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Oooze and Ahs
Bring the lava home. By Guillaume Doane, Jayplay writer
photo illustration: Jeff Brandsted
During the 1960s, the Lava Lamp became a common fixture complementing the wafts of incense smoke and drones of psychedelic rock wailing in every hip college pad. "If you buy my lamp, you won't need to buy drugs," the lamp's Singapore-born inventor Craven Walker once said.
many stories, the genesis of the Lava Lamp is fairly unclear. While Walker is widely credited as the inventor, the history goes further back. Before a drunken Craven sat in a pub, mesmerized by a contraption combining a cocktail shaker and old tins, an enigmatic "Mr. Dunnett" had already invented the lamp and died, the legend of his invention passing with him.
During the 15 years following his intoxicated epiphany, Craven harnessed the mixture of the lamp and tested the market. His creation garnered limited interest in Europe. Craven said the lamp had sexual properties and he rebuked the dispassionate public as "afraid of sex." In 1965, two men from Chicago, Adolph Wertheimer and Hy Spector, noticed Craven's lamp at a German trade show, purchased the American rights and peddled it in the United States. It eventually charmed the '60s "Love Generation." During the 1980s, interest in the lamp waned, but it was revived again during the 1990s. Today, more than 400,000 Lava Lamps are built each year.
How to build a miniature Lava Lamp, as described by exploratorium.edu:
{There are recipes out there for full-size, working Lava Lamps. Unfortunately, they can be difficult to make and the ingredients are expensive. But if you're a real handy-hippy and have to make your own, check out oozinggoo.com for directions.}
For this easy lamp you'll need:
~a glass jar
~vegetable oil
~salt
~water
~food coloring
1. Pour about 3 inches of water into the jar.
2. Pour about 1/3 cup of vegetable oil into the jar.The oil should float on top of the water.
3. Add in the food coloring of your choice.
4. Shake salt on top of the oil for 5 seconds. Salt is heavier than water, so when you pour salt on the oil, it sinks to the bottom of the mixture, carrying a blob of oil with it. In the water, the salt starts to dissolve. As it dissolves, the salt releases the oil, which floats back up to the top of the water.
- Guillaume Doane can be reached at gdoane@kansan.com.
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Jayplay 4.29.04