Lamp
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Lamp. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a cup-like receptacle in which oil is fed to a flame by means of a wick. The ancestry of the lamp is shown by the fact that the word lamp is from the Greek lampas, meaning a torch. In Greek mythology, Demeter went forth with a torch seeking her daughter. Psyche lets fall a drop of hot oil on Cupid and wakes him. The relative age of the two myths is easily inferred. The earlier lamps were plain, shallow, earthenware cups with a projection at one side for the wick and another on the opposite side to serve for a handle. The traditional "lamp of learning," figured on diplomas and college coats-of-arms, is of this sort. Similar lamps are still used by the peasantry of the Apennines. The lamp played an important part in the religious festivals of the Greeks and Romans. Bronze lamps came into favor with the Greeks. The Erechtheum on the Acropolis had a gold lamp of exceptional beauty designed by no less an artist than the sculptor, Callimachus. When trimmed and filled it burned for a whole year. From time immemorial cotton has been used for wicks, although any fibrous wick with capillary action will answer. The English peasant used a rush. Of all forms, the round, solid wick, formed like a cord or rope, is the poorest. Air reaches the outside only. The oil drawn up by the center of the wick has little chance at all and burns with a smoky flame, producing lampblack. A flat wick is better. The entire flame is supplied with air, but the light thrown out is not uniform in all directions. Of the improvements in wick and burners that devised by Argand of Paris about 1780 is the most notable. The Argand burner consists essentially of two hollow brass cylinders or tubes, one within the other. The wick, also in the form of a hollow cylinder, passes up between these two. The wick presents a circular exterior, thus having an advantage over the flat wick in that it throws light in all directions. The inner tube feeds air to the inner surface of the wick; the supply of air to the outer surface is increased by a draft-creating chimney. The next notable improvement in the lamp is the so-called students' lamp. An elevated reservoir causes the supply of oil to flow more freely and uniformly than is the case when the feed depends on capillarity. The present generation is apt to think of kerosene oil only. People who are still in middle age can remember the introduction of this oil. Prior to the Civil War, whale oil, sperm oil, fish oil, and lard oil were used chiefly for lighting. Vegetable oils serve quite as well. The oil with which the wise virgins of the New Testament filled their lamps was doubtless olive oil. Cocoanut oil is used in tropical countries. Poppy oil, sesamum oil, and ground nut oil are used locally. Without doubt the oil of various North American nuts could be burned in lamps. In populous districts gas and electricity have superseded oil to a large extent, but the lamp is still one of the world's necessities. See Davy ; Electricity ; Gas ; Spermaceti ; Candle ; Light
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a vessel used for the combustion of liquid inflammable bodies, for the odles for the purpose of producing artificial light. The invention of the lamp is ascribed to is ascribed to the Egyptians. In treating of the congof the construction of modern lamps, it is necessary to take into consideration the nature of the flame. In order to insure a constant and steady flame, it is necessary that the supply of combustible mattter tible matt be steady and uniform. It must, therefore, be either in a liquid or gaseous state, so that it may approach the flame in an uninterrupted current. The com- The bustible substance may either be made to approach the flame by capillary attraction through wicks, or by mechanical pressure. The invention and introduction of the ARGAND LAMP (g. v.) (1789) made a revolution in illumination. The introduction of mineral oils as illuminants caused a great variation in the construction of lamps, and a host of patents have been taken out for paraffin or kerosene lamps, some of which equal gas in illuminating power. The central draft-lamp using a round tubular wick that is raised or lowered by a rod operating a rod operat spurred wheel is one of the most of the most popular. Lamps are now extensively extensively used for heating and cooking, a double or a double or triple flat wick being employed. In the In the United States and Europe vapor lamps are employed. In these, which consume the volatile hydrocarbon obtained from the products of the distillation of bituminous coal, the liquid is converted into vapor before it reaches the burner, and burned without the need of a wick. Some employ mantles. They are therefore distinguished as vapor or self-generating gas lamps. In 1868 a lighthouse lamp for burning mineral oils was introduced, and has been adopted in all parts of the world. These lamps have two or more concentric wicks, and yield a very powerful light. A safety lamp, used everywhere by miners, was invented in 1815.