Lava Lamp

The Lava Lamp

It’s an outstanding icon of the 60s and 70s!  Edward Walker invented the Lava Lamp based on a lamp that he spotted in a pub.  He brought his new invention, called the “Astro Lamp” or Astro Light” to a Hamburg trade show in 1965 where Adolph Wertheimer noticed it and bought the American rights to the product and began to produce it as the "Lava Lite"®. 

The construction is fairly simple, a glass bottle filled with a clear liquid and a colored wax, siting on a base with a light bulb.  As the bulb heats the wax on the bottom, it expands, becomes lighter than the liquid, and rises.  As it cools, it contracts, becomes heavier, and sinks.  Once it warms up, there’s a continual flow of wax “blobs” rising and falling. 

Walker said of his lamp, "If you buy my lamp, you won't need drugs... I think it will always be popular. It's like the cycle of life. It grows, breaks up, falls down and then starts all over again."