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OIL LAMPS AND GLASS MAKING
Richard Charles Daniels (rdaniel@EIS.CALSTATE.EDU)
Sat, 9 Jul 1994 21:14:10 -0700
as working in pottery. I have become intrigued with the idea proposed by
anthropologists that the "ancients" used ancient ceramic lamps as the
heat source for making glass-wound beads. This seems impossible! The oil
used was probably olive, whale or lard and these oils would not seem to
get hot enough to melt even low-temperature soda-lime glass (1400 -1650 F).
But, being tenaciously curious I am going to attempt to duplicate the
now-lost lampworking process. I have some basic text materials acquired at
the local college that show the ancient Greek and Roman Lamps and a
couple of prototypes drying. I have researched the archives at SDSU and
the last year's postings at the listserv; where I have found three
articles about oil lamps - but they seem to be about modern oil lamps.
As I browsed about I discovered Margaret Becker, a potter who duplicates
ancient Greek pots. Other than that I haven't found much. Has anyone been
down this path before? Has anyone attempted to replicate these ancient
lamps? And if so, with what success? Does anyone else think these oil
lamps could somehow have been advanced to the degree that they artisans
could really make lamp-worked glass beads?
Do we have examples, relics or drawings of these devices that anyone has
come across? Please e-mail your response directly to me since my host
will not permit mailing lists because of the limits of the computer.
Thank you for your interest.
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