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  • Benji Jones: Oh, God!

  • This is not attractive.

  • Jessica Orwig: No.

  • It really does look like human fat.

  • Jones: That's me and my boss opening up a lava lamp.

  • [glugging]

  • Oh! Are we getting these noises, guys?

  • Our goal was simple: to figure out what's inside.

  • As it turned out, it actually wasn't simple at all.

  • And that's because companies don't want you to know.

  • Bryan Katzel: It's a formula that, you know, has been

  • pretty well-guarded throughout time, you know?

  • Jones: That's Bryan Katzel, vice president of

  • product development at Schylling,

  • the manufacturers of Lava brand lava lamps.

  • And true to his word, he wouldn't share the full recipe.

  • But he did reveal some key ingredients.

  • Katzel: Inside of a lava lamp, you've got wax,

  • which is mostly paraffin wax.

  • That's your lava.

  • Jones: Paraffin wax is a common wax made from petroleum.

  • You can often find it in candles and cosmetics.

  • But when we squeezed it in our hands,

  • it didn't really feel like melted wax at all.

  • Orwig: It sort of has the consistency of mashed pumpkin.

  • Jones: And what about all that liquid?

  • Katzel said it's mostly water.

  • And since wax doesn't mix with water,

  • that makes a lot of sense.

  • But, as you can see, it's not just water.

  • Yes, that extra coloring is partly for effect,

  • but it also contains chemicals that prevent fungus

  • from growing in the bottle.

  • And, of course, he did leave some things out.

  • Katzel: You know, there's a little bit of lava magic

  • that we sprinkle inside there.

  • But, essentially, it's liquid. It's water and wax.

  • Jones: That "magic" is actually really important,

  • because it's what makes lava lamps work the way they do.

  • Stefano Sacanna: You have these two liquids that are

  • separate, but now you also want to have this effect

  • where one of the liquids sort of dance around

  • and goes up and down.

  • And that has to do with the density.

  • Jones: He says the density is everything when it comes

  • to lava lamps.

  • When the lamp is off,

  • the wax is slightly denser than the liquid around it.

  • And that's why it sits at the bottom.

  • And when most materials warm up,

  • they expand and become less dense, or lighter.

  • That's what causes the wax to rise.

  • And then, when it reaches the top,

  • farther from the heat source, it cools, contracts,

  • gains density, and eventually falls back down.

  • So what does this have to do with what's inside?

  • Well, regular wax is normally lighter,

  • not heavier, than water.

  • So then what sort of wax is this stuff?

  • Sacanna: I suspect what you have inside is, in fact,

  • not just plain wax.

  • Most likely what you have is a mixture

  • of wax and some additives.

  • You add a little bit of this additive

  • until it just starts to fall down.

  • And that is when you reach that sweet spot.

  • And now you can use the temperature to tilt the balance,

  • either one side or towards the other.

  • And so I suspect that most of the trademark secret

  • is what kind of additive you want to add.

  • Jones: We asked Katzel about this,

  • and he said at Lava, those additives are

  • actually in the liquid, not the wax.

  • Katzel: At the end, you know,

  • you do a little bit of tweaking to the liquid

  • to make sure that the wax is more dense

  • than the liquid.

  • Jones: We may never know for sure what those

  • special additives are.

  • But a study published in 1996 may hold a clue.

  • The researchers report they found that one lamp

  • of an unspecified brand contained kerosene,

  • which Sacanna confirmed could make the liquid less dense.

  • But whatever those "magical" additives are,

  • they smelled really bad.

  • Orwig: Ugh! Smells terrible. Jones: Exactly. Yeah.

  • This is not, Orwig: Awful!

  • playing with it is not helping the smell,

  • as it turns out.

  • Orwig: This smell is, like, making me nauseous.

  • Jones: So suffice it to say, we won't be opening

  • another lamp anytime soon.

  • And according to the company, neither should you.

Benji Jones: Oh, God!

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