What did Trotting Horse Lamp look like?

A lantern shape with a paper impeller at the top. Paper-cut human figures and horses are suspended below the impeller. A candle is lit at the bottom.

How did Trotting Horse Lamp work?

Candle burns → heated air rises → hot air strikes the upper impeller → impeller rotates → drives the paper figures below via the axis → their shadows project onto the lantern wall creating animation.

← DiscoveriesA-Tier · Major Innovation

走马灯

Trotting Horse Lamp

Hot air convection drives an impeller to rotate, which in turn rotates paper-cut figures of people and horses around an axis — the earliest prototype of the gas turbine.

走马灯

Scientific Principle

Thermal convection: hot air density decreases and rises, forming an updraft. Rudimentary gas turbine principle: hot airflow drives an impeller.

走马灯

Trotting Horse Lamp

Scientific Principle

Related · 宋代