The lava lamp has fairly mysterious origins. About the only thing known for sure is that the British entrepreneur Edward Craven Walker perfected the technology for what he called the Astro lamp and began selling it through his Crestworth company in 1963. Other stories about the lamp's origin are much more hazy, but they have similar elements: A man named Mr. Alfred Dunnet produced a rudimentary one-off invention in the 1950s—possibly made...Continue Reading