| ca 1912:
This outfit from the American Ever Ready Company is quite typical of
outfits the company sold. It is an eight light set, without a
junction box. The outfit includes two compartments to hold wire
springs, used to attach the light sockets to the tree branches. This
set is a bit unusual in that it includes these springs-most Ever
Ready sets do not. The end view of the box
shows the Eveready logo. This company later merged
with The National Carbon Company, the same company still making
Eveready batteries today. Inside the box shows the green porcelain
sockets, the springs and lamps, and the screw plug connector. |
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1914: Here
is a very early battery set of Christmas lights of unknown
manufacturer. The box has no labels, nor any indication that it ever
did. Someone has written on the cover " Very old lights- 1914." This
collector agrees with the date, especially considering the wooden
sockets were never painted green, an indicator of an early set. A
look inside shows the round, carbon filament 6 volt lights, and the
parallel wired festoon. This outfit lacks an on/off switch, another
indicator of an early set. Outfits like these were powered from a 6
volt wet cell type battery, usually hidden under the table that the
tree was sitting on. Remembering that this set has carbon filament
lamps, it would have had a very heavy current draw, and a battery
would have lasted just an hour or so in continuous use.
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ca 1916:
A set of figural lamps imported by The Interstate Electric
Novelty Company and trademarked Franco. The company was a major
importer of figural lights in the early 1900s.This collector was
quite lucky in that the original instruction booklet for the set was
found underneath the cardboard insert that holds the lamps in place.
Views of the cover and inside are shown here- the back of the
booklet is totally blank. The figural lights include from left to
right: a candle, peach, another candle, a monkey sitting on a log, a
rose, another candle, a green frog and another rose. Inside, the box
is stamped "Patent Pending the R.P.B Co." This is the box
manufacturer, not the maker of the lights. The lamps are a mixture
of German and Japanese origins. This collector believes that the
outfit originally contained an all German assortment of lamps, with
the Japanese lamps being later replacements. The set also
illustrates an extremely early use of the "new" composition type
sockets. |
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| ca 1916:
This set is a scarce outfit from the American Ever Ready Works of
the National Carbon Company. Due to the name on the box, this outfit
can be dated to the years after 1914 and before 1920. Another dating
clue is the round tungsten exhaust tipped lamps made during the
years of 1916-1919. Using these clues, and making the fairly safe
assumption that the lamps are original to the outfit, the set can now easily be
pinned down to a manufacture date between 1916 and 1919. Rarely does
the collector have the opportunity to pin down a date so closely.
Inside the box, one can see the screw plug power tap, a green
ceramic junction box, the two green ceramic festoons of eight lamps
each, and the round, exhaust tipped tungsten filament lamps. A
close up view of one of the lamps in the set shows that the glass is
heavily lacquered in red, which has held up surprisingly well,
considering that it is at least 86 years old. |
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| ca 1916:
A more typical battery outfit, this
time with green painted wooden sockets and an on-off switch. The 6
volt set is by Diamond. Inside, we see the round,
tungsten filament lamps and the parallel wired festoon. The white lamp,
which is made of milk glass, is Japanese, and seems to be a replacement
for an earlier burnt out lamp. All of the others in the set are American, with
painted glass envelopes. |
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| ca 1916:
By Peerless, this outfit is in a somewhat non-typical box, being a bit
taller than most. Inside, there are eight early "tin
can base" 16 volt hand painted lamps, and a festoon with green ceramic
sockets. A close up of one of the lamps shows that
the glass envelope is a bit larger than a typical lamp of the time. The
lamps are marked with a patent date of 1902, which actually refers to
Edison's patent concerning the base size (miniature) and thread spacing,
not the entire light bulb itself.
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ca 1917: Produced by the Triangle Electro
Trading Company, this interesting set is
called an "Auxiliary Outfit." The five socket string with a screw-in
connector is meant to take the place of a single light bulb in an
eight light series wired outfit. The lights are Celluloid, and were
made into Christmas lights by various companies who converted simple
German or Japanese toys. This set is missing two lights: a swan and
a dog. Celluloid is a compound made from
nitrocellulose and camphor, generally considered one of the first
plastics. The word "Celluloid" was actually a trademark of the Celluloid
Manufacturing Company, and was registered in 1870. In the very early
1900s, many small German or Japanese toys and Putz animals were made into
figural Christmas lights like these. Most of these outfits were intended to be operated from
battery power, but a few sets, (this outfit is one example), were made to be added on to a standard set of 8
series wired lights. Both series and parallel wired outfits are known to
exist. Celluloid burns very easily and
often suffered from spontaneous decomposition (accompanied by a
strong smell of vinegar), and as a result the vast majority of these
lights have been lost to the ages. One of the few remaining products made
today from celluloid are ping pong balls.
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