As much a part of the sixties as beaded vests, flower power, and organ solos, the Lava Lamp illuminated many a late-night jam session. At the half-century mark, the lamp has lost some of its allure, but its globules of light still brighten plenty of tapestry-strewn rooms around the world.
Invented by British accountant Edward Craven-Walker, the first Lava Lamp appeared in stores 50 years ago today. It was called the Astro Lamp and was inspired by a liquid filled egg timer Craven-Walker saw in a pub. The air bubbles of the liquid-filled timer would be replaced with a combination of wax and carbon tetrachloride. When heated by the bulb at the base of the lamp, the wax compound creates psychedelic, slow-moving bubbles capable of transfixing the stoned and non-stoned alike.
The lamp became the must-have accessory for apartments, dorm rooms, and low-level cults during the ’60s and ’70s. They fell out of favor in the ’80s and were replaced by those creepy, ultra-pale Nagel paintings. In the 1990s, Craven-Walker sold the company to Cressida Granger, who changed the name from Crestworth to Mathmos. The name is taken from a lake of lava in the 1968 science-fiction film Barbarella.
While the United States company that has a license to the Lava Lamp brand, Lava Lite LLC, has moved production of the lamps to China, Mathmos continues to build the lamps in the same Poole, Dorset, UK factory that Craven-Walker used. The company has a video of how the lamps are made. It’s less mesmerizing than actual Lava Lamp, but it’s still fun to look at.
