if these are the old type with a wick, i'd suggest a hot piece of nichrome wire, rather than a spark as the oil isn't that volatile.=20 you'll also have to control the wick height somehow, i.e. it will have to be turned up occasionally. i'm not sure how safe old time oil lamps sitting on the ground with electric ignition would be however, or how safe they'd be on poles as some are. i think you'd at least want a fire alarm, an extinguishing system would be nice but not trivial (CO2 is rather pathetic for oil fires, you really need dry chem like potassium or sodium bicarbonate, with the proper anti-cacking agents as in a fire extinguisher meant for oil fires). Ian Hooper wrote: >=20 > Here's a rather strange one: I've had the clever notion that I'd like = to > operate my garden lights by means of a PIC-based timer. The catch is th= at I > wish to use oil lamps, not the usual 12V bulbs. My dillema occurs in tr= ying > to devise a method of electronic ignition for an oil lamp; so far my > experiments have produced unimpressive results by using a simple spark > ignitor. Has anyone else toyed with such a system and have any ideas of= what > I might try to safely, and consitently light an oil lantern? ------ --=20 =93Cowardice asks the question: is it safe? Expediency asks the question: is it politic? Vanity asks the question: is it popular? But conscience asks the question: is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular- but one must take it simply because it is right.=94 : Martin Luther King Jr. 1929-1968 _______________________________________________ http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist