How To Make Your Own Bright Betty Emergency Oil Lamp

NEW UPDATE: Be sure to check out my video, "How Safe is The Bright Betty Bam-A-Lamp?" at this link: https://youtu.be/asgeLt0cshE For more information and Bright Betty parts kits... www.planetwhizbang.com/brightbetty

It's not Bright Betty, but Black Betty.. I use it as my moms ring tone and have for years, and now that shes gone, it's still there and never been assigned to anyone else.. Thank you for bringing a smile to my face and making me remember my mom this evening :)

If you can find other wire, it’s better not to use galvanized wire on anything near a flame or heat source. Galvanized metal has zinc plating, which can give off toxic fumes at high temperatures.

As nice as those lamps are, your instructional video was 10x better. Very well done! Not everybody can explain a process that well.

''There are two ways of spreading light - to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it.'' ~Edith Wharton

I saw an old movie once with Mickey Rooney in it..Someone in his family was needing urgent surgery at night and the electricity was off or maybe it was in the days before electricity..can't remember, but in the movie there wasn't enough light to do the surgery in their home and Mickey's character came up with the bright idea of placing mirrors behind all the oil lamps and of course saved the person because the doctor could operate...you could make a little portable 3 way mirror to sit behind the jar if you needed even more light.

The song was not "Bright Betty". It was "Black Betty" : Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Black Betty had a child (Bam-ba-lam) The damn thing gone wild (Bam-ba-lam) She said, "I'm worryin' outta mind" (Bam-ba-lam) The damn thing gone blind (Bam-ba-lam) I said oh, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) She really gets me high (Bam-ba-lam) You know that's no lie (Bam-ba-lam) She's so rock steady (Bam-ba-lam) And she's always ready (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Get it! Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) She's from Birmingham (Bam-ba-lam) Way down in Alabam' (Bam-ba-lam) Well, she's shakin' that thing (Bam-ba-lam) Boy, she makes me sing (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty (Bam-ba-lam) Whoa, Black Betty Bam-ba-laaam, yeah, yeah

Love these lamps. You remind me of my dad God rest his soul, when he retired he had a wood working workshop with many tools that professionals use. All the folk town would come to him and request he make something they needed. He was so loud from morning till evening always working on something, used to hate it in my childhood, now I surely miss it. Only now I realize how skilled he was.

From a piano tuner: the segment of the string going through the metal dowel is called a “becket”. 😎

Perfect timing on the video. Thank you. Our power has been out for over 24 hours and I ASSUMED we were prepared. No dice on that! All the batteries were dead. The candles with batteries were dead. The stock of real candles I have picked up cheap were down to very few. How ever we do have half a dozen of the jars with handles and just as soon as my order from Amazon arrives I am making these lights. And that song is one of my all time favs. I have 18 gauge wire from jewelry making and I will rustle up some copper tube. I think these will make very thoughtful gifts for Christmas. I have friends who like to have bonfires at nite and we can all use these humble lamps outdoors at night. No battery eating flashlights needed. Thank you for helping me kill 2 birds with 1 lamp design.

Very nice, especially for the colder season! "Teenager in the 70's...", me too! Man, where did the time go? ☺️👍

Bright Betty , Black Betty close enough. Clever idea my friend very nice. Be well and be blessed 🙏

I've seen a similar style of these lamps & kits for sale at a store called Lehmans in the USA. They're called olive oil & or Merry lamps. Your style is quite similar and I think either kit would be good to have on hand. You can purchase all the supplies for making the lamps from Lehman's as well. Personally, it'd be more fun to make my own as you did, starting from scratch. Nice job on the video explaining how to make this style of lamp.

As a cheap flaring alternative, use needle nose pliers to flare out the copper pipe and a small hamer to flatten the flare out.

Fun. Never fall asleep, or leave the room with a candle going. It might be better as an outside of the tent table light. I've seen too many candle fires, which in essence, it is. Just treat it like an incendiary device, which in fact, it is. Pretty though.

To taper the coil, have you tried this: Coil the wire as shown, then slide it down over an appropriate sized funnel to taper it to size? Kinda like using the funnel to taper it after you've coiled it around your coiling jig.

That is a nice design. When I was little we would take quart and pint mason jars and fill them with candles wrapped with a rubber band and some matches. To make them fancy we would take a picture from a magazine and cut it to fit the inside of the jar so you would not see the candles. One fun trick is to take a pint jar and fill it with crayons if you get them cheap enough. Crayons are candles with a wick on the outside. They do not burn for anywhere near as long as an oil lamp but they are perfect for carry around lamps to negotiate the house in the dark, lamps that will not be used for long periods of time anyway.

Love the video, clear and concise instructions that’ll be easy to follow. I plan on making some of these for sure and maybe tinkering with em a bit. Like mirroring the half of the jar with the handle to help direct more light forward and using smaller red tinted jars as night lights for bathrooms and such. Such a simple concept and so many possible variations!

brilliant idea - thanks for showing ! To improve the spiral part of your wire, take a round or square piece of board, draw a circle and mark an octagon. Drill a hole in the center, matching a screw of choice and screw it to a wedge, then drill eight holes at the angle set by the wedge and finally glue eight dowels into the holes. Where they meet at the other side, leave room for the wickholder, cut the dowels flush to the bottom of the board and wrap your wire around the dowels. The octagonal shape is not much off a circle and the spiral will work just as good, but will be looking much more even. If you put some reflective self-adhesive aluminium tape to about 1/3 of the jar, centered by the handle, you get a directional light.

A suggestion for an alternative to the copper tubing, a short piece of automobile steel brake line, it comes with a flare already on each end, just cut it in the middle, slide off the fittings,, and you have two pieces to make two lamps. The brake line can be purchased in pieces as short as about one foot in any auto parts store.