Continuously burning lamp
Date
9 August 1695
Creator
Unknown, Artist
Object type
Archive reference number
Manuscript page number
vol11ii p124
Material
Dimensions
height (page): 306mm
width (page): 178mm
width (page): 178mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Diagram of a lamp that could burn continuously in a letter (EL/C2/27/003) from Robert St Clair (a former assistant to Robert Boyle) to Robert Hooke. The letter was read to the meeting of the Royal Society on 13 November 1695, and printed in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. 20, no. 245 (October 1698), pp. 378-81.
This figure is copied from LBO/11ii/116.
This figure is copied from LBO/11ii/116.
Transcription
Sr my mentioning of this acension of Combustible matter by the Air puts me in mind of Your observation about the Action of flame upon the Wick of a Lamp or Candle which it never wafts still the wick be exposed to the Air by the flames falling downwards, from which you infer that away found out to keep the fuell, and consequently that the flame at the same height upon the wick would make it serve a long time, for which effecting you have a great many pretty Contrivances. I have a good while agoe thought the same might be effected by Hydrostaticks, which when I first communicated was Approved of. I am thereby induced to think it will not be unacceptable to the publick it is this Let a Vessel well shaped After the fashion of figure 15.
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Transcribed by the Making Visible project
Object history
At the meeting of the Royal Society on 13 November 1695, 'There was read an account of a small spot of ground near Fierenzola in Italy emitting perpetually a flame, for a space of about 3 or 4 yards Diameter, which the writer supposes to arise from a petroleous vapour. The same paper mention'd a Lamp so contrived as to keep the Oil always at the same height' (JBO/9/201).
Printed in Robert St Clair, ‘An account of a very odd eruption of fire out of a spot in the Earth near Fierenzola in Italy, with an easy contrivance of a lamp to be kept always full whilst it burns’, Phil. Trans. vol. 20, no. 245 (October 1698), pp. 378-81.
Printed in Robert St Clair, ‘An account of a very odd eruption of fire out of a spot in the Earth near Fierenzola in Italy, with an easy contrivance of a lamp to be kept always full whilst it burns’, Phil. Trans. vol. 20, no. 245 (October 1698), pp. 378-81.
Associated place