Oil Lamp Construction

Artificial light extends your productive day by hours and profoundly affects morale. An oil lamp is the simplest reliable light source you can build from almost any scavenged or natural materials. Humans have used them for over 10,000 years because the basic principle is nearly foolproof: a wick draws liquid fuel upward by capillary action, and the fuel burns at the tip.

Fuel Sources

Almost any liquid fat or oil will work in a lamp. Your choice depends on what is available.

Animal Fat (Tallow & Lard)

The most universally available lamp fuel after a collapse. Any animal fat can be rendered into lamp fuel:

• Tallow (beef/mutton fat): Burns with a steady flame, moderate smoke. Available whenever you slaughter livestock or hunt large game
• Lard (pig fat): Slightly softer than tallow, burns well. Very common if you keep pigs
• Poultry fat (chicken, duck, goose): Liquid at room temperature, burns cleanly but is consumed faster
• Fish oil: Burns brightly but smells terrible. Best for outdoor use or workshops
• Bear fat / deer fat: Excellent lamp fuel, historically the most prized by indigenous cultures

Rendering process: Cut fat into small pieces, place in a pot with a small amount of water (prevents scorching), heat gently until fat melts completely. Strain through cloth to remove cracklings (which are edible). The clean liquid fat is your lamp fuel. It solidifies when cool — this is fine, it melts again from the wick’s heat.

Vegetable Oil

Any cooking oil works:

• Olive oil: Burns the cleanest, almost no smoke or smell. Used in Mediterranean lamps for millennia
• Sunflower / rapeseed oil: Good, widely available
• Nut oils (walnut, hazelnut): Excellent but precious — better eaten
• Used cooking oil: Works fine for lighting even when too rancid for food

Kerosene & Petroleum

If scavenging from pre-collapse supplies:

• Kerosene: Purpose-made lamp fuel. Burns brightest and cleanest of all options
• Diesel fuel: Works but smokes more. Use only in ventilated spaces
• Gasoline: NEVER use gasoline in an oil lamp — its vapors are explosive. This is a leading cause of post-disaster fire deaths

Rendering Fat for Lamp Fuel

Detailed process for clean, long-burning fuel:

1. Collect fat trimmings from butchering — the whiter the fat, the cleaner it burns
2. Chop or grind into small pieces (smaller = faster rendering)
3. Place in a heavy pot with 2 cm of water in the bottom
4. Heat on low — never let it boil. Stir occasionally
5. When all solid pieces have melted and only crispy bits remain (30-90 minutes), remove from heat
6. Strain through 2-3 layers of cloth into a clean container
7. Let cool. Water settles to the bottom, clean fat solidifies on top
8. Remove the fat disk and scrape any gunk off the bottom
9. Re-melt and strain again for the cleanest fuel

One deer’s fat trimmings (roughly 2-3 kg) yield enough lamp fuel for 60-100 hours of light.

Wick Materials & Construction

Cotton & Plant Fiber Wicks

The wick must be absorbent enough to draw fuel upward by capillary action:

• Cotton fabric strips: Best option. Cut from old t-shirts, sheets, or any 100% cotton fabric. 1-2 cm wide
• Cotton string/twine: Multiple strands twisted or braided together
• Jute/hemp cord: Works but smokes more than cotton
• Milkweed floss / cattail fluff: Functional but burns fast — for emergency use
• Rolled paper: Works briefly but chars and crumbles

Do not use synthetic fabrics — nylon, polyester, and blends melt rather than wick properly, and produce toxic fumes.

Wick Sizing & Brightness

Wick diameter directly controls brightness:

Wick Width	Brightness	Fuel Consumption	Use Case
3-5 mm	Dim (nightlight)	Very low	Sleeping area, navigation
8-12 mm	Moderate (reading)	Moderate	General living area
15-20 mm	Bright (work light)	High	Workshop, kitchen, surgery
Multiple wicks	Very bright	Very high	Large room, signaling

Braided vs Twisted Wicks

• Twisted: Simple to make (just twist cotton strips). Burns adequately but tends to mushroom at the tip, requiring frequent trimming
• Braided (3+ strands): Burns more evenly, self-trims better, lasts longer. Worth the extra effort
• Flat wicks: Cut from woven cotton fabric. Best for betty lamps and kerosene lamps with flat wick slots

Lamp Designs

Simple Dish Lamp (Oldest Design)

The most basic lamp possible:

1. Any shallow, fireproof dish (ceramic, stone, metal shell casing, tin lid)
2. Fill with oil or melted fat
3. Lay the wick across the edge so one end is submerged in fuel and the other hangs over the rim
4. Light the overhanging end

This works but has drawbacks: the open dish can spill easily, the wick slides around, and it produces more smoke than enclosed designs. Still, it takes 30 seconds to build and will give you light tonight.

Closed Reservoir Lamp

An improvement using any small container with a lid:

1. Find a small metal tin, glass jar, or ceramic vessel
2. Punch or drill a hole in the lid just large enough for the wick
3. Thread the wick through the hole, leaving 1 cm exposed above
4. Fill the reservoir with fuel and close the lid
5. The lid prevents spills and reduces evaporation

A small jam jar with a hole punched through the metal lid is the fastest version of this.

Betty Lamp & Cruise Lamp

Historical designs used for centuries in pre-industrial Europe and America:

Betty lamp: A small, enclosed metal reservoir (shaped like a gravy boat) with a wick channel at the spout. A hinged cover reduces evaporation. A chain or hook allows it to hang from a beam. The “betty” is one of the most practical survival lamp designs — it is enclosed (spill-resistant), uses any fuel, and can be hung at eye level for working light.

To build one from scrap metal:

1. Form a small boat shape from sheet metal (steel, copper, or tin)
2. Crimp one end into a narrow channel for the wick
3. Add a hinged cover from a second piece of metal
4. Attach a wire hook or chain for hanging
5. Total size: roughly 10 cm long, 5 cm wide, 4 cm deep

Cruise lamp: Two nested betty lamps — the lower one catches dripping fuel from the upper. Cleaner but more complex to build.

Tin Can Lamp

A simple, robust design from a single tin can:

1. Use a small can (tomato paste size, ~8 cm diameter)
2. Punch a hole in the center of the lid for the wick
3. Make a small wick holder from a strip of tin bent into a tube — solder or crimp it to the lid over the hole
4. The wick holder keeps the wick centered and at the correct height
5. Fill with fuel, thread wick through holder, light

For a more refined version, add a second larger can around the first as a wind shield, with ventilation holes near the bottom.

Improving Brightness

Reflectors

A polished metal surface behind the lamp dramatically increases useful light in one direction:

• Tin can lid, polished with fine ash or sand
• Curved reflector: Bend a piece of sheet metal into a parabolic curve behind the flame
• Aluminum foil: If available from salvage, crumpled then smoothed creates a good diffuse reflector

A reflector can effectively double the useful brightness of a lamp in the direction you are working.

Glass Chimneys

A glass tube or jar placed around the flame:

• Protects from drafts (prevents flickering and blowing out)
• Creates updraft that improves combustion (less smoke, brighter flame)
• A mason jar with the bottom removed, or a wine bottle with the bottom cut off, works well

To cut a glass bottle: wrap a cotton string soaked in alcohol around the bottle at the desired cut line, light it, let it burn out, then immediately plunge into cold water. The thermal shock creates a clean break.

Multiple Wicks

For maximum brightness, use multiple wicks in a single reservoir:

• 3 wicks in a triangle pattern give roughly 3x the light of a single wick
• Ensure the reservoir is large enough to fuel all wicks simultaneously
• Multiple small flames produce less soot than one large flame

Safety & Maintenance

Fire Prevention

• Always place lamps on stable, fireproof surfaces — a stone slab, metal plate, or ceramic tile
• Never leave a burning lamp unattended near combustible materials
• Keep a metal lid or damp cloth nearby to smother the flame if needed — never blow out a fat lamp (can spatter burning oil)
• Hang lamps from hooks rather than placing on shelves where they can be knocked over
• Keep children and animals away — a tipped lamp spreads burning oil

Wick Trimming

The wick needs regular trimming for best performance:

• Trim the charred tip every 1-2 hours of use
• Use scissors or pinch off the char with fingers (when unlit)
• A properly trimmed wick has a flat or slightly rounded top
• An untrimmed wick develops a mushroom-shaped carbon ball that flickers and smokes

Soot & Ventilation

All oil lamps produce some soot, especially with animal fat:

• Keep rooms ventilated — a single small opening is sufficient
• Soot buildup on walls and ceilings is normal but combustible — wipe down periodically
• If the flame produces heavy black smoke, the wick is too high — lower it or trim it
• Olive oil and kerosene produce the least soot; fish oil and crude tallow produce the most

Fuel Consumption Reference

Fuel Type	Burn Rate (moderate wick)	Hours per Liter
Olive oil	~30 ml/hour	~33 hours
Vegetable oil	~30 ml/hour	~33 hours
Rendered tallow	~25 ml/hour	~40 hours
Kerosene	~20 ml/hour	~50 hours
Lard	~28 ml/hour	~36 hours

A single cup (240 ml) of rendered animal fat provides roughly 8-10 hours of moderate light — enough for an evening’s work.

Further Reading

• rocket-stove-design — Efficient cooking fire, pairs with lamp for complete Phase 1 energy
• retained-heat-cooking — Reduce total fuel consumption
• solar-thermal-collectors — Phase 2 heating without combustion