Oil-Wick Miner’s Lamp Patent Model

Smythe, James C.

This oil-wick lamp is a patent model constructed by James C. Smythe of Plymouth, Pennsylvania that received patent number 204,628 on June 4, 1878. In his patent filing, Smythe claimed as his invention “a miner's lamp divided into an upper and a lower chamber, the latter forming the oil-reservoir, and provided with a small wick to convey the oil to the upper chamber and to a large wick passing from said upper chamber through the neck or tube of the lamp.” The dual chamber allowed use of the lighter oils in miners' lamps, by preventing excessive flow of oil to the spout.