Antique Hanging Oil Lamps

• Hanging Brass Lamp

Brass is a durable substance – something that can be important if you are hanging flammable oil. More than that, it is beautiful. A polished brass lamp with a well-cleaned lamp chimney can create quality light, although not as steady or reliable an illumination and an electric lamp.

• The Betty Lamp

Betty lamps did not have glass globes or chimneys. The flame was left open to the air. Betty lamps were made of iron or brass, and burned meat fat or fish oil. They are believed to have originated in Germany or the nearby area.

• Ship Lamp

For many centuries, fire on a ship was a sailor’s worst nightmare. A ship lamp, therefore, is made of thick glass, protected by posts of brass or similarly hard metal. The thick glass also served to magnify the flame. A genuine ship lamp is quite expensive but amazingly elegant.

• Edison Barn Lantern

An Edison barn lantern is the type rumored to have been kicked over by Mrs. O’Leary’s cow. Although both Mrs. O’Leary and the cow have been exonerated, the legend and song both persist. Today, it is more a bit of fun. Back then, it was acquiring a scapegoat for a huge tragedy.

• The Classic Oil Lamp

Oil lamps have been around for a long time, they feature in antiquity, fairy tales and legend. The one most of us know and remember, however, is the lamp our great-grandmothers might have had. It had a clear, glass globe – heavy glass, to help prevent breakage, a brass fitting that screwed onto the glass and that held a wick that could be adjusted up or down by means of a screw, and a clear, glass chimney that fitted over the wick. The chimney was to keep breezes from blowing the flame out and to help the flame burn bright without burning too high or too hot. Replicas are often sold in stores as survival or preparedness gear.

• Genie in the Lamp

It would hardly do to consider classic lamps without keeping in mind Aladdin’s lamp that could grant three wishes. That lamp was much more like a Betty lamp than the one that hung above Grandma’s kitchen table. Often made of brass, it held oil. A simple wick – probably made of a twist of sheep’s wool or perhaps linen – was fed down into the oil through a spout. It was filled through a hole at the top of the lamp, which had a small lid on it.