To the lighthouse diaries
Discover Zanzibar
Ellen McCallie's diary about the challenge for the To the Lighthouse programme, part of the fifth BBC/OU TV series Rough Science, based in Zanzibar
Day 3
I used coconut fibre and other plant fibres to make wicks. The wicks have to allow for capillary action, so oil keeps moving up the wick. The goal when making lamps and candles isn’t to burn the wick per se, but to turn the oil (or wax in the case of candles) into a vapour and then burn the vapour. A little bit of the wick burns in the process.
Using a biscuit tin, I made 20 wicks, which hung into the oil in the tin. We had lots of discussions about its safety. Would heat or pressure build up in the tin? Given the set up, we felt we were fine.
Mike and I created a mirror and glass shield to protect the flames from the wind—we hadn’t taken wind into account earlier…whoops!—and to direct the light.
One thing I never expected was that lighting the wicks would be so hard. Because the oil has to evaporate to start the process, lots of heat has to be added, so striking a match and touching it to a wick isn’t good enough. The trouble is the matches we have are about as good as sea water for lighting fires. The lighters are better, but not great. Add the wind on top of this!
It took me about 30 minutes to get the ‘birthday cake’ lit. (It looks like a birthday cake to me, except I’d need a bunch more wicks for my birthday.)
What a sight! As Jonathan and Kathy ran the lighthouse from shore, Mike and I headed out in a boat to enjoy the view without worries of running into the island.
Note: As it turned out the island already had a floating lighthouse that we didn’t know about. Several weeks later the lighthouse broke loose and ended up in the tiny bay right in front of our workshop. Thus, we brought a lighthouse to Bawe Island, and it sent one back to us!
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Content last updated: 26/01/2005
