1960s & 1970s | The Origins & Early History of the British Original "lava lamp"

In 1963, home lighting would change forever, courtesy of a British invention of the Astro lamp. The Astro lamp changed lighting on all facets and is the original name, shape and motion of what is now known generically as the lava lamp. Its graceful shape, distinctive styling and uniquely engineered motion have graced millions of homes for over more than forty years.

First launched in 1963, the Astro Lamp was invented by Edward Craven Walker after years of design, engineering and research, was initially inspired by a previous invention and has been manufactured in the UK since its original launch. In fact Mathmos, the original manufacturer still produces a wide range of bottles that can be used to refresh older lava lamps if needed, supporting a legacy of lamps for over 40 years.

The Astro lamp was originally marketed by Mr Walker's company, Crestworth Ltd. In fact, Astro still bears its original name, form, and timeless design, is still relevant, current and distinctive today. This is rather impressive and unique for a product that was uniquely engineered over 40 years ago. It is a true piece of unique British engineering and light entertainment of colour, movement and chaos.

Traditionally, the bases and the caps of the Astro lamps and its original derivatives have been produced by spinning aluminium to create the iconic shaped designs. After this, any surface treatments are applied to the metal forms. In fact many of Crestworth's products were produced by spinning and great deal of vintage Crestworth lamps were finished with a copper anodic finish such as the Astro and the Astro Mini.

Depending on the design and construction, a lava lamp is a combination of many manufacturing processes, from the glass bottles being produced to the spinning of the bases and caps to the finishing process such as anodising or other surface finishes such as flocking. There is even a special process for filling the lamp bottles. An early brochure for the Astro and Astro Mini (the world's two first lava lamp designs can be seen below) ...

1990s | The Revival & Second Era of the British Original "lava lamp"

Whilst the original lava lamps faded in the 1980s, two entrepreneurs discovered and understood how to revive the Astro lamp. Crestworth became known as Mathmos and is the original manufacturer.

The 1990s saw a massive revival of the lava lamp. Many of the original designs such as the Astro and the Astro Mini were modernised, with fresher vibrant colour ways, gone was the traditional copper look of the past and the packaging and presentation of the lamps were completely overhauled. The lamps were marketed to a new generation of people and became the coolest products around, a new era was born.

New designs such as the Rocket, Lunar and the Telstar were launched and became icons in their own right. Telstar is still in production today.

In fact the sales of the lamps continued to grow over the years and Mathmos grew in size drastically over the 1990s.

Astrobaby later featured a sister product with beautiful glitter combinations known as Glitterbaby. Mathmos also brought updated fibre optic designs to market such as the Jupiter 2, introduced an innovative array of Faze lights and introduced the Space Projector. Further to this Mathmos introduced a limited edition of luxury flock-covered lamps as a collectable item. Mathmos created a 3-in-1 version of the Astro, featuring white wax that could change colour with different coloured bulbs provided.

Mathmos went on to engineer ultra-reflective wax such as Glitterball and a metallic series of the Astro range.

The original Mathmos lava lamps are also surrounded a community of enthusiasts and collectors and their products have become cult items in demand and rarer pieces being extremely valuable.

Mathmos remains the only original manufacturer of lava lamps in the world, defining what a lava lamp should be. Mathmos also creates the world's most beautiful ambient LED based lighting. Below one can see images of Mathmos 1990s lava lamps and other lights.