Lifecycle of the Lava Lamp
There was a jumble sale on the weekend that's a bit of an institution. They always have great stuff: a heap of furniture, toys, books, paintings, plates and serving platters, jam donuts, everything. They run it at the fire station. I believe they raised $24k, which isn't bad for a local fire station.
We bought a table and my eldest child bought a lava lamp.
I've never had a lava lamp before, but have always been intrigued. And so has the whole family. We will all go and check on it to see what it is doing. It's quite fascinating: like watching an open fire.
But, after several days, I think I have figured out the cycles of the lava lamp. For no other reason than I haven't had a chance to blog in a while, here's the lifecycle of the lava lamp:
Stasis
The lamp is on, but not much is happening. The 'lava' is just beeswax, and I believe it floats in oil. There is coloured glass on the outside. The bulb heats up the oil, which heats up the beeswax, and when the beeswax gets hot, it starts to float. And when it reaches the top, the oil isn't so hot, the wax cools down, and it returns to the base of the lamp. It is so incredibly simple, and part of me worries what happens when I can only get LED lamps ... will they be hot enough to work?
But the first part lasts about an hour. Not much happens, until ...
The Alien Structure
All of a sudden, the beeswax will rise to the top in a great, cylindrical mass. It's like the Fingers of God constellation. A large lump reaches the top, and a column runs down to the base. This remains for another hour or so. It is quite bizarre to watch, because it looks ugly and unsettling and you can't help but think that the lamp has 'gone off'.
Collapse
But then the first of two collapses occurs. The column falls back to the base and the first 'lava' polyps begin to flow. There are now two sections of the lava: one at the base, and one at the cap, which leads to ...
Iceberg
Whilst the base of the lava lamp is happily bubbling away, there is a blocked section at the top like a wine cork. I call this the iceberg. And it stays like this for about an hour. Some times it grows bigger, as wax bubbles up and joins the 'burg. Some times, parts come off, dragged back to the base by a fallen polyp. It remains an ugly structure. Once more, you think 'surely this lamp has gone off'.
Second Collapse
Without warning, the iceberg will fall to the base. There is generally a little remaining right at the top, but for all intents and purposes, the lava lamp is now complete. The lava will bubble and rise and fall and will look quite pretty.
Adult Lava
And now the lamp will just keep bubbling away. The whole process takes about two hours, probably dependent on the room's temperature. And it is a dreadful light source: you can see the lava lamp, but not much else. I do wonder what it would be like if you had it on when you couldn't sleep. It would be a lot more natural than counting sheep. It would probably put you under within ten minutes. It would be a bit zen.
So go and get a lava lamp and stare into it the way we stare into ours. For twenty bucks, we supported a good cause and bought something cool. A double win!