During
the 1850s, James "paraffin" Young's works in the Bathgate
were the first to produce a mineral oil for burning in lamps. Within
a few years paraffin lamps were used in homes throughout the world
but this innovation brought with it dangers of fire if lamps were
dropped or knocked over.
The
problem got far worse when American lamp oils were imported. These
oils were cheaper but had a lower flashpoint which meant they were
more likely to cause fires if spilled. In response to increasing
public concern over deaths from oil lamp accidents, the Scottish
oil producers campaigned to restrict competition from unsafe imported
oils and highlighted the safety merits of their own products.
If
there had been TV or film in the 1880s, the Scottish oil producers
might have got together to make an advertisement like the one above. |
What do you get if you take some feisty cowkids, some old miners
and lots of lamp oil to throw around?
...Well, you'd probably get something quite like our 'Scottish
Lamp Oil' advert. First of all, we got some energetic cowkids to
act out a bar brawl in an American saloon. Sisters Hannah (5) and
Lisa (11) volunteered to dress up as cowgirls and show us how to
pull some punches! We made a video of Hannah and Lisa, turned them
into animated cartoon figures and created a wild west saloon scene
in which their fight took place. The wild West Calder scene was
created featuring photographs of two miners from our archive which
we brought to life through animation. Some of our star-studed cast
can be seen on the left.
Jack (7) and his sister Emma (6) had fun with our digital camera
and took some excellent photographs of the oil lamps featured in
the advert.
A local Brownie pack spent time drawing moose heads for the animated
sequence at the end of the advert. It was so hard to choose just
one moose drawing, so we have put some really good ones on this
page for everyone to see. Finally we decided to use Samantha's moose.
Scott (8) provided the voice over to bring Samantha's moose to
life. Jane (14) did the voiceover for the "nasty accident"
in the West Calder fight scene and Alyson (11), the scientific voice
of reason, assures us, "och, you're OK - its Scottish oi!l"
while Shamal (5) hisses as the fuse burns during the loading sequence.
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