DIY Button Lamps for Emergency Light

Alternative emergency lighting. Are you ready?

When the grid goes down, we think of emergency lights as things like kerosene lamps, flashlights, candles, solar and wind powered lights, or even propane camp lanterns. Those are all fine and good. But what happens if you lose power and you either don't have any of those handy or the power has been out so long that you have run out of those supplies? 

Any fan of the “Little House Books” by Laura Ingalls Wilder, knows exactly what to do in such a situation. You do like “Ma” (and countless other pioneers) did when kerosene wasn't available. You make a button lamp. During the pioneer days, they would use a button to weigh down the wick and to hold it upright. The buttons back then were made out of bone or metal. Today our buttons are made out of plastic so they would melt under the heat from the lamp. Never fear though. You can use a quarter, bolt, washer, or a penny in place of the button. This is a one time use thing, so after the lamp goes out you will need to make another one.

 

 

Supplies you will need:

*Some kind of grease for the fuel. It can be shortening, lard, axle grease, vaseline, whatever you have handy.

*Small square of fabric about 3 in.x3 in. to be used as wick.

*Sewing thread

*Something to hold the wick in place. Shown are two different sizes of bolts and a quarter. I used the smaller of the two bolts for this project.

*A 5 oz tuna can

*Match or something else to light the button lamp when you want to light it.

 

Step 1:

Empty tuna out of can and make yourself a tuna-fish sandwich. Because everything is better when there is food involved. LOL Shown above is what I used: tuna, onion, homemade zucchini relish (yuuuuum!!!), chopped celery. :-)

 

Step 2:

Wash and thoroughly dry the can. Spread about 1 tablespoon of the grease around the inside and bottom of the can.

 

Step 3:

Spread the grease around both sides of the cloth and place your weight in the middle.

 

 



Step 4:

Bring the cloth together up over the weight and tightly wind the thread around it and tie off.

 

  Step 5:

Twist the fabric straight upwards into a tapering twist and grease the fabric again to form wick.

 



 Step 6:

Place wick into the center of the can and light. Burn time is 15-20 minutes.

 

Safety Tip: When using an open flame of any kind, it is always a good idea to have a working fire extinguisher handy. Please never leave an open flame unattended.

BTW...the hubs says that I should redo all these pictures again because he wants another sandwich.  ;-D

Thanks for reading and God's Blessings.