Continuously burning lamp
                                Date
                            
                            
                                5 August 1695
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Creator
                            
                            
                                Unknown, Artist
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Object type
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Archive reference number
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Manuscript page number
                            
                            
                                p3
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Material
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Dimensions
                            
                            
                                height (page): 295mm
width (page): 190mm
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            width (page): 190mm
                                Subject
                            
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Description
                            
                            
                                Diagram of a lamp that could burn continuously, in a letter from Robert St Clair (a former assistant of 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.
There are copies of this image at LBO/11ii/116 and LBC/11ii/124.
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            There are copies of this image at LBO/11ii/116 and LBC/11ii/124.
                                Object history
                            
                            
                                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).
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.
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            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.
                                Related fellows
                            
                            
                                Robert Hooke (1635 - 1703, British) , Natural philosopher
                            
                            
                        
                            
                            
                            
                                Associated place