1950-1963
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If you do a Google search for “who invented the lava lamp?” Edward Craven Walker is almost all you will see. If you dig into the history of how it was invented you will likely come across mentions of Donald Dunnet. Before Walker was involved Mr Dunnet was a hard working inventor who was trying to make an egg timer that eventually evolved into the modern day lava lamp. Unfortunately Dunnet passed away before his invention could reach fruition. It wasn’t until around mid 2010 he was credited at all on Wikipedia and even then his work was misattributed to Alfred Dunnet. Thankfully this was cleared up after one of Dunnets great grandchildren provided us with some supporting evidence proving Dunnets work.
Dunnet had been working for at least a decade trying to make a working lava lamp. Early patents from him were filed in 1950 and a photo dated Eater 1960 shows that he had come up with a working prototype. Sadly that same year he died in Worthing at the age of 67.
After Dunnets death Walker picked up the idea and with the help of David George Smith they continued to iterate on Dunnet’s idea. This is proven through the dating of patents submitted by both parties. Dunnet had submitted a “display device” that seems to be what we know today as lava lamp.
This is one of the early Crestworth patents submitted by David George Smith.
At the end of the patent Dunnet’s patent is cited.
Edward Craven Walker launched Crestworth Co LTD in 1965 and assigned the patent to his new company. Soon after he released the first commercial lava lamp, the Astro.
Meanwhile in the United States Walker sold the rights to manufacture the lava lamp to Adolph Wertheimer and Hy Spector who discovered the Astro lava lamp at a trade show in Germany. They founded the American counterpart to Crestworth and named the company the Lava Manufacturing Corporation. Their original lineup included models such as the Aristocrat, Consort, and Imperial.
The American lava company name changed several times over the years. Lava Corporation, Lava Simplex, and Lava Lite are some of the names used during the early years. Eventually the company was sold to Larry Haggerty and renamed and sold several more times between then and today until it was no more than a brand name.
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