Comments on Crunchy Chicken: Make your own oil lamp

I got the article in today's Mother Earth e-mail a...

2009-07-02T18:18:42.154-07:00

I got the article in today's Mother Earth e-mail and recognized your name in the byline -- congrats. What fantastic timing, too, since we had a total grid outage for a couple of hours last night (about half the county!). We have a couple of oil lamps, but I'd been thinking about non-petroleum alternatives. You can bet I'm trying these out before the next blackout. Thanks

I've made these. I do medievel reenactment and the...

2009-07-02T12:08:02.876-07:00

I've made these. I do medievel reenactment and these are so useful at the campsites and in tents. (I don't worry about the kids knocking them over). I use glass from the thrift store and sometimes fill them with water first so the oil floats on top. Also I will use 100% cotton mop heads for the wicks.

I make em out of bottles!

2009-07-02T11:59:41.648-07:00

I make em out of bottles!

I used to make them all the time when in college, ...

2009-07-02T10:15:57.688-07:00

I used to make them all the time when in college, using the bottom of empty wine bottles. Made floating wicks out of the corks. Don't recall what oil I used back in the day, tho.

We make similiar ones each year, but on a smaller ...

2009-07-02T05:45:18.093-07:00

We make similiar ones each year, but on a smaller scale; for Hanukkah, instead of those little wax candles that come in a box, we have 9 tiny cups for the menorah. Those, some olive oil, and some floating wicks are all we need for a couple of hours of burning. I never thought about cooking oil acting as a fuel before we switched to those; I've thought about making other lamps with olive oil, but never get around to it. We do have a hurricane lamp sitting unused that might work....