Lava lamps

[TomMazanec]

My father brought one of the first of these home (I was born in 1958 and I was just a toddler). He called it a nuclear reactor, cause of the mushroom shaped eruptions.
Turning it on the bottom would first tilt, and then from the upper end a tower would arise. Another tower or two would join it, and then they would slowly melt. Then the "mushroom clouds" would start rising and falling, their tops breaking off and floating down. Eventually one would reach the top and flatten out there. If you wait long enough it would all be at the top. Shake the tube and thousands of tiny droplets would go swirling down.
With LED lights these may be an endangered species. Anyone else have these bits of psychedelia?

 

[CupofJoe]

I have 5 of them in a bookcase against a wall. It is my version Xmas lights and a great way to heat the room. I've backed them with a mirror [sheet of shiny aluminium] so they fill the room with weirdness.
Do you have the cap on the of the lamp? It often looks like the tip of a missile. That seems to stop the wax from ending up at the top and keeps it moving. I had to replace one of my lamps when, in a fit of something, I shook a lamp until the wax completely emulsified and became a silver haze and not much more... It still makes a great nightlight.

 

[Ursa major]

I used to live quite close to where the company that originally made them (now, after a name change, called Mathmos) currently has its factory. I still occasionally walk near there (as it's situated on a business park close to a tidal bay whose shore is open to walkers and cyclists).

The American market has been serviced by a series of companies that bought to rights for that region. (As far as I can tell, the US company moved its production from Chicago to China in 2003).

 

[The Judge]

This Foxbat thread may also be of interest Wall of lava lamps

 

[Danny McG]

I remember a teenage nephew, maybe two years ago now, showing me a homemade version using vegetable oil and food colouring in a plastic bottle- I'm fairly sure he threw an Alka-Seltzer in to activate it.
It looked realistic (last time I saw one was 1974 so I'm unsure about that)

 

[Matteo]

I bought one back in the early 90s - pretty sure it was a Mathmos. Yellow liquid, red lava. It still works - though I don't use it as much as I used to.

Nice to look at with the right type of music playing in the background and the right type of cigarette between your lips*.

*apparently...wouldn't know myself