4381. LAMPS, Improvement in.—
There has been a lamp called the cylinder lamp [282]
lately
invented here. It gives a light equal, as is
thought, to that of six or eight candles. It requires
olive oil, but its consumption is not great.
The improvement is produced by forcing the
wick into a hollow cylinder, so that there is a
passage for the air through the hollow. The
idea had occurred to Dr. Franklin a year or two
before, but he tried his experiment with a
rush, which not succeeding he did not prosecute
it. The fact was the rush formed too small
a cylinder; the one used is of an inch diameter,—
To Charles Thomson.
Ford ed., iv, 13.
(P.
1784)
