Spring Break
Pop Culture Cover: History of the Lava Lamp
Issue date: 8/26/04 Section: The Verge
Editor's note. Each week, the Verge will feature a different pop culture icon on the cover and provide a short history and reasons why it is known as a pop culture icon.
English inventor and avid nudist Craven Walker is credited with creating the first lava lamp, albeit unintentionally, sometime shortly after the end of World War II. Walker was actually working on a design for an egg timer when his idea went wildly astray, and the lava lamp was born. Over the next 15 years Walker tinkered with his invention until he found the perfect mixture of wax and oil, then got a European patent for the lamp and began to market it through his business, Crestworth Co.
But the lava lamp didn't make its introduction in the U.S. until 1965, when two American businessmen saw Walker's lamp at a trade show in Germany and bought the rights to manufacture the lights and market them on the other side of the Atlantic. Calling their company Lava Manufacturing Corporation, Adolph Wertheimer and Hy Spector designed and began selling various styles of lava lamps over the next few years, including a night light for children and a model heated by a candle.
In the early '70s Wertheimer and Spector sold the business to Lava-Simplex Corporation, and even more variations of the original lava lamp design began to emerge as the lights reached the height of their popularity. During the decade, Lava-Simplex Corp. introduced ten new designs including more "elegant" styles, some decorated with faux flowers and even one featuring a planter dish.
But sadly, as the disco decade ended, so it seemed had the lava lamp's popularity. Lava-Simplex discontinued all except of their six best-selling lava lamp models, and even those only sold until the mid-80s, when the company was bought by the much larger Haggerty Enterprises.
Attempting to appeal to the minimalist fashion movement in America during the '80s, Haggerty Enterprises directed Lava-Simplex to discontinue what was left of the more flamboyant lamps for good, choosing to sell more simple designs in hopes of keeping the lava lamp in the marketplace and out of obscurity.
But it wouldn't be until the early '90s and the emergence of retro style that lava lamps would again become an icon of American pop culture.
English inventor and avid nudist Craven Walker is credited with creating the first lava lamp, albeit unintentionally, sometime shortly after the end of World War II. Walker was actually working on a design for an egg timer when his idea went wildly astray, and the lava lamp was born. Over the next 15 years Walker tinkered with his invention until he found the perfect mixture of wax and oil, then got a European patent for the lamp and began to market it through his business, Crestworth Co.
But the lava lamp didn't make its introduction in the U.S. until 1965, when two American businessmen saw Walker's lamp at a trade show in Germany and bought the rights to manufacture the lights and market them on the other side of the Atlantic. Calling their company Lava Manufacturing Corporation, Adolph Wertheimer and Hy Spector designed and began selling various styles of lava lamps over the next few years, including a night light for children and a model heated by a candle.
In the early '70s Wertheimer and Spector sold the business to Lava-Simplex Corporation, and even more variations of the original lava lamp design began to emerge as the lights reached the height of their popularity. During the decade, Lava-Simplex Corp. introduced ten new designs including more "elegant" styles, some decorated with faux flowers and even one featuring a planter dish.
But sadly, as the disco decade ended, so it seemed had the lava lamp's popularity. Lava-Simplex discontinued all except of their six best-selling lava lamp models, and even those only sold until the mid-80s, when the company was bought by the much larger Haggerty Enterprises.
Attempting to appeal to the minimalist fashion movement in America during the '80s, Haggerty Enterprises directed Lava-Simplex to discontinue what was left of the more flamboyant lamps for good, choosing to sell more simple designs in hopes of keeping the lava lamp in the marketplace and out of obscurity.
But it wouldn't be until the early '90s and the emergence of retro style that lava lamps would again become an icon of American pop culture.
The Daily Eastern News encourages on-topic, civil discussion on its articles posted online. It is our policy not to screen comments before they are posted or edit them after they are posted. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are off-topic, malicious, libelous or include excessive foul language. The DEN also reserves the right to turn off all comments on any story it deems necessary.
Comments violating copyright law will also be removed.
Users who repeatedly violate this policy will be banned from commenting.
If you have any questions on our comment policy or wish to report a comment that you feel violates these standards, please e-mail a link to the article to our Online Editor at DENNews.com@gmail.com.