Oil lamps were used by Phoenicians and Greeks who handed down their use to the Romans around the 4th century b.C. The more ancient did not have covers , and had a small flat case and a wick spout on the rim. Think of Cordova: The streets well-paved, with raised sidewalks for pedestrians. During the night, ten miles of strtees well illuminated by lamps. (This was hundreds of years before there was a paved street in Paris or a street lamp in London.) Cordova had a population of at least one million during the period of the caliphate, and it being served by four thousand public markets and five thousand mills. Public baths numbered in the hundreds. The amenity was present at a time when cleanliness in Christian Europe was regarded as a sin. Education was universal in Moorish Spain, available to the most humble, while in Christian Europe ninety-nine percent of the population were illiterate, and even kings could neither read nor write.
So these lamps (this one being bought brand new locally) have been around here for longer than one can trace. One use oil; discarded cooking oil, olive oil from last year, leftovers...in old times it could be animal fat. At special occasions it could be perfumed oil, and it works beautifully.
So these lamps (this one being bought brand new locally) have been around here for longer than one can trace. One use oil; discarded cooking oil, olive oil from last year, leftovers...in old times it could be animal fat. At special occasions it could be perfumed oil, and it works beautifully.
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