I have a lot of old books: old cookbooks, home economics books, tool books, farming books, you name it. Many of the tips and recipes I share with you either come from these books (always cited!) or are inspired by them. We’re headed back to a simpler way of life, and old books are a wonderful resource I learn from again and again. Imagine my excitement when I started reading in several old sources (an old science book, a book on pre-Civil War Virginia) about making a night-light from a horse chestnut! Naturally I had to try it!
The instructions from all sources were the same: Take a horse chestnut, prick the skin all over with small holes, and soak the chestnut for 12 hours in lamp oil. After the soaking, probe a hole into the center of the chestnut, insert a cotton wick, float the chestnut in a glass of water, and light! The chestnut lamp was guaranteed to stay lit all night! How could this not be fun to try out?
After soaking in oil for 12 hours, I drilled a hole into the center of the nut.
I had a bag of chestnuts leftover from Christmas that I never got a chance to roast, so I dug a few nuts out of the bag to try this out. I selected chestnuts that were decidedly flat on one side (another tip from days gone by) so the nut wouldn’t roll over when placed in the glass of water. I tested each nut in a glass of water and they did, indeed, float.
A large needle served to prick a nut’s skin all over with small holes, but since I didn’t have any lamp oil on hand I soaked the nuts in canola oil, which I’ve read can be a substitute for lamp oil. I let them sit overnight and then moved on to the next step, which was to bore a hole into the center of the flat side, insert a cotton wick (I used a thick thread), float the transformed nut in a glass of water, and light the wick.
It looks great, but mine only burned for about 10 minutes, and not the promised over-night duration.
It certainly looked pretty! But I was really curious whether the nut would burn all night as promised, and serve as a safe light via flame (presumably the reason for floating the lit nut in water) all night.
Alas, neither nut lasted for more than about 10 minutes of burn-time (I tried one in water and one on a plate). Whether soaking the nuts in lamp oil would have made a difference I’m not sure. But it’s worth a shot! In any event, it was a fun experiment and the next time I have lamp oil on hand, I’ll give it a go again!
