Meredith Abernathy
  • meredith
  • blog
  • books
    • beyond the midnight mountain
    • A Web of Every Color
  • join mailing list
  • meredith
  • blog
  • books
    • beyond the midnight mountain
    • A Web of Every Color
  • join mailing list
Beyond the Midnight Mountain - re-outlining (updated Jan-13-21)
75%
A Web of Every Color - draft 3 (updated Mar-27-21)
35%

Weird research: A hamburger lamp

1/6/2018

0 Comments

 
This week’s weird research is how to make a lamp from hamburger grease, a stick, and a scrap of cotton.
Picture
I googled how to make a torch in the wilderness. My character Simi needs one to last her all night traveling through the forest. She could make a new one every time the old one died, but the wilderness torch instructions I found either lasted only 5-20 minutes, dripped a trail of flaming oil, or both. Too impractical.

But I did find how to make a lamp/candle from fat. It works for the story, because Simi has access to a small clay pot and the grease from dinner. So I simulated it as closely as I could with a glass bowl.

1. Fill the bottom half of the bowl with sand. This keeps the wick standing upright. I used wet-ish dirt and tiny gravel from my driveway.

2. Add last night’s congealed hamburger grease.

​3. Find a twig 1/2” taller than the sand + grease. Smear a scrap of cotton fabric with grease and wrap it around the stick. This is your wick. Stick the wick down into the grease and sand.

4. Light the wick. I couldn’t get it to catch when I used a charcoal lighter, but it worked when I used matches. It took three matches.

My lamp lasted 3-4 hours before it ran out of grease. Trimming all the fat before cooking an animal (rather than just catching what drips) might produce more fuel for the lamp. I tested it in a dark room, and it didn’t shed much light, but for Simi it’s better than nothing. She’d know how to make a decent lamp, anyway, since she lives in an unlightbulbed world, but at least now I kind of know what I’m narrating.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever researched, or done just to see if it could be done? Comment below!

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Subscribe to my quarterly newsletter.

    Archives

    February 2021
    September 2020
    December 2019
    October 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    Book Reviews
    BTMM Guide
    Details
    Fantasy
    Historical Fiction
    Novel
    Reading
    Research
    Revising
    Writing

    2018 Reading Challenge

    2018 Reading Challenge
    Meredith has read 0 books toward her goal of 100 books.
    hide
    0 of 100 (0%)
    view books
    Tweets by @moonfleetstudio