Friday, January 9, 2015

Another job you wouldn't want to do: oil lamp cleaning

Eithne Farry, Karen Hurrell and Jon Sutherland.  Snapshots in Time.  100 Years of Change.  North Vancouver:  Whitecap Books, 1998.
Anyone who's used oil lamps knows how black the chimneys get with soot.  Hard to get your hand into those narrow confines to clean them thoroughly.  But, unless you do, their light is significantly reduced.  I can also attest, based on my experience during Ice Storm 98, that reading a book by lamplight is very hard on the eyes.
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2 comments:

Tom Gaspick said...

There are way worse jobs. And at least you don't have to get a bogus 'education' to clean oil lamp chimneys.

[I could be wrong about that last assertion. For all I know, one must spend two years at a community college studying the molecular composition of soot, before one can even be considered to be interviewed for a position as a hydrocarbon light emitting device (HLED) hygiene technologist.]

January 9, 2015 at 6:14 PM
The Duke said...

I'd be afraid to have anyone but a certified HLED hygiene technologist clean my lamp chimneys! It's probably a condition of your home fire insurance policy.

January 10, 2015 at 10:22 AM

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