Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 31, 1993 TAG: 9303310079
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWBERN LENGTH: Medium
Historically, however, nearly half of humankind's civilized existence would have been in the dark without such devices.
"The Greeks used this kind of lamp," he said. "I know it's referenced in the Bible."
And this kind of pre-electrical lighting was still used in some places well into the 20th century.
"You're looking at 3,000, 4,000 years," Fisher said. "The American Indians used a similar kind of lamp."
More than 30 early lighting devices from his collection are on display at the Wilderness Road Regional Museum in Newbern. It can be seen Tuesday through Saturday, 10:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m., and Sunday, 1:30-4:30 p.m., or by appointment (telephone 674-4835).
"Basically, it spans from around 1750 to 1850," Fisher said, "about 20 years worth of accumulation."
Pieces include a brass camphine lamp, used just before the coming of the kerosene lamp, and a ship's whale-oil lamp mounted on gimbals so it would stay upright no matter how the the ship was thrown about.
Perhaps the most primitive implement is a crescent burner, which used pine knots as fuel. "I'm sure it was quite messy, and you probably didn't get a lot of light out of it," Fisher said.
From miners' lamps to harvest lamps, the light sources had been refined over thousands of years before being supplanted by power generated by utilities.
"It was a necessary part of everybody's life, so it became fairly normal technology. A lot of thought went into those devices," he said.
He has shown and demonstrated them over the years in schools, at Scout programs, during last year's Appalachian Awareness Week at Pulaski County High School and most recently last weekend in a program at the museum.
"There's a great deal to be learned about these items," Fisher said. "A lot of it is still guesswork about how they used these items."
Fisher, 43, has run the Newbern House antique shop in a log cabin a few doors from the museum for the past five years. He grew up in Radford and became intrigued with the lighting devices because of an earlier interest in forged-iron items made by blacksmiths.
As far back as grade school, he said, he used to collect "weird stuff." He collected antique clocks until he discovered how expensive that was going to be.
He bought one of his first lamps, one with a sawtoothed height-adjustment mechanism, more than 20 years ago from an Army colonel in Richmond. It has a slot in the top where the fuel - grease or lard - went, then a piece of twisted cotton would be added "and that was the wick," he said. "They're just grease-burners."
He has found others in old barns and woodsheds where they lay unused for years. He has made his own replicas of some pieces, a tradition that goes back to when they were used in everyday life.
Tinkers would travel from community to community and, when a housewife would request a sconce or some other candle-holding implement, he would take the order for future delivery or make it for her on the spot to her specifications.
Fisher is delighted at the growing reputation of downtown Pulaski as an antiques center and says the more antiques stores that come to Pulaski County, the better.
"When you're in this business, you don't look at it as competition. It's all enhancement."
by CNB