Lava Lamps for Adults, Multiple Use Football‑Shape Soccer Gifts for Boys High‑Brightness for House Decorating

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The internet age brought with it the inevitable problem of copycats, and there are now many imitations, with two factories in China churning out many of them. Collectors want both the originals and the copies, says Granger, and the challenge at Mathmos has been to continue to promote the history and quality of the original lamps.

For many of Rankin’s generation, the lamps are synonymous with student digs and late nights spent listening to Radiohead while staring at a lava lamp in someone’s bedroom. This was during a resurgence spurred by an Austin Powers-fuelled nostalgia trip, but most people probably associate them with the 1960s when they were invented. The idea had its origins in British accountant Edward Craven-Walker's visit to a pub in Dorset. The pub used a device employing two liquids of unequal density as a rudimentary egg timer. History does not relate quite why Craven-Walker then chose to spend 15 years developing this concept into a liquid-filled standard lamp. Suffice to say, he did, and by 1963 the invention was in place, with US patent 3,387,396 filed in 1965 (the same year the American rights were sold at a trade show in Germany) and issued in 1968. Craven-Walker kept hold of the rights for the rest of the world, restructuring his manufacturing business, while changing its name from Crestworth to Mathmos (which comes from the 1968 film 'Barbarella', where Mathmos is a lake of lava underneath the city of Sogo).Craven Walker, who among other things, made underwater naturist films, owned a nudist camp in the New Forest, and he asked them both to join him there. When they arrived he asked if they would be more comfortable without clothes (they declined and “hastily buttoned up their coats”, says Granger.) When the light is turned on, the liquid and wax are heated. This causes the wax to expand more than the liquid. The wax then floats in the mixture, moving around the vessel to create an interesting display.

A liquid motion lamp can get fairly warm when it’s turned on, so avoid touching the vessel and base. Granger went on to rent a shop in London with a fellow arts dealer, and that was when they decided to write to the inventor of the lamps to ask if they could buy the formula. The answer was no, but the pair were invited to meet the founder, the rather eccentric Edward Craven Walker. Given all this, it’s astonishing looking around the factory in Poole that each bottle is still filled by a small but dedicated team of expert workers. New this year to the front of the factory is a showroom, displaying the whole Mathmos range. There, visitors (who must persevere if they want to find the hidden-away factory) can be dazed and amazed by an array of different designs, from the original Astro lamp to the 1.5m high floor-standing Saturn lamp. An early duotone advertisement for the 'Astro' lamp, declared it to be the perfect gift "for one's relatives, one's friends – and, dash it all, oneself". Not only this, but it is a conversation piece styled to "fit any mood, any décor in the home and all discerning establishments".

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A. If a liquid motion lamp is used properly, it is very safe to use. The lamp can get hot during use, though, so it shouldn’t be handled when it’s illuminated. In addition, if you expose the lamp to extreme heat, it could explode, so keep it away from the stove, heaters, open flames, and any other heat sources.