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	Lava Lamp History
	Lava Lamp History

History

An Englishman, Edward Craven Walker, invented the original and best-known lava lamp in the 1960s. His U.S. Patent 3,570,156 for "Display Device" was filed in 1965 and issued in 1968. He named it the "Astrolight" or "Astro Lamp" and presented it at a Brussels trade show in 1965, where the entrepreneur Adolph Wertheimer noticed it. Wertheimer and his business partner William Rubinstein bought the American rights to the product and began to produce it as the "Lava Lite"® via a corporation called Lava Simplex International®. Wertheimer dropped out of the development of the product, while Rubinstein went on to manufacture and market the "Lava Lite" in his Chicago factory in the mid-60's. The lamps were a huge success nationwide throughout the rest of the '60s and early '70s.

The lava lamp became an icon of the 1960s, where the constantly changing, brightly coloured display has been compared to the psychedelic hallucinations of certain popular recreational drugs. Lava Simplex International also produced the "Wave Machine"®, the "Gem Light"®, the "Timette Wall Clock"® and the "Westminster Grandfather Clock"®.

In 1986, Mr. Rubinstein and his partner Hy Spector sold Lava Simplex International to Eddie Sheldon and Larry Haggerty of Haggerty Enterprises. Haggerty Enterprises continues to produce and sell the Lava Lamp product line in the US. In the 1990s, Mr. Walker, who had the rights to England and Western Europe, sold his rights to Cressida Granger whose company, Mathmos, continues to make Lava Lamps and other related products. Only Mathmos lava lamps, are still made on the original factory where they have first been made, therefore keeping the original stunning flow of their original lamps.

Lava Lamps are currently made in main land China and several shipments have had to be held back for quality control reasons. The company currently competes with generic brands which sell for a lower cost at greatly reduced longevity and quality. Haggerty Enterprises continues to look for new ways to improve and extrapolate on the form and idea of the Lava Lamp. Glitter lamps have gained prominence as a inexpensive alternitive. Lavaworld now has offices in Bristol in the United Kingdom.

Explosiveness
An episode of the TV show MythBusters demonstrated that heating a lava lamp on a stove could cause the lamp to explode, and injuries sustained from such an explosion could be fatal. The inspiration for that experiment came from a news story concerning a Kent, Washington man who in 2004 died after a lava lamp that he was heating on a stove exploded, sending glass shards into his chest.

Peace & Love from the Hippie Chic of the Watumelon Gang!

Gweener · Sat Oct 13, 2007 @ 01:49am · 3 Comments


Gweener Community Member «Prev \| Next» Archive \| Home [03/15/10 10:36pm] [02/11/10 03:19am] [01/07/10 01:58am] [12/30/09 11:57pm] [12/30/09 11:43pm] [12/22/09 06:31pm] [11/15/09 08:31am] [10/21/09 06:08pm] [08/25/09 05:43am] [08/16/09 07:16pm]

	User Comments: [3]
	User Comments: [3]


	Well, as sad as it is; he should have known better than to try soemthing like that. What is wrong wid dese people? Smack head on dashboard too many times listening to Greatful Dead and Mega Death. Offline LittleTnCo · Community Member · Sat Oct 13, 2007 @ 09:55am


	Hang on Gweener, Gweener hang on. leaves oo some Apple pie Ala mode Offline LittleTnCo · Community Member · Sat Oct 13, 2007 @ 03:30pm


	Some people just shouldn't live alone jeepers! I have always wanted a lava lamp, but since they can get really hot, I don't know... I would probably get clumsy and break is somehow anyway. xp Offline Hazumu-san · Community Member · Sun Oct 14, 2007 @ 04:59am

	User Comments: [3]
	User Comments: [3]

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Peace & Love from the Hippie Chic of the Watumelon Gang!

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