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墨書 Inktalez
Our mountain village is too small and remote, and has never had electricity. Once night falls, lighting a lamp becomes an essential task for us.
Most families use kerosene lamps. Although there are many types of kerosene lamps, their construction is quite similar, mainly consisting of three parts: the lamp base, the wick, and the lampshade.
The lamp base is generally circular and made of cast iron or thick glass. The lower part has a circular base; the hollow section is used to hold kerosene, and it usually has a small hole for refueling covered by an iron cap. The upper center features a round or flat iron hole for the wick, surrounded by a ring of small teeth to secure the lampshade.
The wick is generally made of cotton or paper, and its shape varies depending on the type of wick hole, with round and flat shapes. In the middle of the hole, there is a small iron stick for adjusting the wick, with a toothed wheel on top. By turning it clockwise or counterclockwise, the height of the wick exposed from the hole can be controlled, thus adjusting the size of the light.
The lampshade is usually made of thin glass, roughly cylindrical in shape, with a height of around ten centimeters. In order to increase the amount of air entering the shade and allow the wick to burn fully, the middle part of the lampshade is slightly larger than the top and bottom.
Although a standard kerosene lamp consists of three parts, in reality, due to certain parts being prone to breakage or damage, the kerosene lamps we use often have missing or damaged components. As long as they can still be used, parents generally hesitate to spend money on new parts or a new oil lamp.
The most easily missing part of the three components is the lampshade, because it is made of thin glass and is often baked by the heat of the lamp, making it easy to break. In the process of moving the oil lamp, it is also possible to accidentally drop it from the lamp base. Therefore, in our yard, nine out of ten oil lamps do not have lampshades or have damaged lampshades.
In fact, not having a lampshade does not affect the use of the oil lamp too much, and buying a new lampshade only costs a little money, so everyone always makes do with using these oil lamps without lampshades or with damaged lampshades.
The biggest problem with using an oil lamp without a lampshade is that it cannot withstand the wind, and rural houses are always open to the wind from all sides. Once the wind blows, it is easy to blow out the small flame. Even when there is no wind, a family only has two or three oil lamps, and during use, they often need to be moved around, which can also blow out the flame with the breeze.
In order to avoid these inconveniences, we have come up with many ideas. One is to use our hands to block the wind when it moves or blows, which can prevent the lamp from going out, but it is not sustainable. Another idea is to make a lampshade out of thin white paper, but the paper cannot withstand the heat of the lamp and may catch fire, which is strictly prohibited by our parents. The third idea is to make a larger lampshade out of transparent hard paper and place the entire oil lamp inside it. This can prolong the time the lamp stays lit, but the thickness of the paper blocks a lot of light, so it's not ideal.
In the end, we simply continue to use the oil lamp without a lampshade, at most relighting it if the wind blows it out. After all, a box of matches costs only two cents and can light the oil lamp hundreds of times.
The wick of the lamp is also prone to problems. The brightness of the oil lamp depends on the burning of the kerosene-soaked wick, which endures the highest temperature of the entire lamp. Although it mainly burns kerosene, as the oil lamp is used day by day, the wick is slowly consumed. Eventually, it will burn down to the point where it cannot reach the kerosene in the lamp base, and then a new wick will be needed.
Thrifty farmers, who are used to being frugal, generally don't go to a consignment store to buy new wicks. At that time, every household would have some cotton straps, originally used for mending clothes or making children's belts. The leftover one or two-inch tails are just the perfect substitute for wicks. These straps are both round and flat, and although their sizes may not necessarily match the wick hole, ingenious people can slim them down or connect them together to find a way to fit them into the wick hole.
The problem with the wick may also appear on the wick stick. Although this small stick is made of iron, people's demands for light vary. Over the course of an evening, it has to be adjusted many times. With frequent adjustments, it is natural for problems to occur, especially with the gear that engages with the wick. It may get stuck before long. It seems that consignment stores don't sell this small thing. If it breaks, the entire oil lamp becomes unusable, and one can only think of another solution.
Children's solution is simple and direct: they use a sewing needle to poke the entire wick from its exposed position, which can elongate it and increase the brightness of the lamp. If they want the brightness to be lower, they can press it down a bit. However, this method causes significant damage to the wick, so adults rarely use it.
The most fault-resistant part is the lamp base, because it is made of cast iron or thick glass, which is relatively sturdy and durable. Even if it is missing a small part occasionally, it won't affect the use of the oil lamp too much. There are not many oil lamps in our home, and in the process of repairing the oil lamp, we learned about its structure. On the one hand, to meet the needs of doing homework at night, and on the other hand, to satisfy our desire to create or manufacture new things, for a period of time, almost all of us children started to imitate kerosene lamps. The materials we used were very simple. The leftover ink bottle served as a natural base, and a piece of round iron sheet replaced the original cap, as it seemed unable to withstand high temperatures. Then, a small hole was drilled in the iron sheet, and a cotton wick was inserted as the wick. After filling the bottle with half a bottle of kerosene, a simple oil lamp was made.
This oil lamp, although its wick cannot be adjusted up and down and its lifespan is limited by the materials used, can still emit a sufficient amount of light. Almost every child in the yard has done their homework under its glow.
Not long after, during a collective labor event, the enthusiasm for making these homemade oil lamps reached a peak. The production team decided to launch a "Light to Exterminate Insects" campaign in all the fields. Adults built mud platforms in the rice paddies, placing basins made of enamel, plastic, or even mud filled with water on top. In the center of each basin, they set up a homemade oil lamp. When night fell and darkness enveloped the area, they lit the oil lamps. The insects, drawn to the light, flew toward it recklessly, only to find themselves trapped. By morning, the oil had been consumed, and the surface of the water was covered with layers of various insect remains. The task of making these simple oil lamps was primarily undertaken by the children, who at least earned a few work points in the process.
In addition to making simple oil lamps, everyone also crafted even simpler lighting tools—torches. When traveling at night without the moon or stars, people would gather materials from their surroundings. Some would gather bundles of straw and tie them into long torches; these burned brightly but produced a lot of smoke and had a short burn time, making them suitable only for short distances. Others used prepared bundles of dry bamboo strips; while these torches didn’t provide much light, they could last for about an hour if constantly waved against the wind to keep the flames alive. Those who were better prepared had already collected a pile of pine resin branches at home, packed them into an iron mesh bag, and secured it to a long wooden stick with wire. This type of torch could be replenished as it burned down. We used these torches when we went out at night to catch loaches.
Of course, there were more practical and high-end lighting tools than the oil lamp, such as lanterns and flashlights. However, at that time, resources were extremely scarce, and these two items were rarely found in ordinary households. Two brand new lanterns were a must-have to hang on the first bridal sedan chair during a wedding; in many villages, one household would use them while another would borrow them. As for flashlights, it seemed they were supplied only with ration tickets, and very few were allocated to rural areas. If no one in the family was receiving "state grain" or serving as a platoon leader or cadre, it was quite difficult to obtain one.
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