The Hurricane Lamp.

Hurricane Lamp Blog dedicated to 

- Ajeet and Anuj who never had to study in its light,

And Leela & Kaya. Maybe they have not even seen the real thing.

In some resorts, I have seen hurricane lamps fitted with low wattage electric bulbs,  strung along with with other lights to give rustic or rural ambience.  

Their effort amuse me. 

Because they fail in their effort due to overwhelming 21st-century surroundings about which they can do nothing. 

Recently, again came across these lamps. Here there was no effort to present them as a source of light. They were painted with a golden colour. They had opaque gold-coloured masks instead of a transparent glass chimney. These lamps were simply used as decorations.  

Gold coloured hurricane lamps with golden masks in place of glass globe as decoration.

Looking at these lamps sent me down the memory lane when hurricane lamps were the main source of light in almost every home. I am sure in spite of government efforts to provide electricity to every Indian home, even today, there are millions of homes where hurricane lamps are the main source of light. 

I grew up in villages where hurricane and other types of lamps were the main sources of light. All of them used kerosene as fuel. 

Photos of some of the light sources of those days are given below. 

This type of lamp in Marathi was called chimnee(चिमणी). Hundreds of designs. Hundreds of types of material. Rarely used by the rich. It was most common with the poor, as it was comparatively cheap, and consumed the least amount of fuel as compared to anything else.  

Hurrican lamp.  More light than chimnee(चिमणी). Much bigger glass chimney firmly fitted in the lamp between the top and bottom support and a helical metal wire cage. It was more costly. More fuel consumption. Highly portable. Universally and most extensively used light source. Only light source least affected by winds. Apparently, designers claimed that even hurricane-strength wind will not extinguish the wick, hence the name " hurricane lamp". 

Table lamp. Various types. Comparatively more light as compared to the hurricane lamp. Costlier than hurricane lamp also more fuel consumption Used mainly on study table by my father. Glass chimney was more elaborate, longer, narrower and taller. 

Petromax. brilliant illumination, as bright as day. A luxury item. Mostly to be found in homes of rich. Expensive, excessive fuel consumption, added cost of the mantle (chemically treated fabric pouch) which were the light source. The light-emitting mantle can be seen in the photo above. Mantles were quite fragile and likely to break and needed to be replaced. 

We were not rich, far from it. To this day I wonder how we came to own such wonder, to be used only a couple of festival times a year or on very special occasions.   

In our home, we had all the types shown above. We had 3-4 चिमणी lamps, 4-5 hurricane lamps, one double wick table lamp and of course as mentioned a petromax. 

Except for petromax, all these types of lamps used burning cotton wicks using capillary action of the burning cotton wick dipped in kerosene as fuel. 

The burning wick along with light also gave out smoke. How much smoke it gave out depended on many factors. This smoke formed soot layers on the glass chimney of every type of lamps be it चिमणी, hurricane lamp or the table lamp. To get maximum light, the glass chimney had to be maintained spotlessly clean and the wick must give the least amount of smoke. 

The best light and the least amount of smoke was given by the wick if the shape of the flame was in semi-circular shape like the shape of the rising sun. This ideal condition was rarely achieved as uneven burning of the wick due to many reasons resulted in the flame of the burning wick looking like an inverted crescent moon. At these extended ends, flames always emitted smoke, blackened the chimney and gave reduced light. As a corrective measure wicks had to be trimmed.  

To get best out of the lamps called for daily maintenance of lamps. This meant glass chimneys had to be cleaned every day till they were spotlessly clean. The wicks had to be frequently trimmed. Unlike glass chimney trimming of wick was not required every day but was need-based.

Cleaning glass chimneys of 3-4 chimnee,   4-5 hurricane lamps and one table lamp made about 10 glass chimneys in all. 

Cleaning all of them was a time-consuming and laborious process. This was looked after by my mother. 

With four growing children, cooking, washing, cleaning utensils, sweeping the house and doing all the household chores, she had a very tough time. There were days when she just could not find time or energy to do this and the difference in light quality was felt once the lamps were lit.

I was the eldest of the siblings, when I was around 10 years of age maintenance of all the lamps was handed over to me.

First I had to remove all the glass chimneys from all the lamps. 

Removing and replacing the glass chimneys of chimnee(चिमणी) and table lamp was straight forward. Just pull them up from the holder and replace them once they were cleaned.

Removing and replacing the glass from hurricane lamp was a bit involved process. Knowing parts of the hurricane Lamp will make it easier to follow the process.  

To remove the glass chimney, First I had to pull up the ventilation cap holding a metal loop fitted on top of ventilation cap (unfortunately not shown in photo). Once the ventilation cap was up, I had to tilt the complete chimney assembly to the side opposite to the side of the fuel tank cap. It could not be tilted the other way, trying to do so would cause damage to the delicate wire cage. Once tilted I simply pulled the glass chimney out of the wire cage. The reverse procedure was followed to replace the glass chimney. 

I started the maintenance of lamps by removing the glass chimneys from all the lamps.

When all the glass chimneys were out I had to clean them. 

For cleaning wood ash was used. There was plenty and unending supply of wood-ash. This was because all the food was cooked on wood-burning typical mud choolha (चूल्हा) of those days. I used to put about a teaspoon full of ash in glass chimney of hurricane and table lamp. A half spoon full was ok for the chimney of chimnee(चिमणी).

 A pad made out of a discarded piece of cloth was put on the layer of wood-ash and the pad, with slight pressure, was rubbed all around the chimney. After about a minute of rubbing when all the wood-ash was removed and remaining traces of ash wiped clean with another piece of cloth, the chimneys were spotlessly clean. If not, the process was repeated till such time they were clean. 

If trimming of the wick was required, for chimnee(चिमणी). and table lamp glass chimney was removed first after which burner assembly had to be removed, wick extended. If there was soot on the wick it was removed. Wick was then trimmed so that it was in line with burner edge,  

Trimming the wick of the hurricane lamp was again a bit involved 

Glass chimney had to be removed first. With complete glass chimney, assembly and the wire cage tilted out of the way the burner assembly with wick holder could be removed from the lamp. Once burner assembly was removed wick length was increased by turning the wick adjustment knob clockwise. When wick was sufficiently clear of the burner assembly, first, all the soot deposits from the wick had to be removed. Then wick had to be trimmed with scissors in such a way that it was exactly in line with the wick holder. Once trimming was done burner assembly was replaced.

When all the glass chimneys were cleaned, if required, trimming of the wick done,  maintenance of the lamps was complete and they were ready to be lit and give light for another night.

Initially found it a burden. As time passed I started taking pride in the fact that all the glass chimneys were spotlessly clean and gave good light to carry on work and for studies. I marvelled at the simplicity of operation of hurricane lamps. While searching for images of hurricane lamp I saw an image showing airflow within the hurricane lamp, its frame, the burner and the glass chimney. This was the first time I knew about it. It was work of a genius to design such a complex light giving machine which was so simple to operate, was so portable and worked in all sorts of windy conditions. 

On and off I looked after our lamps for four years. 

For the first 10 years of my learning, from 1st standard to 10th board examination was done in the light of this wonderful light source. Studies in its light stopped only when I went to Sehore to stay with my uncle and was admitted to the first year of Intermediate in Government Degree college Sehore.  

The life of a lamp cleaning 10-year-old boy from Kannod is a far cry from the life of a78 years old retired IAF fighter pilot in Nagpur.

God has been most kind throughout this fantastic and incredible journey of almost 70 years.