psychedelic music. Love for the mesmerizing objects also became a kind of revolt against the wartime grey tones, when bright colors were too expensive to produce. After the war, industry boomed, and the market was filled with bright and neon colors.

Kraven said: “If you buy my lamp, you won’t need to buy drugs.” When a phone call informed them that Ringo Starr had just bought one of their lamps, it was clear that Crestworth was a success. In the 1960s and 70s, worldwide sales were estimated at millions of units per year. The lava lamp thus became a symbol of the time.

Lava Lamp: The Symbol of the time

By the end of the 1970s, black-and-white minimalism had become fashionable, and the love for psychedelic lighting had cooled off. When, in 1989, antique dealers Cressida Granger and David Mulley made a business offer to Craven (by the way, the negotiations were conducted quite in the spirit of the freedom-loving 60s: on a nude beach, though the participants of the transaction were dressed) and took over the management of the company, only 1,000 lamps were being produced per year. A few years later, Granger and Mulley bought out the Cravens’ shares, renaming the company Mathmos. Edward Craven Walker remained as a consultant and director of the company until his death in 2000.

Love for the lamps returned in the late 90s, when the comedy Austin Powers, which parodied the spy thrillers of the 1960s, came out. Against the background of nostalgia in 2000, Mathmos sold around 800,000 units. Edward Craven Walker said of his creation: “I think the lava lamp will always be popular. It is like a cycle of life: growing, falling apart, falling, and then it all starts again.”

The original lava lamp device

The body of a lava lamp is a transparent vessel with an incandescent bulb at the bottom. Inside the lamp, there are two liquids that do not dissolve into one another: one water-based, the other wax-based (the exact recipe is a trade secret). The wax is denser than the liquid in the vessel. When the light bulb is turned on, the wax heats up and expands faster than the water, becoming less dense, which causes it to rise up in beautiful bubbles. Moving away from the light source, the wax cools, thickens, and sinks again. So, by rising and falling, the wax creates beautiful patterns.

How to Make a Lava Lamp

We can make a simple lava lamp from materials that are available in the kitchen. However, everything will be flipped upside down: the water will rise and fall, while the less dense oil will fill the vessel. As you know, water and oil do not dissolve, but they can be properly shaken!

Fizzy tablets will help us achieve our desired result. They contain acids and sodium carbonates or bicarbonates. When the tablet enters the water, it starts to fizz — the components react quickly with each other, producing carbon dioxide. Light gas bubbles will rise through the oil, carrying water droplets with them. On the surface, carbon dioxide will escape into the air, and heavy water droplets will float down. Let’s dye the water your favorite color and see what happens!