View source for Engineering:Argand lamp

{{short description|Type of oil lamp}}
[[File:James Peale by Charles Wilson Peale.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|An Argand lamp in use in ''A Portrait of James Peale'', done in 1822 by Charles Willson Peale]]
[[File:Verre du bec d'Argand.jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|Argand lamp with circular wick and glass chimney. Illustration from ''Les Merveilles de la science'' (1867–1869) by Louis Figuier.]]
The '''Argand lamp''' is a type of [[Engineering:Oil lamp|oil lamp]] invented in 1780 by [[Biography:Aimé Argand|Aimé Argand]]. Its output is 6 to 10 [[Candela|candela]]s, brighter than that of earlier lamps. Its more complete combustion of the candle wick and oil than in other lamps required much less frequent trimming of the wick.

In France, the lamp is called "Quinquet", after Antoine-Arnoult Quinquet, a [[Medicine:Pharmacist|pharmacist]] in Paris, who used the idea originated by Argand and popularized it in France. Quinquet sometimes is credited with the addition of the glass chimney to the lamp.<ref>"Lamp." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2011): 1. Academic Search Premier. Web. 5 December 2011.</ref>

==Design==
The Argand lamp had a sleeve-shaped wick mounted so that air can pass both through the center of the wick and also around the outside of the wick before being drawn into a cylindrical chimney which steadies the flame and improves the flow of air. Early models used ground glass which was sometimes tinted around the wick.

An Argand lamp used [[Earth:Whale oil|whale oil]], seal oil, colza, [[Biology:Olive oil|olive oil]]<ref>"Lamp." ''Encyclopædia Britannica: or, a dictionary of Arts, Science, and Miscellaneous Literature.''  6th ed. 1823 [https://books.google.com/books?id=T8wnAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA505 Web.] 5 December 2011</ref> or other vegetable oil as fuel which was supplied by a [[Physics:Gravity feed|gravity feed]] from a reservoir mounted above the burner.

A disadvantage of the original Argand arrangement was that the oil reservoir needed to be above the level of the burner because the heavy, sticky vegetable oil would not rise far up the wick. This made the lamps top heavy and cast a shadow in one direction away from the lamp's flame. The [[Carcel lamp]] of 1800, which used a clockwork pump to allow the reservoir to sit beneath the burner, and Franchot's spring-driven Moderator lamp of 1836 avoided these problems.

The same principle was also used for cooking and boiling water due to its 'affording much the strongest heat without smoke'.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tdgITBE0-6YC&q=argand+lamp+cooking&pg=PA840|title=An Encyclopędia of Domestic Economy:Comprising Such Subjects As Are Most Immediately Connected with Housekeeping|page=841|year=1844|isbn=9781402194382|last1=Webster|first1=Thomas|publisher=Adegi Graphics LLC }}</ref>

==History==
[[File:Astral Lamp MET 189873.jpg|thumb|An astral lamp, an Argand lamp designed so that the reservoir does not cast a separate shadow]]
The Argand lamp was introduced to Thomas Jefferson in Paris in 1784 and according to him gave off "a light equal to six or eight candles."<ref>Crowley, John E. ''The Invention of Comfort: Sensibilities & Design in Early Modern Britain & Early America''. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 2000. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_Igomu7mUbIC&pg=PA193 Web.] 5 December 2011</ref>

These new lamps, much more complex and costly than the previous primitive oil lamps, were first adopted by the well-to-do, but soon spread to the middle classes and eventually the less well-off as well. Argand lamps were manufactured in a great variety of decorative forms and quickly became popular in America.<ref>McCullough, Hollis Koons. ''Telfair Museum of Art: Collection Highlights.'' McCullough, Hollis Koons. Telfair Museum of Art: Collection Highlights. Savannah, GA: Telfair Museum of Art, 2005.[https://books.google.com/books?id=V9hntB4BJzIC&pg=PA289 Web.] 5 December 2011</ref> They were much used as theatrical footlights.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Banham|first=Martin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ubr35UeE-UQC&q=argand+footlight&pg=PA350|title=The Cambridge Paperback Guide to Theatre|date=1996-03-07|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-44654-9|language=en}}</ref>

It was the lamp of choice until about 1850 when kerosene lamps were introduced. [[Chemistry:Kerosene|Kerosene]] was cheaper than vegetable oil, it produced a whiter flame, and as a liquid of low [[Physics:Viscosity|viscosity]] it could easily travel up a wick eliminating the need for complicated mechanisms to feed the fuel to the burner.

== See also ==
* [[Engineering:Bude-Light|Bude-Light]]: a very bright vegetable oil lamp that works by introducing oxygen into the centre of an Argand burner.
* [[Engineering:Lewis lamp|Lewis lamp]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

== References ==
{{refbegin}}
* [http://www.historyoflamps.com/ History of the lamp]
*Dimond, E. W. ''[https://archive.org/details/chemistrycombus00dimogoog The Chemistry of Combustion]'' (E R Fiske, 1857), p.&nbsp;139 ff.
* Wolfe, John J., ''Brandy, Balloons, & Lamps:  Ami Argand, 1750–1803'' (Southern Illinois University, 1999) {{ISBN|0-8093-2278-1}}.
{{refend}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081014032928/http://www.terrypepper.com/Lights/closeups/illumination/argand/lewis-lamp.htm A more technical explanation of the workings of an Argand lamp]

{{Artificial light sources}}

{{Lighthouses}}

[[Category:Lighthouse fixtures]]
de:Öllampe#Argandbrenner

{{Sourceattribution|Argand lamp}}