How the Lava Lamp Became an Icon of the Psychedelic ’60s

Few objects glow as hypnotically as the lava lamp, the torpedo-shaped tube containing molten blobs that rise, stretch and swirl into mesmerizing patterns.

But before it became a symbol of the psychedelic ’60s, the lava lamp was simply an odd curiosity in a British pub. One that caught the eye of someone who would transform it into an international icon.

Edward Craven Walker (1918–2000), a British entrepreneur and World War II Royal Air Force pilot, invented the lava lamp in his backyard in Dorset, England.

Walker was inspired to create the mood-setting fixture in 1948, when he saw a peculiar egg timer at a pub. The timer was a glass cocktail shaker filled with globules of oil. When heated, the globules rose up the water column in the time it took to hard-boil an egg.

Walker purchased the patent for the singular device from the inventor’s widow and spent the next decade experimenting and improving the design. He founded the company Crestworth Ltd to market his invention called the Astro Lamp, which he presented at a 1963 trade show. It quickly became a hit and was featured in numerous British TV shows in the following years.

In 1965, two American entrepreneurs bought the rights to market the Astro Lamp worldwide, renaming it the “Lava Lite” lamp.

The mid-1960s saw the rise of psychedelic art, the counterculture movement and a growing fascination with altered perception. The lamp’s floating, amorphous blobs of illuminated wax seemed to reflect that spirit perfectly. Its hypnotic, dreamlike motion made it an instant novelty item associated with creativity, experimentation and rebellion against conventional taste.

By the mid-1970s, Walker’s invention was selling about 7 million units a year around the world, earning him a fortune. That success helped support Walker’s other passion: naturism (social nudity).

Around the time Walker stumbled upon the egg timer, he had also visited Île le du Levant, a “naturist paradise” off the southern coast of France. This experience would spark a lifelong interest in sharing this lifestyle with the masses.

Walker produced several nudist films under the pseudonym Michael Keatering. Like other nudist filmmakers of the time, Walker was able to get around British censorship by setting his movies within nudist camps and avoiding showing genitals or pubic hair (a prosecutable offense in Britain until the late 1960s). British censorship rules also allowed nudist films to be shown as long as they were framed as documentaries.

With the proceeds from his films, Walker established a naturist resort in Dorset called the Bournemouth and District Outdoor Club, which he operated for decades. He also helped establish other English nudist communities.

By the early 1980s, lava lamp sales plummeted as cultural shifts set in. Walker continued to oversee his business throughout the ’80s despite paltry sales. By the end of the decade, Crestworth was only selling about 1,000 lamps a year.

In 1989, entrepreneur Cressida Granger took over as managing director. Sales increased as she marketed the lamp to a new generation. Granger rebranded Crestworth as Mathmos in 1992 and gained sole ownership in 1998, reaching over 800,000 sales a year in 1999.

Walker died in 2000 at age 82, living long enough to see his prized invention’s resurgence. Mathmos still uses Walker’s secret mix of oil, wax and water in its lava lamps today.