A lava lamp is a novelty item used for decoration rather than illumination; the slow, interesting rise and fall of variously-shaped blobs of wax is suggestive of lava, hence the name. The lamps are available with a variety of styles and colors of wax and liquid. The lamp contains either an incandescent bulb or halogen lamp which heats a tapered glass bottle containing water and a translucent mix of wax and carbon tetrachloride (although other combinations may be used).

A metallic wire coil in the base furthers heat convection and suspends the falling blobs of wax. The wax is slightly denser than water at room temperature but is less dense under warmer conditions. This occurs because wax expands more than water when both are heated.

When heated, wax becomes fluid, its specific gravity decreases, and blobs of wax ascend to the top of the device. Singapore-born Englishman Edward Craven-Walker invented the lava lamp in the 1960s. His U.S. Patent 3,570,156 for "Display Device" was filed in 1965 and issued in 1968.

Craven-Walker's company was named Crestworth and was based in Poole, Dorset in the United Kingdom. Craven-Walker named the lamp Astro and had variations such as the Astro Mini, the Astro Coach lantern and presented it at a Brussels trade show in 1965, where the entrepreneur Adolph Wertheimer noticed it. Wertheimer and his business partner William Rubinstein bought the American rights and produced it as the Lava Lite via Lava Corporation or Lava Manufacturing Corporation, the origin of the word "lava" for this lamp.

Wertheimer sold his shares to Hy Spector. Rubinstein and Spector went on to manufacture and market the Lava Lite in his Chicago factory at 1650 W. Irving Park Rd in the mid-60s.

The lamps were a success throughout the 1960s and early 70s. Lava Corporation's name changed to Lava-Simplex-Scribe International in the early 1970s, and made instant-loading camera film cartridges as well as postage stamp vending machines.

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