KISS Pinciple Oil Lamp

Ive been very active with Disasters and co, I have been to places like Haiti where I was in 2010 doing Urban Search and Rescue, I´ve seen in these places what its like when everything you have is gone (my heart goes out to the people who went through Hurricanes, Tornadoes and the like) I am working on a Book which will be called TEOC - Total Eclipse of Civilisation what I mean in here is that while modern civilisations could be hit by something devistating other people like Indian natives etc who have had no or little contact to "modern Civilisation" would probably just shrug their shoulders and crack on. Looking back at older Civilisations could show old "Tech" which could be useful.

in this respect looking at an old Greek oil lamp we can make a good modern version.

I realise that there are other oil lamps in instructables, but I personally find it refreshing to look for something and find several versions and be able to find the one that works for me best or I can use parts of idea to make my own.

For this you need:

1 tin with ring pull opener of Tuna fish

2 Cats (1 would be ok)

1 old cotton T-shirt

Gardening wire

Olive oil - Sunflower oil

Open a can of Tuna fish, put in bowls and release cats, quickly step back so you are not eaten alive!

Put cats to side on sofa and continue to work quietly. Wash out the can and lid. The ring pull can be pulled up slightly as necessary.

As it says insert the lid in the body of the can with the ring up

cut a piece of the T-shirt to make a wick about 2-3 inches then take your gardening wire and wrap around the textile making it compact and flexible.

Taking your newly made wick you can bend it into shape so it fits in the can and the top part goes through the ring and stays above the level of liquid at the end

In Ancient Greece the "Kantila" oil Lamp may have had wick made of cotton or Ballota acetabulosa known commonly as Greek Horehound, the leaves stripped from stems and the stems dried bundled together. The Lamps were filled with Olive oil, or Olive oil and Sunflower oil mix, sometimes in big lamps that burnt all day water (say 2 fingers) was put in first then the oil, so less fire danger if knocked over. Although if I remember if knocked over with Olive oil it will not all flame up. If you don´t have these oils well any veg oil will do, I guess commercial lamp oil but have not tried that.

Finally in the last picture you can compare an Antic lamp to our tin can lamp, it works does good but please be aware of the dangers when using it!!! I hope you enjoyed this.