Oil lamp

A traditional oil lamp design with a gladiator

Æ traditional oil lamp with a Christian symbol

An oil lamp is a lamp used for lighting. Usually, it produces a flame by burning olive oil, another vegetable oil, or whale oil during the 1700's and 1800's. They burned cleaner, with less smoke, than other sources of light before electricity.

The designs were usually made of pottery or metallic lamps, later metal and glass. The older design might remind someone of the story that by cleaning (rubbing the lamp) a Genie might appear, and grant wishes (as he did in the tale of Aladdin in the 1001 Nights)

Today, those lamps have mostly been replaced by kerosene lamps.

Other websites

• Ancient Lamps