Total newbie, inherited a 45+ year old lamp with floating..."snow"?

[newtogoo]

Boy, am I glad to have found a site full of people who are passionate and knowledgeable on this subject. Thanks so much to the mods for approving my join request!

My mother passed away unexpectedly, leaving me the new caretaker of her vintage lamp. She was a fascinating, eclectic woman, and I'm realizing now just how little I understood about things that I'd seen in her homes for decades - like this lamp. It was around for my entire life, but I didn't pay much attention, and can't remember seeing it run in the last 30+ years. Kicking myself for that now, when I really wish I had a clue and can't ask her.

From its appearance in old photo albums, I know she already had the lamp in the late 60s. I couldn't see any manufacturer's marks on it, but hours of googling seems to suggest it's a Century (please correct me if I'm wrong!). It has a 40w bulb installed. I haven't tried to run the lamp at all - given its extremely odd appearance, it seemed wise to get expert advice first. I'm quite nervous about the idea of potentially harming something that Mom obviously cared for, let alone heating a sealed vessel where chemicals I don't know are behaving in ways I didn't expect.

At the top of the liquid, there's a floating debris layer about 2" thick. The particles look like the artificial snow they make by shredding synthetic sheeting. The floaters are quite densely packed up there, but they're not a solid fused mass. If you picture the tiny chunks of ice at the top of a slush drink, but replace the ice chunks with the shredded synthetic snow, you're in the right place.

I apparently forgot to photograph the bottom of the bottle, where there's something slightly less weird happening. It will be a week before I'm back where the lamp is (3 hour trip), so I hope this is one of those things everybody's seen, and photos aren't needed.

Where the floor of the bottle meets the sides, there are a few (2?) areas where the wax appears lighter than the rest of the wax block. If you've ever made chocolate cake from a mix, and done a bad job of scraping the bowl while you add the liquids, you'd have found some bubbles of light-colored dry mix hiding in the corners of the bowl. That's what this reminded me of. I don't remember seeing texture differences or gaps, just color differences with defined edges. These areas might run 1-2" along the crease between floor and wall, and extend 3/8-1/2" up/out from the crease.

I don't have much other information on the lamp. I assume that she bought it in Canada, because she spent very little time in the States. It lived in at least 4 houses, all in Ontario. The last 3 houses were within a 10 mile radius, and it had been in the last house for 25 years. I don't think it was ever stored in an unheated environment, but it did spend years on the 2nd floor of a house without air conditioning (summer temps to 32C/90F). I'm the only child it would've really been exposed to, and our family are cautious types - repeated shaking (especially while hot) would have been highly unlikely.

At this point, I'm not concerned with making it "perfect" or correcting its faded color - I'd just like to see it run. Maybe in the future, I'd consider upgrading or renewing the contents, but right now it's just a silly sentimental thing to see Mom's beloved goo move again. Hope that makes sense.

The base is now with the family electrician for a quick check-up and blessing, but I don't want to reunite it with the bottle and start heating things up without input/reassurance from goo experts.

So, the questions for you wonderfully knowledgeable lava people:

1) Has anyone seen this snow formation before? Is this just a normal variant of the "someone shook it when it was hot" damage, and I'm just too new to understand what I've read on the subject?

2) Does the "unmixed cake batter in the corners" sound familiar? Are photos needed? Is this an area of concern, or am I being overcautious?

3) Are there any danger signs I should look for when turning the lamp on for the first time? If so, what should I do when I observe ______? Is it totally silly to worry about the bottle exploding?

4) Is there any reason why I shouldn't try cycling the lamp to see if it can eventually right itself to some degree?

5) Is there something glaring I should've thought to ask, but didn't?

Thanks so much for bearing with it through a long post from yet another clueless noob!

[Critter]

Hi. Sorry to hear of your mother's passing it is so hard to lose immediate family. She probably loved that lamp and I hope you will treasure it too. I most likely needs refilled with new contents. Also I suspect it is a pretty early Century and is likely a two part base.

Critter

[Brad]

very sorry to hear of the passing of your mother.  it is great that you were able to obtain this lamp that will serve as a reminder of her to you.  i think that is very special.

i agree with what critter and analoghaze said above - the wax separated.  you can try to remove the fluid, set it aside, and put the wax in a pot and boil it to try to get it to conjoin, but i doubt this will work.

have you tried to run the lamp to see what happens?  i wonder if it will flow with the wax that is left in the bottom.  if it flows, perhaps just remove the floating contents?  i had a lamp do that before - the contents separated and i just removed the floating contents and it worked again, but the contents were no where near the amount of those in your lamp.

another option (the best, IMO) is to dump the contents of the lamp, clean the globe, and add wax and fluids from a donor lava lite globe.  

regardless of what you choose to do, someone here can help you.  thanks for joining, and welcome!

[Erin]

I'm so sorry to hear about your mother. :( She sounds lovely.

I have two lamps like this - it's a kind of oily, almost shimmery, flaky stuff that sits at the top when the lamp hasn't run in a long time. If you run it, it will usually mix back in with the liquid and wax, but let it sit for a few days and it will form up at the top again. 

To specifically answer your questions:

1) Yes. I can find mine and shoot you a pic or two. I have green/yellow Century with that same copper base - same exact problem yours has. And a black Squiggle Aristocrat. 

2) Yes, that does sound familiar, too. Over time, the wax will break down and this white stuff forms around the base of the globe and coil. To date, there's no getting rid of it. I see it mostly on late 60s models lamps and early 70s ones, too. 

3) Nope - fire it up. It will be fun to watch it flow and hopefully, in a few days, the stuff at the top should mix back in with the liquid and wax. 

5) Nope! You've asked some great questions and you're in the right place. :) Welcome! 

I wouldn't open it up - at all. Those really old ones are TOXIC smelling, to say the least. Run it for several (3 - 6) hours for several days and see how it goes. 

Based on the low level of wax in this Century, yes, I'd say it's late 60s. 

[Erin]

That's a fairly rare color combo, too. Don't open it, not yet anyway!

[Erin]

Here's mine. One's a Century and one's a black and gold Squiggle Aristocrat:

[Erin]

That black Squiggle looked like this when it was running, after several days:

http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/black-squiggle-aristocrat-3?context...

[Modulo '70]

A nice classic early Lava Lite Century. Sadly it won't flow again in this condition. The wax is completely 'gone'. You can get a replacement globe perhaps or the marvellous goo kits popular here. It wont blow up or explode if you wish to try running it. Always remember never to heat a lava lamp any other way than on its own base. Some have tried to heat them over a naked flame with dire consequences. By the way, a warm welcome to this place of lava nuts. Nice to have you here. I too was sorry to read if your loss. I also lost my beloved father very recently.

[newtogoo]

Thank you all so much for the warm welcome! (And very sorry for your loss, Modulo '70.)

The variety and depth of your responses are fantastic, and I definitely feel like I've got a much better understanding of the poor neglected critter now. Thank you!! 

As a quick aside - how do I tell if this is a 2 part base? Should I just pull gently on the top cone, and see if something slides out of the larger bottom cone? If I remember correctly, when I looked down into the base, the bulb is mounted inside a vertical cylinder of metal with relatively little clearance. I didn't check if any parts moved independently of each other, apart from lifting off the globe.

Erin's photos  were a real blessing. I think I'd gotten derailed figure out how something that moves in round blobs would create jagged edged chunks of thin membrane, when the particulate shape was actually irrelevant. Once I read her explanation and saw the top of her lamp (and managed to quit bouncing up and down in excitement at seeing that twins DO exist!), the light went on  and the clue fell into place. Snowflake shape doesn't matter. It's just an ancient mixture separating, not a new species of yeti. It's ok. It was also great to see a white cord with an in-line rocker switch. All of the cords I remember seeing in photos have been black, and I was starting to wonder if this lamp had been modified/repaired.

Now that I feel totally reassured that I won't blow up half the earth (and I promise not to apply heat in any way other than by using the base as intended), I'm really excited about bringing it home to see what a little exercise will do. Whether or not it manages to get its old body completely back, it doesn't matter. I'm one of those people who see beauty in the stories told by scars and distressed finishes. If it manages to move at all, I'll likely be pretty happy with it. If it turns out to be completely dead, you've all done a great job of preparing me to think about more serious options. Either way, I'm dying of curiosity about what it'll do!

On the subject of giving an old lamp new goo - can anyone tell me what on earth kind of magic is going on in the center lamp in this Youtube? The wax is a deep purple at the bottom of the bottle, shifts to green as it rises, and then back to purple as it falls. I've never seen that before. Wax color seems to change as it moves through a colored fluid, sure - but this looks like a clear environment. If it's a lighting effect, I can't seem to figure it out - but I'm entranced, and I think Mom would have loved it. What is this mystery lamp, and could I make Mom's Century change color like that?

[Erin]

The bi-colored lava/liquid is a weird phenomenon I've seen mostly in glitter lamps, but sometimes in lava. It's a fluke and has to do with the density of wax and amount of light reach (I think). I have a Florence Art glitter lamp that does this:
http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/florence-art-glitter-lamps?context=...

It's the blue one; one color on the bottom, different on the top. I don't think the effect can be replicated, but it seems to happen with the occasional glitter lamp (usually the cheap ones from China), GooKit lava lamps and sometimes the deep-colored lava lamps, like the purple/green one you pictured above. To date, no one knows how to do that on purpose. It's neat though! 

You definitely have a two-part base. There's an inner cylinder that fits inside the cone-shaped base. I think it's held together by a single screw on the bottom. The cylinder will have holes around its circumference. 

Usually late 60s lamps (Arisocrats and Centuries will have a lower level of wax, white cords and sometimes, yellow felt on the bottom. You can see what I mean about the different in wax levels here:
http://oozinggoo.ning.com/photo/century-wax-levels?context=user

I'm excited, too, to see what will happen when you run it. My *guess* is that after several runs (a few weeks) you might have yourself a pretty little lamp. Even the defective ones with semi-ruined wax will still run and produce a show. Before you even think about opening it up and replacing anything, make sure to get in at least 10 runs. Replacing/fixing a lamp is a very nuanced thing and very few of us can do it successfully without wax sticking or flow issues. 

Please do keep us posted on the status of the lamp when you run it. I'm excited to see how it turns out! :)

[newtogoo]

Well, it took considerably longer than I'd expected to get back to the lamp, but finally - there's news! There's movement! IT'S ALIVE! I'm so relieved.Thank you all!!

About a week ago, I wrapped the little critter up in a ridiculous amount of packing and brought it to my home. Two nights ago, I pulled the packing off to give it a much-needed bath, and was slightly shocked by the change in the particulate's appearance. Instead of the familiar shredded plastic sheeting floating at the top of the bottle, it looked like you'd put a handful of quilt stuffing into a blender full of green water and hit puree. Little clusters of fibre looking stuff spread throughout the bottle. Deep breath, on with the bath, how much more dead can it get?

Up next, I pulled the base out of the packing, and realized I'd remembered the light bulb incorrectly. Turned out it wasn't a 40 watt bulb...it was a regular 50 watt. Oops. Maybe it's cooked. Oh well, I did buy fresh packs of frosted and regular 40 watt appliance bulbs at Home Depot last week. Yanked the bad bulb and went to wipe out the interior...and discovered rodent droppings hiding under the edge of the socket. Eww. Change of plans, off I went to find Lysol wipes and something to remove the 2 nuts holding the plastic base.

I took off the plastic bottom and scrubbed the whole lamp inside and out. Everything got a thorough going over with Mr Clean Magic Eraser (did wonders for the cord!), then Lysol wipes, then Sunlight dish soap, thorough rinses at every step. Whether or not it was going to run, at least it was clean. Everything looked in good shape, give or take the wax. I laid it out on the dining room table to air dry, and went to bed.

The next day, I looked at the shining pieces strewn across the table, and noticed that the shredded fibre fill had pretty much packed itself at the top of the bottle again. The debris cloud looked like Erin's lamp now (thanks so much for the pics!), with only a few "fake snow flakes" left to show. I took this as a good sign, and left it to sit for one more day to make sure it was really dry.

Tonight, I reassembled the base and installed a brand new 40 watt frosted appliance bulb. It sits a lot lower than the bulb that was in the lamp when I found it, and there's actually reasonable clearance between the sides of the bulb and the metal cylinder it's sitting in. Looks sensible. Set it on a speaker beside my couch...and promptly realized the speaker stand wasn't level. Quick shim job with a dinner plate and some folded printer paper, and off we go.

Within a few minutes, it started squeezing out 2 curving areas of wax from either side. There's no way to describe the shape, other than it looked like a cartoon's butt forming. Eyebrows started inching toward the ceiling....Homer Simpson's rear end isn't a formation I remember reading about. :)

At about 15 minutes in, it shot out a wormy structure about the size of my middle finger. I squealed, applauded...and immediately started worrying, as the worm fell down rigid and intact like a tree trunk. A second tree trunk shot out before the first one settled, which was reassuring. I worried a little less.

By half an hour in, it was managing to shoot little strings that didn't look brittle or fall down like tree trunks. The debris cloud at the top had broken up into a couple of large matts, and the blob was starting to cozy up to them. Outlook upgraded to "guarded optimism."

At the hour mark, it was unmistakably a lava lamp. Big columns moving, and they were managing to get up to the surface of the liquid - albeit a little sluggishly. As they hit the top, they pulled in the last of the floating debris, and that was pretty much cleared by the 2 hour mark.

About 2 hours in, it had settled down to a spirited variety act. All over the place, without much pattern. Big columns that went straight. Big and medium ones that looped and bent like the necks of cartoon vultures. Balls the size of quarters that went shooting up, with or without strings behind. Balls the size of large marshmallows that floated and bounced off each other. A handful of pea-sized bubbles would occasionally appear, then be gone in 30 seconds. Puddle at the bottom finally looked like "lava," and it's unmistakably yellow when you see it near the light. That was a bit of a surprise - the outside of the blob had looked greyish greenish taupe, and I'd figured it must actually be white.

The picture in this post was taken about 2.5 hours in, when it had been happily cycling for a while.

About 3 hours in, I noticed that the lamp was moving back toward big columns and less variety. By 3.5 hours, the wax had mounded itself up into a 4" tall pillar on one side of the bottle. The wax was circulating within the pillar shape, but not really moving around the enclosure. The liquid struck me as slightly cloudy, when it hadn't earlier. I could see a few chunks of coil when I looked in, and the bottle felt warmer than I expected (but what do I know?).  I figured this was likely a good time to shut it down, post my findings, and let the poor old beast rest. If it's been sitting unused for 30+ years, I don't expect it to solve world hunger in an evening. :)

In the length of time it's taken me to write this post, the blob has settled back down into the base again (except for one small blob about the diameter of a quarter, floating at the liquid's surface). Between the squatty thick column phase (when I shut it off) and its current level puddle, it spent some time humped up in the middle like a one-humped camel. I seem to remember seeing a chart somewhere that said that shape meant too much heat, and it did feel quite a bit warmer at shutdown than it did when it started flowing decently..

So, for the next exercise session - do I shut it off sooner, buy a dimmer to kick it down a bit once it starts moving, something else, or all of the above?

Thanks again, all!!

[Mr MaGoo]

First off Newtogoo, am sorry to hear of your loss.  Moms are pretty special people in our lives!  As the others have stated, run that treasure and see what it does!  Sometimes, have seen days, weeks, or months of "cycling" these lamps get them back in order.  Nice thing it that is a screw top globe.  If a goo kit is necessary will be relatively easy to do.  Yes, you have come to the right place, where all of us nuts love goo!  Welcome and hope you get the old lamp running! Sounds like it is running fine!  Lava lite suggest to not run more than 10 hours at a time and let it rest for at least 5 hours in between cycles.

If it is running hot you will see many small to medium blobs at the top of the lamp or a big blob sitting just above the coil, not touching it.  Dimmer is never a bad idea, give you more control over flow of the lamp, as well as, temperature.  Beautiful running lamp pic I must say.  A timeless classic. Enjoy!

P.S. get that lamp on something more stable please!  Don't want to lose or mess up that new acquired treasure. :)

[Carol]

Sometimes if the lava is just mounding and not doing anything it is a sign it is just not hot enough.  This could be why there was a 50 watt in it instead of a 40 in the first place but if i were to go back to the 50 watt i would definitely recommend a dimmer.  I have them on every single one of my lamps from vintage to kits.  (cept for the china newer ones, which I only have 1 of those left and could give a crap about it honestly, lol).

 

Btw. your explanation of take off gave me quite the visual.......made my day, lol!!!