Transformers II

TIN CANS AND GLASS BOTTLES

INTO DEPENDABLE GAS LAMPS

Tin cans and glass bottles fill most garbage bins if not litter nooks and crannies of towns.  So it is easy to find, and the whole town will thank you if you pick them up.  For this transformer project they are not trash, but rather raw materials for gas lamps.  Look for a metal container that either has a big twister cap or a cap that can be pushed in place.  The former is better.  You will need a thin cylindrical tube, an absorbent cloth for wick, and a wedge to secure it in place.  And let your imagination soar in finding a way to prevent the wind from putting off the flame.

You will need scissors that can cut through tin sheets, a glass cutter and sealant.  The tin can serves as the base of the lamp and also as a container for holding gas.  A glass base can also be used, but a tin-bottomed gas lamp is preferable for practical reasons.  You can use whatever sealant you can find.  Silicone is fine, but in the past, metal sealant is used.  This is done by melting a bar of lead, and quickly spreading the molten metal to the parts to be sealed. 

Melting a lead bar is rather tricky.  You will need a red-hot piece of metal heated to glowing orange and immersed in sulfuric acid.  This produces a distinct sound, first, imploding then hissing.  The pungent odor released is unmistakably sulfuric just like inhaling fumes directly from a volcanic vent.  I had this sulfuric inhalation experience before while visiting Jogjakata in Central Java, and then again at the fumaroles and mudpots in Wyoming. 

Now this is the most important part, the heart of the matter.  You will need to make a thin cylindrical tin tube to be inserted inside the gas container.  This thin cylindrical tube will be used to hold, and to allow a strip of absorbent cloth passing through it, and to be used in bringing gas from the bottom of the container to the top of the cylinder.  You position the cylinder vertically and secure with a wedge by using a circular thin piece of tin which is attached perpendicularly to the base, supported by the mouth of the glass or tin can gas container.  The exposed part coming out of the cylinder is the wick which can be adjusted by fashioning a metal stick that is attached in such a way as to have access to the absorbent cloth.  Increasing or decreasing the length of the exposed wick varies the amount of light produced by the lamp. 

Finally, you cut the glass which will be slipped over the top of the can to cover the flame from wind.  Be sure to smoothen the edges of the cut glass by a file or coarse stone.  There are many ways of securing this glass covering.  But a good way is to cut a piece of broad malleable tin strip attached to the circumferential edge of the top of the gas container.  This broad tin strip is further cut vertically halfway and curved inward to grip the glass container in place.  Now all you need is a matchstick and moonless night.