Since the inspiration for the lava lamp was at a pub, it would seem suitable to have lava glasses or beer mugs at a pub or disco. Picture a San Francisco with green, moving bubbles, a café latte inside bouncing, black blobs or a Guinness surrounded by excited, beige balls.
The basic design would be a double walled glass to contain the lava liquids with insulation (third wall?) from a cold drink and a light and heat source via induction. On the tables and on or behind the bar would be induction points for powering the lava glasses. Even the empty glasses would afford a colorful display at the bar as they are warmed up.
There are drinks called Lava Lamp, but a lava lamp drink with movement could probably be achieved with liquids of the correct density and insolubility in one of these glasses with or without surrounding blobs.-- FarmerJohn, Aug 10 2002 Re: Orbitz Soda http://www.retrocru...archive2003/orbitz/Tangentially similar to a lava lamp drink, and doesn't require a power source. Or taste buds, according to the author. Perhaps the soda could be used to fill the void in clear double-walled glasses. [jurist, Sep 12 2005] So was I, UnaBubba.
Anyway, perhaps you could move the heating element out of the glasses, and have heat and lighting coming from the bar. Because they're probably going to be a little heavy...
Although if you stick with the in-glass element, you could have cooling at the top as well as heating at the bottom for a longer lasting effect.
I like the idea of having an actual lava-lamp drink itself.. although I doubt there is a good combination of immiscable, drinkable liquids with the appropriate density change properties which also taste good.-- Loris, Aug 10 2002 Good points. I like the idea of continued movement and light at the table and induction would eliminate burn risk.-- FarmerJohn, Aug 10 2002 I'd like a giant lava blob, a lava globe with a 1/2 metre radius. Why confine it to glasses, how about a window pain with two colours so that the dark colour takes over as it heats up like a sunscreen and vice versa.-- edski, Aug 10 2002 Have you not seen those double-walled plastic glasses containing colored oils and water that achieve this very effect, no technology required? Baked, I say.-- DrCurry, Aug 11 2002 Dr: Do the back-lit blobs continue to move like mating and dividing amoebae?
edski: I think a window add-on as decoration instead of sunscreen, with the liquids powered by the sun and cooled in the upper, shaded edge, would be interesting too.-- FarmerJohn, Aug 11 2002 Yeah, if you hold the glass up to the light as you drink.-- DrCurry, Aug 12 2002 A pre-search before posting LavaJava finds this gem.
Bun and churn.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 11 2005 Actually about 10 years ago I remember my mum buying me a soft drink, inside a clear plastic can was a lemonade or similar clear fizzy drink. Floating at random depths were small blobs of jelly, I don't think they were particularly popular, that was the only time I ever saw them.-- fridge duck, Sep 11 2005 The drink was called Orbitz here [fridge duck]-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Sep 12 2005 random, halfbakery