Kevin's Watch

The lamp contains a standard incandescent bulb or halogen lamp which heats a tall (often tapered) glass bottle containing water (often with glycerol derived additive) and a transparent, translucent or opaque mix of wax and carbon tetrachloride (although other combinations may be used). The wax is slightly more dense than water at room temperature but is less dense under warmer conditions. This occurs because wax expands more than water when both are heated. When heated, the wax becomes fluid, its relative density decreases, and blobs of wax ascend to the top of the device where they cool (which increases their density relative to that of the water's) and then descend. A metallic wire coil in the base of the bottle acts as a surface tension breaker to recombine the cooled blobs of wax after they descend. The underlying mechanism is a form of Rayleigh–Taylor instability.


The bulb is normally about 25 to 40 watts. It may take 45 to 60 minutes for the wax to warm up enough to freely form rising blobs (depending on the original temperature). It may take 2 to 3 hours if it has been in a cold room for a long time.

Once the wax is molten the lamp should not be shaken or knocked over or the two fluids may emulsify and the wax/blobs will remain cloudy rather than clear. Some recombination will occur as part of the normal cycle of the lava in the container but the only means to recombine all of wax is to turn off the lamp and wait a few hours. The wax will settle back down at the bottom, forming one blob once again. Severe cases can require many heat-cool cycles to clear.

These had a brief resurgence a couple of years ago. Magickmaker thought they were cool, so I got her one for her dorm room. Apparently the kids today aren't using the right kinds of chemicals , because she got over it pretty quickly...

I would love one - but so far julie has not bought me one.

If I'd known you wanted one, I would've had Magickmaker send you hers. It was purple with blobby stuff, if memory serves. Alas, she gave it away.

aliantha wrote:If I'd known you wanted one, I would've had Magickmaker send you hers. It was purple with blobby stuff, if memory serves. Alas, she gave it away.

damn the luck - we had one growing up but my brother knocked it off the shelf, destroying it.

*Pink* blobby stuff, that is. Purple with pink. Kinda girly.

What fascinated me about the thing is that when you took off the silver cap at the top, the glass bottle (on this one, anyhow) was sealed with what looked like a Coke-type bottle cap.

can we use gifs as our sig?

going to try...

I still get a lava lamp for any b'nai mitzvot I know.
13 seems to be the appropriate age for them now-a-days.
I have the best chance finding them at Spencers.

not sure we have spencers but will look, thank you menolly.

sgt.null wrote:not sure we have spencers but will look, thank you menolly.

They definitely have them online:
Spencers

Let's see what their store locator has to say regarding Texas:

So, if I am remembering right, the one in the Brazos Mall in Lake Jackson wouldn't be too far away? Or perhaps the ones in the Deerbrook, Willowbrook, Baybrook, or First Colony Malls may be nearby?

A friend of mine told me she bought a lava lamp for me for Christmas, but was waiting for me to finish remodeling the basement before she would bring it over.

menolly - i was just in the lake jackson mall yesterday. but dd not notice the spencers. i will be returning. maybe i can get julie to put it on the Christmas list. thank-you!

the Spencers site lists a phone number for the Lake Jackson Mall store, sarge. I strongly suggest you call and verify the website information is still accurate, if you don't recall seeing Spencers there.

Regardless, you're welcome.

I love these gifs of lava lamps, sarge.
...but they need to be slowed way the heck down. The "lava" flows much too fast in them.

Menolly wrote:I love these gifs of lava lamps, sarge.
...but they need to be slowed way the heck down. The "lava" flows much too fast in them.

have no idea how one would do that. maybe they are lava on meth?

I'm seriously considering hunting down one of those really tall [3 or 4 ft.] wine bottles...I think they were Chianti?...and making a lava lamp out of it...I think I could do it.

Yeah, only ones I could tolerate were the huge, column ones. Black Light and Strobes for me...could never mellow out on anything enough to enjoy the slow globs.

Sarge wrote:can we use gifs as our sig?

Cag does and it's fine until Avatar tracks you down-then again Av violated our own rules by expanding avatar width...

danlo - my sig seems harmless enough. wait until i find a dancing clown gif.

vraith : do it please and post results here!

NOES! No dancing clown!!! EEEEEEEEEEEK!!!!!!