Argand lamp
Lámpara de Argand
- Date
- 1780-1784 · confidence high
- Place
- Geneva, Switzerland; patent in London (1784)
- Credited to
- Aimé Argand
- People
- 👤 Aimé Argand1750–1803
- Field
- Tools
What it is
An oil lamp with a tubular wick and a glass chimney that gave ten times the light of a candle without smoke. The first major advance in lighting in millennia, and a model for gas and kerosene lamps.
Argand developed it in Geneva and patented it in England in 1784, where Boulton manufactured it; the patent was overturned owing to widespread copying.
What it led to
- Night-time work and reading in middle-class homes
- Demand for whale and rapeseed oil
- Fresnel lighthouses (1822) powered by Argand lamps
- The design of gas and kerosene burners
Built on
- Pottery oil lamp with wickc. 2000 BCE
- Classical oil lamp
- Lavoisier's combustion chemistry
Made possible
- Kerosene lamp1853
- Bunsen burner1855
- Fresnel lighthouse lens
- Gas burner