THE
MINING
MUSEUM

ROLLO
JAMISON
MUSEUM





Museum Department - City of Platteville
405 E. Main Street, P. O. Box 780
Platteville, Wisconsin 53818-0780
Telephone (608) 348-3301
Email: museums@platteville.org
Lighting used in the Wisconsin Lead and Zinc Mines
Candles were the earliest lights. The early lead miners used tallow candles made from animal fat, but they were soft and smoky. Later candles were made of stearin. These burned longer. A miner might use 3 to 6 candles in a day. Miners called the candle holders sticking tommies.
Early miners used
lumps of clay to
hold the candles.
Grease or oil lamps like these were made in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Miners used them starting around 1880. You filled the lamp body with the fuel and the wick was in the spout.
Carbide lights burn a gas. The miner
put water in the top and calcium carbide
in the bottom. When the water dripped
on the carbide, a flammable gas is formed. The miner struck the flint
(wheel in front) to make a spark that lit the gas.
Starting around the 1940s, miners used battery lamps. The battery is worn at the waist and connected to the light which is hooked on the hardhat. The batteries are recharged each night. Lead is used to make this type of battery.
Carbide lamps were
popular from around
1920 to 1950.
The Mining Museum & Rollo Jamison Museum, 405 E. Main st., Platteville, WI 53818
Miners' Candlesticks, Wendell Wilson & Ted Bobrink, 1984.
American Miners Carbide Lamps, Gregg Clemmer, ill. by Wendell Wilson, 1987.