Argand lamp
Sunday, March 12, 2023
Displayed in Kerosene Burner’s museum - Kerman
The Argand lamp is a type of oil lamp invented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. Its brightness is equal to 6 to 10 candles, which is brighter than the previous lights. The Argand lamp had a round wick that allowed air to pass through both the center of the wick and the outside of the wick, which kept the flame steady and improved airflow.
An Argand lamp used whale oil, seal oil, colza, olive oil or other vegetable oil as fuel which was supplied by gravity from a reservoir mounted above the burner.
The initial disadvantage of the Argand was that the oil tank had to be above the level of the burner because vegetable oils were heavy and sticky and did not rise to the wick, which caused a shadow in one direction of the lamp flame.
This light was used until about 1850 when kerosene lamps were introduced, until kerosene, which was cheaper than vegetable oil, became available as a low-viscosity liquid that could easily move in a wick. It did not require complex mechanisms to feed fuel, it replaced oils.
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