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What Is The History Behind The Lava Lamp?
Home » Gadgets » Lava Lamps » What Is The History Behind The Lava Lamp?Mr. Walker worked on his motion lamp, which he called the Astro Light, for almost a decade before finally launching it in 1963. His United Kingdom based company, Cresworth, achieved some success with the device, but the lamp design really took off when the United States company Lava Manufacturing Corp. formed in 1965. The company was founded by two Chicago entrepreneurs, Adolph Wertheimer and Hy Spector, who discovered Walker’s Astro Light at a trade show in Germany. They acquired the United States patent rights and began producing a line of their own motion lamps. These lamps soon caught on as a must-have decoration for the counterculture crowd.
The company, now called Lava World International, still produces almost all of the commercial models sold in the United States. Their product is called a Lava Lite, not a Lava Lamp, but both terms are trademarked. Lava Lamp is commonly used as a generic term.
When the Lava Lite caught on in the United States, Walker’s Astro Light grew in popularity in Europe. Sales dropped off in the 1980s and Walker sold the Astro Light rights to Cressida Granger. Her company, Mathmos, continues to produce lamps for the market outside the United States. The company has expanded its line considerably over the years, offering many innovative, modern variations on the basic lamp design.
Both companies have enjoyed a motion lamp renaissance that began in the early 1990s as part of a 1960s nostalgia trend. Astro Light and Lava Lite sales are still strong today and there are lots of lava lamp fans still out there.
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