mathmos

1. The Mathmos was the name of an organism formed of all the negative energy of the citizens of * City, which was the setting for cult 60's movie 'Barbarella' (Jane Fonda) - based on a comic strip of the same name.

2. Mathmos is also the name of a company that created the original Lava Lamps, a psychedelic concoction involving a glass cylinder containing swirling, coloured wax, which looked a lot like the Mathmos itself.

See also: Matmos, Barbarella, Duran Duran, Jane Fonda

Mathmos is a UK company originally started by Edward Craven Walker, the creator of the original Lava Lamp. He set a challenge, that if his company could be made profitable in one year, the person responsible would get the main share of the business. This was taken up in 1990 by Cressida Granger. Cressidna is now the sole owner of the business, Edward Craven Walker was an advisor to the company up until his death in 2000.

Mathmos Original products include:

• Astro - The original Lava Lamp
• Jet - A sleek, more minimal design
• Astrobaby - A smaller version of the Astrolamp
• Telstar - Astrobaby lamp, but with a rocket shaped base and tip, very cool
• Glitterbaby - Basically the Astrobaby but the lamp is full if glitter instead of wax
• FibreSpace - One of those tacky looking UFO's with hundreds of small fibre-optic wires sprouting out of the middle
• Space Projector - This uses slides full of oils and projects the patterns onto the nearest surface
• Lunar - Gigantic rocket themed Lava lamp, this thing takes hours to get going

Mathmos isn't just relying on it's flagship product, it has started a new range entitled Mathmos Modern. This range will include products from the new in-house design team at Mathmos. So far products include:

• The Fluidium - The redesigned Lava Lamp. Has a funky new shape, clear oil and a coloured bulb which enhances the effect
• Faze 3 - Has been around for a while, it's a tall pyramid shaped lamp which slowly changes colours, but can also be set to react to sounds. I'm not sure how popular this model is, at £300 it's very expensive for what it does
• Mathmos Bubble - The most recent product. I bought one of these from www.firebox.com and it's great. It's a silicone ball (just larger than a tennis ball), which lights up when you squeeze it. As a lamp it's not amazingly effective, but as a nightlight or conversation piece it's great. I think these things would be great for a night out, not only for dancing, but for grabbing attention. They come in blue, green and red

Some information used from www.Mathmos.co.uk