Mathmos was founded in 1963 by the inventor of the lava lamp Edward Craven Walker. Mathmos lava lamps have been in continuous British production ever since. Recognized as twentieth-century design classics, Mathmos make the best quality lava lamps available.
The Mathmos story begins with the invention of the Astro lava lamp by our founder Edward Craven Walker. Craven Walker was a great British inventor, entrepreneur, and eccentric. Aside from inventing the lava lamp and various other patented inventions he also made underwater naturist films, owned helicopters, and fire engines, was a World War Two pilot, entertained the cast of the 60s musical Hair, and owned a naturist camp in Dorset.
In the early 1960s, Craven Walker led a team to develop the lava lamp from an invention for an egg timer he saw in a Dorset pub patented by Donald Dunnet in 1950. Taking years to develop the formulation and the design a number of patents were registered in the UK and abroad by the company building on Dunnets invention. The Astro came to market in 1963 and was an instant hit becoming one of the defining products of the swinging ‘60s appearing in cult TV series ”The Prisoner” and “Dr. Who”. Craven Walker and his wife Christine ran the business very successfully throughout the 1960s and ‘70s.
