BUILD A LAVA LAMP

    The lava lamp consists of a cylinder-shaped bottle with a
red liquid floating up and down in a colourless liquid.This
apparatus was being illuminated and heated by a common light bulb
below it.By further examination (and taking for granted that the
colourless liquid was water)it was clearly deducted that the red
liquid had many distinct qualities.Taking all these
characteristics into consideration and after a thorough search it
was deduced that the unknown red liquid was dyed benzyl alcohol.
    The construction of the lamp is very simple.First of all
however,there must be a 4.8% salt concentration added to the
water(this is easily done by dissolving 48 grams of salt into 1
litre of water).Now all you have to do is find a suitable bottle
(preferably one with a short neck) about 10 inches high add some
of the salt water,then add about 150 millilitres of the dyed
benzyl alcohol and fill remainder of bottle with salt water
leaving about 1 inch of air space at the top.
    To make the bottom part of the lamp,get a 1 pint (or larger)
tin can,cut one end out completely and cut a hole out of the
other end.Obtain a light bulb and ceramic fixture and fasten it
to a board (this will serve as the base).Now cut a hole in the
side of the can to let the power cord out through.Place the can
over the bulb with the end with only a hole in it facing up.On
this end of the can put a thin foam rubber gasket to keep light
from escaping.Place the bottle on the can,plug in the light and
presto..a functioning lava lamp.
    There are improvements which can be made to this design to
keep the lamp at a constant temperature.In using one of the
following your lamp would work much better.Some of these would be
to use a fan at the top or use a lamp dimmer on the plug.

--
Paul Traverse