Aladdin Lamp

THE ALADDIN LAMP

Prior to the advent of electricity in the villages, the glass chimney lamp brightened the living rooms. However, the good old kerosene lamp still lit, albeit dimly, the pages of the books of my English, Geography, Science, Physics, Math, History and other subjects for sometime until the famous 'Aladdin Lamp' came on the scene. It brightened the hall with generous luminosity - until electricity came to our quaint and little  village of Cumbiem Morod in Guirim, bordering the villages of Canca and Parra in Bardez, Goa, in the  mid-1960's.This lamp was magical and compared almost to the light of apetromax. It used a round wick and a mantle. We had a Petromax too, but that was used only during special occasions like sung Litanies, parties and  weddings and other celebrations. I watched my Mom and Dad light it when I was young and lighting it was one of the chores for me in my teens at sunset. The Aladdin lamp was easier to light up and looked more elegant on a table. The tall chimney is essential as it controls the amount of fresh air drawn in a controlled manner creating a vacuum below the flame to bring in fresh unburned air.