LAMP, any contrivance which through the formation of its parts affords a means of pro ducing light, and sometimes heat, by the com bustion of oils, fats or inflammable fluids, with the aid of a wick, which, by capillary attraction, conveys the substance burned to the flame point. By modern adaptation of the word many ap pliances for producing light by gas or electricity are designated as lamps, and the illustrations of lamp standards that accompany this article show the high pitch of artistic excellence to which they have been brought. The history of the lamp, however, is interesting, especially as the development of the modern oil lamp and of general illumination can be said to date only from about 1840. Man ignorant of fire is unknown; therefore, the use of the burning brand as a torch may be regarded as coeval with the race, and the torch as the progenitor of the succeeding lamp. Considered archaically the primitive lamp was a very simple device. An unworked stone, having a natural concavity, a sea shell, or the skull of an animal, constituted the earliest forms. A bit of moss or a twist of vegetable fibre served as a wick. Fat, grease or fish oil furnished the illuminant. The intro duction of the lamp marked the first stage of man's advancement toward civilization, and may, therefore, be appropriately considered as a figure or symbol on the dial of time pointing to the dawn of his intellectual awakening. When, or where, or by what people the first lamps were made cannot now be determined. Recent archmological discoveries in the ruins of the long-buried cities of the Mesopotamian plain, Assyria, have revealed many terra-cotta lamps of a variety of forms, and of good workman ship, that were in common use 7,000 or 8,000 years B.C. It would be an unwarranted assump tion to assert that these well-developed crea tions denote the beginning of the lamp. Stone lamps have been found that are undoubtedly of great antiquity, but this fact alone does not necessarily class them as palmolithic; they are simply prehistoric, and of an age that cannot be definitely determined. The so-called Stone Age determines so little that is of real chronological value that classifications in archaeology can not always be wisely made upon data thus fur nished. French archaeologists have within a few years recovered from the lakes of Swit zerland bronze lamps that were in use by the lake-dwellers at a period late in the Lacustrian Age. These are without doubt the most an cient metal lamps yet discovered.
Early Whether the first emi grants from Asia into ancient Greece found the Pelasgic races using lamps, or whether the in vaders brought the art of lamp making with them, neither legend nor tradition has left even a mythical answer. In our researches in lamp archa-ology we can at the best but work our way backward, from the known to the un known, from the ascertained facts to that dim, mysterious darkness of remote antiquity where all traces of chronology are lost, and where our conclusions must be largely sustained by de ductions drawn from analogical reasoning. The
poems ascribed to Homer, 950 B.C., contain all that we know of the manners and customs of early Greek society. He speaks of the °Festival of Lamps," and makes frequent mention of the torch. The Greek and Roman torch was often simply a terra-cotta, or bronze, lamp-shaped de vice secured to a staff. The so-called °grease pot-lamp" of Egypt is without doubt more an cient than the oldest lamp of Greece, and the terra-cotta lamps of Babylonia are also thou sands of years older. Egypt as a nation was on the decline when the history of Greece began. Assyrian records found on clay tablets proclaim a nation with a remoteness of antiquity as yet undetermined. Among the many ancient relics discovered in the ruins of the Babylonian cities have been terra-cotta lamps that closely re sembled those of early Greece. This similarity of configuration between the earliest examples discovered and those of Greek make of a period that was perhaps midway between the first Olympiad, 776 a.c., and the beginning of the Christian era is remarkable. Only the simplest essentials are represented. A shallow, saucer shaped oil or fat reservoir being the most primi tive of terra-cotta lamps. Then comes the oval in shape, with a slight prolongation of the rim into a short, narrow rostrum, or wick support, and the formation of a rudimental handle. Then the oval-shape with the reservoir enclosed, and one or two wick supports. These constitute the types that were essentially common to all East ern lands. The later Greek and Roman lamps, both terra-cotta and bronze, are remarkable rich in ornamentation, and artistically graceful in form. These constitute a division that sepa rates the crude primitive from the finished prod uct. The earliest terra-cotta lamps were made in one piece, and baked without glazing. Later Greek and Roman terra-cotta lamps were .made in two principal parts, the °crater," or oil reser voir, and the "discus," or covering for the reservoir. Each of these parts were joined to gether after being molded, and then baked. The ornamentations were generally confined to the "discus," and were called the "litnbus." The "rants," or wick support, as well as the "anscs)) or handle, were most frequently made separately and carefully attached to the body of the lamp before baking. The "discus') had a small circular opening near the centre through which the lamp could he filled. Many of the better lamps had the maker's name, and often his private mark, stamped on the bottom. Large terra-cotta lamps were frequently made with two, three and sometimes six or even 12 ottasio The lamp with "nasus" for one wick was called a "monomyxos," and that for two wicks a "dimyxos," and so on. The Greek and Roman bronze lamps were made in an almost endless variety of forms, and were often beau tiful and artistic to a marked degree. Plain iron lamps were used by the common people at a later period. They were either cast or forged in a single piece, and were mostly ectypes of the more artistic and costly terra-cotta and bronze lamps, but were without decorations.