In honor of the new Woodstock Museum this weekend on the hippie farm, I present the Lava Lite.
To paraphrase Brick Tamland, "I love Lava Lamp!"
Pretty drawing care of the lovely and talented Julia Rothman.
Dig it.
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Roots: Lava is from the Latin meaning “to fall.” Lamp is from the Greek meaning “to shine.” Lava Lamp is from the weed-eaters meaning, “Dude what if like we are trapped in an oozy muck inside a vase-shaped thing and aliens are looking down at us from outer-space the same way we’re staring at this phantasmal light. Man… Quit bogarting it, take a pull and pass it over… And turn up the Strawberry Alarm Clock and make some nachos.”
History: An English gent named Edward Craven Walker was in a pub and saw a floating gob of wax that rose to the top of a cocktail shaker and acted as the barkeep’s egg timer. Fascinated, he tinkered with the process for fifteen years until he came up with the “Astrolight” in 1963. The oddly transfixing device was seen at a German trade show by two entrepreneurs, who bought the American rights and brought it to the States as the “Lava Lite” (Officially, the British version is the Lava Lamp.) Since the free love frolicking of the psychedelica daze, the Lava Lamp has been a favorite of those who enjoy the bake-and-shake (you know, doing it stoned) possibly because Craven Walker infused it with the sensual aura of his other profession, directing nudie flicks.
How It Works: Basically, a heating source—the light—warms the lava (chemical properties remain a trade secret) and its gravity makeup changes form being heavier than the liquid to lighter. The wax rises to the top of the cylinder where it’s not as hot, falls back to the bottom, gets heated and keeps aimlessly drifting until the mushrooms wear off and you realize there isn’t a zoo filled with paisley animals in the living room.
Far Out Facts: According to Bathroomreader.com, in the late 1960s-early 1970s, they were moving seven million of the hippie-dippy accessories a year, but they were passé by the Bicentennial. They’ve had a retro-resurgence (coinciding with the formation of Phish) and original sixties-era Lava Lamps fetch a tidy sum on the collectibles market. According to some random guy on the Internet, fans of the brown acid have been known to ingest the lava to reach a higher plane, of, well, stomach ulcers.
A Head-Tripping Idea: Soap Lake, Washington, has hit upon a genius idea to turn the town into a tourist Mecca to rival the City of Lights by becoming the City of Lava Lites. There is a proposal to build a 60-foot-high lamp with a diameter of 18-feet and an observation platform with a catwalk that surrounds the glass cylinder for close-ups of waxy goo and illumination that can be seen for 50 miles. A release at Giantlavalamp.com promises, “the structure, similar to the Eiffel Tower, will provide worldwide interest and positive publicity for the City of Soap Lake.”
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