Although such primitive light-sources as the flaming splinter and the glowing ember have survived until the present age, lamps consisting of a wick dipped into a receptacle containing animal and vegetable oils have been in use among the more advanced peoples since prehistoric times.  Oil-lamps are to be seen in the earliest Roman illustrations.  During the height of ancient civilization along the eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea, elaborate lighting was effected by means of the shallow grease-or oil-lamp.  It is difficult to estimate the age in which this form of light-source originated, but some lamps in existence in collections at the present time appear to have been made as early as four or five thousand years before the Christian era.  It is noteworthy that such lamps did not differ materially in essential details from those in use as late as a few centuries ago.

At first the grease used was the crude fat from animals.  Vegetable oils also were burned in the early lamps.  The Japanese, for example, extracted oil from nuts.  When the demands of civilization increased, extensive efforts were made to obtain the required fats and oils.  Amphibious animals of the North and the huge mammals of the sea were slaughtered for their fat, and vegetable sources were cultivated.  Later, sperm and colza were the most common oils used by the advanced races.  The former is an animal oil obtained from the head cavities of the sperm-whale; the latter is a vegetable oil obtained from rape-seed.  Mineral oil was introduced as an illuminant in 1853, and the modern lamp came into use.

The grease-and oil-lamps in general were of such a form that they could be carried with ease and they had flat bottoms so that they would rest securely.  The simplest forms had a single wick, but in others many wicks dipped into the same receptacle.  The early ones were of stone, but later, lamps were modeled from clay or terra cotta and finally from metals.  They were usually covered and the wick projected through a hole in the top near the edge.  Large stone vases filled with a hundred pounds of liquid fat are known to have been used in early times.  As a part of the setting in the celebration of festivals the ancient nations of Asia and Africa placed along the streets bronze vases filled with liquid fat.  The Esquimaux to-day use this form of lamp, in which whale-oil and seal blubber is the fuel.  Incidentally, these lamps also supply the only artificial heat for their huts and igloos.  The heat from these feeble light-sources and from their bodies keeps these natives of the arctics warm within the icy walls of their abodes.