Paraffin Lamp
Ullapool Museum

In the 1840s, coal was distilled to make kerosene, known as paraffin, as a substitute for whale oil for lighting. Later made from petroleum, paraffin was commonly used during the second half of the nineteenth century.  

Many of these lamps were handheld and portable, though some, like this one, were wall-mounted. As electricity was increasingly installed in houses (replacing older methods of lighting), the lamps were reserved for power outages or in areas where electricity simply wasn’t accessible.