fountain lamp

English

Noun

fountain lamp (plural fountain lamps)

1. (historical) A lamp fed with oil from an elevated reservoir.
   • 1841 May 29, N. N. L., “Description of a plan for maintaining the oil of a lamp at a uniform level.”, in Mechanics' Magazine, number 929, page 408:

     The oil will be maintained at an uniform level in the burner of this lamp as perfectly as it is in the cocmmon fountain lamp, without being open to the objection against that lamp, of casting a shadow.

   • 1854, Charles Tomlinson, Cyclopædia of Useful Arts, Mechanical and Chemical, Manufactures, Mining, and Engineering, page 180:

     The flame generally used in reflectors is from an Argand fountain lamp, the wick of which is one inch in diameter.

   • 1861, Report of the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire Into the Condition of Lights, Buoys and Beacons, page 65:

     but it was asserted by Mr. Faraday that the beneficial effect could not be maintained unless the oil was supplied more copiously than at present by the inefficient fountain lamp universally supplied by the Trinity Board to the 1st order, dioptric lights.

2. A lamp that consists of a large number of fiber optic tubes that mimic the spray of water from a fountain.
   • 1989, Ron Whittaker, Video Field Production, page 349:

     A familiar application is the fountain lamp that has several hundred fibers spraying out of the top.