"In the Argand ...the air and the gas were brought into contact by means of numerous small orifices."
The Mechanics' Magazine (1854)
Fuel-burning lamps had been used for hundreds of years without significant improvement. Then, in 1780, Swiss scientist Aime Argand (1750-1803) invented a lamp that would revolutionize the lives of two species—Homosapiens and Physeter macrocephalus.
Argand studied chemistry under the French chemist Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier, who discovered that oxygen was required for burning. Argand's lamp used a hollow wick to draw more air to the inside of the flame and had a glass cylinder around the wick to increase the flow of air outside the flame. Argand also provided a way to lower or raise the wick to decrease or increase the size of the flame and thus the amount of light the lamp produced. Because of the additional oxygen, the flame burned at a higher temperature, which produced much more light. It also burned most of the carbon particles that had dirtied and dimmed older oil lamps. The glass protected the flame from air currents, which kept the amount of light steady
Argand found that sperm whale oil produced the best flame, up to ten times brighter than candles. Since Argand lamps provided a reliable source of light after nightfall, the demand for whale oil rocketed.
In 1794, during the French Revolution, Lavoisier was executed and Argand's patent was taken away, allowing anyone to make Argand lamps. He died in London in 1803, after having spent the rest of his life experimenting on bones, coffin wood, and graveyard plants in an attempt to find the elixir of long life. Until kerosene lamps arrived in the 1850s, the sperm whale continued to be killed in large numbers for its oil.
