hanging oil lamps

[sweet_gardenia]

The scenario is the interior of a cottage, night, time period...eh we'll say medievalish not in any particular area of the world you could pin down. From the ceiling hangs a very simple sort of oil lamp with a chain affair hanging from a hook. Our character simply wants to get it down to refill it as it is running low. I am picturing a sort of

Comments

[tu_sense]

I'm no expert, but I'm not sure that you'd have to remove the entire lamp to refill it. How high above them is it? Is the part where the oil would actually need to go low enough to reach?

[mordant]

The above poster is correct, you would need to get the mantle assembly off the top of the lamp to refill it.

Most ceiling mounted lamps have a spring-tensioned levering chain which allows you to pull it down, do whatever (light, refile, etc), then let it run back up - works on much the same principle as the verticle blind mechanism does.

As for what you'd call it, well, my roommate builds and restores these things for a living, and I've only heard him refer to it as a chain. *shrug*

If you want any specific period questions answered though, email me (webtrash @ unpunk.com) and I'll forward them on, he's always happy to answer questions and he's just about the best person I know for shit like this (his company did all the period lighting for Moulin Rouge, amongst other things)

[lebannen]

As someone who lives in a not-even-medievalish cottage, I'd just reach up to the ceiling and take it down. If I was particularly short (and I'm not particularly tall) or the lamp was particularly difficult to reach (over a table, say), I'd probably stand on a chair.

Totally not the answer you wanted, and I am not a historian, but think about how much extra ceiling space you've got in this place! More space means more heating, which would most probably be a non-trivial expense (even if in terms of time rather than money).

I'm just picking on the word 'cottage' here, I suppose; it can mean many things, but to me it means reminding visitors to watch their heads in doorways and when going up the stairs!

have to seceond this... with another proviso

[atropos_lee]

In my dad's 17th Century millhouse (which would have been quite extravagantly built at the time) I can touch all the ceilings, and I'm only 5'6"

This being the case, I would think a hanging oil lanp would be pretty dangerous; it would be near head height, and very easy to knock and tip over - scalds, burns, major house fires follow!

I suspect rushlights in the walls, and oil lamps on tables would be much more common in house of this type.

One other consideration, depending on your location - in Northern Europe oil was an expensive luxury, and usually limited to churches - the lamps and dips of the poor were fuelled with clean tallow and mutton fat.

[stinksap]

http://www.markland.org/lettherebelight.php
Has info on medieval lighting including pictures (Drawings mostly)of actual hanging medieval oil lamps- stone, ceramic and metal.
They most closely resemble what is known as a 'betty' lamp,a nd used a bit of wick that merely rests in a groove in the side of an open dish or basin- no mantle assembly, quite open.

Using a hook to reach down one of these would be dangerous and you would be likely to spill hot oil over everything. It would probably hang where it was easily reached.