AN AIR-CIRCULATING SOCK LAMP
(Page 2 of 3)
According to Mr. Smyers, assembling the lamp required only
the most basic metalworking or electrical skills, but did
call for the use of a soldering iron, an electric drill
with a bit assortment, tinsnips, needle-nosed pliers, a
hammer, a pin punch, and a sewing machine.
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Emerson first scribed and cut out one 16" and one
3-1/4"-diameter disk, a 2-1/4" X 27" strip, and a 4" X 10"
rectangle from the copper sheet. Then, using some leftover
scraps, he made three 5/16" X 9/16" tabs, which he bent
into Z-shapes.
Next, he bored a small hole at the center of the larger
disk and removed a "pie slice" section — 2-1/2" wide
at its base — from it. After bending the penny-metal
pie into a shallow cone, adding (optional) decorative ribs
or flutes at 1-1/4" intervals, and holding it to that shape
by soldering the three Z-tabs at equal points along the
seam (then filling that joint as well), the researcher
drilled a 3/8" opening through the cone's apex . . . and a
1/4" hole about 3 inches from that peak. Then he soldered
three 3/4" rings (which he bent from short pieces of
welding rod) at equal points around the lid's lower surface
to support the 8"-diameter sock collar.
The bulb's jacket is similar in construction to a tin can.
To make it, Emerson — using his pin punch —
first drove a patterned series of holes through the 4" X
10" copper sheet, to within 3/4 inch of each end. Then he
bent a 1/8" lip into one side, formed the piece around a
section of pipe to create a 3 "-diameter tube, and
completed the Z-seam by trimming and bending the mating
edge and soldering the seam. The can's lid is the 3-1/4"
disk with a 1-1/4" hole cut through its center, and both
its inner and outer edges nipped every 1/4 inch or so to
allow the outside to contour to the cylinder for a clean
solder joint, and the inside to grip the porcelain lamp
socket.
Assembling the sock section was simply a matter of bending
the long copper strip and the sheet-metal panel into 8
"-diameter rings . . . Z-ing and soldering their seams . .
. and stitching the muslin to form a tube that's 8" across
and about 6 feet long. The welding rods — bent into
8"-diameter rings, tacked together, and stitched into the
muslin sock at 2-foot increments — hold the cloth to
shape, and the 1/2" rings (sewn to the seam on the inside
and about a foot apart) serve as guides for the speaker
wire that powers the fan.
