Oil lamp

Oil lamps were invented by Ignacy Łukasiewicz, a – Polish pharmacist, chemist, inventor and entrepreneur who was the first to distil crude oil. Łukasiewicz developed his first lamp with the help of a tinsmith, Adam Bratkowski; together, they constructed a rather massive lamp, where the wick, immersed in a tank, was led out through whole into a metal tube. By capillary forces, the wick provided a supply of oil and its vapour which burned. The first lamp had the power of as little as 10 to 15 candles, but as the gradual progress led to the construction of the lamps we know today. The new, improved lamps were used to illuminate the hospital in Lviv, where the first night operation with their use was performed on 31 July 1853. The standing oil lamp with ring burner dates from the 19th century and was made by the R. Ditmar company. The base is tripartite, richly moulded and ornamented (palmettes and floral ornamentation), supported by three legs. The base passes into a richly decorated shaft, on which rests a cylindrical container with a metal oil reservoir, also richly decorated with floral garlands. The whole is cast iron, silver-plated. The diffuser, shaped like a tulip flower with a wavy edge, is made of opaque glass, engraved with a geometric and floral ornament. A cylindrical glass chimney protrudes above the lampshade, bearing the factory mark: “14 Favorit Kriestal SM Lucifer”. On the wick adjustment knob the signature: “Austrian, Ditmar, Make.” Karl Rudolf Ditmar was born in 1818 in Prenzlau near Stettin (Szczecin). Between 1839 and 1840 he had his first contacts with primitive oil lamps. In the 1850s the Ditmar brothers developed the “Viennese Moderator Lamp””. By the 1860s, the company already had 400 employees. In 1879 a factory was established in Warsaw and in 1890 another one in Milan. This lamp coming from the end of the 19th century is exhibited in one of the rooms on the second floor of the castle.