The History of Lava Lamps
The lava lamp was invented in 1963 by Edward Craven-Walker. The lava lamps original design was shaped similarly to a rocket. The first one was named Astro. The lava lamp instantly rose in popularity. It was and still is a very cool thing to have in a room. The lava lamp hit a peak of popularity in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. Overtime however, the popularity of the lava lamp did slowly dwindle. This however did not hurt the lava lamp in terms of its style. The lava lamp nowadays is seen as a retro style decorative item for people who have nostalgia for that time.
The first functioning prototype of the lava was developed from a design for an egg timer using two liquids spotted in a Dorset pub. Craven Walker spent years developing this into a light for manufacture initially using cocktail and orange squash bottles. Craven Walker is also the founder of Mathmos which is the main lava lamp manufacturing company. Craven Walker sadly died in the year 2000. The company Mathmos remains in business and still is manufacturing lava lamps. The lava lamps that are being created now are of different design than back in 1963 but still retain a lot of similarities to that original design.