Argand lamp

The Argand lamp is a type of oil lamp invented in 1780 by Aimé Argand. Its key idea was a sleeve-shaped wick mounted so that air could pass both through the centre of the wick and around its outside before being drawn into a cylindrical glass chimney, which steadied the flame and improved the flow of air. The result was a more complete combustion of the wick and oil than in earlier lamps, a brighter output of roughly six to ten candelas, and a wick that needed far less frequent trimming. Fuel such as whale oil, seal oil, colza or olive oil was fed by gravity from a reservoir mounted above the burner, which made the lamps top heavy and cast a shadow to one side. That drawback was later avoided by the Carcel lamp of 1800 and Franchot's Moderator lamp of 1836. In France the lamp was called the Quinquet, after the Paris pharmacist Antoine-Arnoult Quinquet, who popularized it. It was the lamp of choice until about 1850, when cheaper kerosene lamps replaced it.