The lava lamp first appeared in 1963 when it was invented by a British accountant named Edward Craven Walker, who had never had much success, with the exception of inventing nudist films divers (smithsonianmag.com). When Walker first attempted to sell his lamp, many local merchants found it ugly and worthless. However, it soon became the symbol of the physadelic movement and sales took off. Walker's lamp was initially called the Astro Lamp; however, when the idea was brought to the United States in the mid-1960s, the name Lava Lite Lamp was coined. Before Walker sold his company, the Crestworth Company of Dorest, over seven million lamps had already been sold and approximately 400,000 are still sold each year. The original lamp contains 52 ounces of liquid, which was usually colored yellow or blue (Bellis). The wax or "lava" inside the original lamp was red or white. However, lava lamps can now be found in any size from 12 ounces up to 252 ounces and can also be found in a wide variety of colors. The basic properties of the modern lava lamp include a translucent liquid, colored wax, a glass vessel, and an incandescent bulb. The rise and fall of the wax derives from the change in density of the wax due to the variations in the heat supplied by the lamp. The translucent liquid is water or an opaque mixture of mineral oil, paraffin wax and carbon tetrachloride. Water is obviously made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Mineral oil is made up of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Paraffin wax is a carbonaceous hydrogen (Cn H2N+2). Carbon tetrachloride is made up of chlorine atoms and chloroform, which is very similar to chlorine but has an extra hydrogen atom. The gl...... center of the card ......praying shards of glass at lethal speed. Mythbusters also proved this to be true (Wikipedia.org) All the materials that make up the lava lamp are very simple materials that are not difficult to find. The elements are responsible for the composition of these materials and the three sources from which these elements come are the Big Bang, the fusion of stars or supernovae. Lava lamps were never intended to provide real light, but rather to be a fun decoration unlike anything people had ever seen. When the psychedelic movement was born along with drugs, Walker, the inventor, stated that "If you buy my lamp, you won't need to buy drugs" (Bellis). Sales of lava lamps have declined in recent years, but around 400,000 lamps are still sold each year. Some even believe that the lava lamp may come back into fashion in recent years due to changing times.