Pine Knot Torch
notes: label: Description
content: This is a pine knot torch that is covered on one end with in tree rosin.
label: Description
content: Electric cap lamp inventor Grant Wheat’s personal collection of mining lamps was donated to the museum in 1962. Many of these objects were depicted in his “Story of Underground Lighting” published in the “Proceedings of the Illinois Mining Institute” in 1945. This torch was his first example of underground lighting, which he described as “early cave dwellers kept a fire at the entrance of their cave for protection and warmth. They took a burning stick from the fire when they went into the cave. They discovered that a pine knot or a pair of fatty pine would burn longer than an ordinary stick. They also discovered that the torch would last longer by dipping it into the pitch of rosin from the trees."
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mining
label: See more items in
content: Mining Lamps
label: See more items in
content: Work
label: See more items in
content: Industry & Manufacturing
label: See more items in
content: Grant Wheat Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Mary R. Wheat
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.MHI-MN-8182
label: accession number
content: 239148
label: catalog number
content: MHI-MN-8182
objectType: label: Object Name
content: pine knot
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 25 in x 1 in; 63.5 cm x 2.54 cm