|
Date |
Manufacturer |
Notes |
Outside of Box |
Inside of Box |
|
ca 1935 |
Polly |
The Leo Pollock
Company of New York produced these lights in about 1935. The Company
produced only very high quality outfits that have survived the years
well. This set uses the candelabra base C-7 120 volt lamps. |
 |
 |
|
An attempt to
solve the burnt out lamp problem in series wired sets came to us
from Japan. Patented in 1929, the XL lamps contained a shunt device
that allowed the rest of the light string to remain lighted should
one or more lamps burn out. While the invention worked to keep the
string lit, it was not successful from a practical point of view.
When a bulb failed, the remaining seven on the string would receive
considerably higher voltage, shortening their life. If the failed
lamp was not replaced quickly, the stress on the remaining lamps
soon took its toll. Genuine XL lamps are so marked on the glass
envelope at the base of the bulb. There were also regular lamps made
with the distinctive heavy embossed flame design, but they do not
say XL on them. The Reliance company distributed the all of the XL
named light sets, although the Reliance name is seldom found on the
boxes. Incidentally, the "XL" nomenclature referred to the lamps
having "Xtra Life", as some of them were rated at 16 volts instead
of the more common 14 or 15. Operation on normal household current
of 110 volts resulted in the lamps lasting just a bit longer. XL
lamps were used by other manufacturers as well, and sold under
differing brand names. Also see If One
Goes Out, They All Go Out on this website. |
1929 XL Lamp Patent |
|
1935 |
Reliance |
The
first offering of the newly-introduced shunt type lamps by
Reliance features an interesting presentation in a very atypical
box. Much deeper than most, the box has the lamps standing upright
in the insert, and the typical thin, braided cotton covered cord is
hidden except for the plug. Later this year, Reliance switched to
the less-expensive box pictured directly below. |
 |
 |
|
1935 |
Reliance |
Inside and outside
views of the late 1935 edition of the XL lighting set. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
Reliance |
 Inside
and outside views of a circa 1936 XL outfit. Also pictured here is a
close-up of the distinctive XL lamps. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
Royal |
A set
of lights using imported XL lamps and sold under the EverLite name
by Royal Electric. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
Amico |
An offering of XL lights under the
Amico brand name. This outfit is uncommon, and has kindly been
shared with us from the collection of David Neely. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
General Electric |
General Electric introduced their
new candle shaped lamps. These lamps had a major disadvantage in
that the filaments often burned quite close to the glass envelope,
creating a circular burn spot in the paint of the lamp. |
 |
|
1936 |
Reliance |
The hard to find XL
Candles set was first offered in 1936, the same year in which
General Electric offered their own version of candle lamps. These
bulbs also have the XL shunting device as described above. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
NOMA |
Selling
under the StayBrite name, this is NOMA's set of shunted lamps, also
imported. Most companies would use brand names differing from their
major line in sets utilizing imported lamps. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
Peerless |
A C-6
miniature based outfit from Peerless, the set has an unusual and
attractive fan-shaped presentation of the light set inside the box. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
NOMA |
The
most commonly found NOMA box style, due to the fact that it was used
for many years-even after World War II. Both C-6 miniature based and
C-7 candelabra based lighting outfits were offered in this book
style box. the earliest versions of the box, issued prior to the
War, say "with Mazda Lamps" on the cover. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
Paramount |
 The
introduction of Textolite, a new heat resistant GE product, which
was essentially a fabric-based laminate, allowed for new products to
be offered in connection with Christmas lighting. Shown here are
light covers from Paramount, featuring the Katzenjammer Kids. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
NOMA |
These
NOMA plastic bells are similar in shape to the other NOMA products
pictured below, but are undecorated. The back of the box specifies
that the bells may be used either facing up or down on the tree. |
 |
 |
|
1936 |
NOMA |
In an
effort to appeal to children, NOMA produced and marketed this set
for both Christmas and party use. |
 |
 |
|
ca 1936 |
NOMA |
A set
of Disney licensed decals for the NOMA Mickey Mouse bell set. This
is NOMA manufacturing overstock. |
 |
|
ca 1936 |
Reliance |
This
particular Popeye outfit was offered by Reliance, but an identical
outfit was sold by The Leo Pollack Company and the Raylite/Paramount
company as well. |
 |
 |
|
ca 1936 |
Paramount |
Paramount offered this "Scrappy" licensed outfit, based on the
popular cartoon characters |
 |
|
|
ca 1936 |
NOMA |
Another
outfit from NOMA featuring a Walt Disney theme, this set is from
their Silly Symphonies cartoon series and features popular
characters from that series. |
 |
 |
|
ca 1936 |
NOMA |
This
set was intended for birthday and other children's parties, and was
not marketed for Christmastime use. |
 |
 |
|
ca 1936 |
NOMA |
Here is
a unique outfit from NOMA, called their Miro-Star set. The cardboard
stars have individually set mirrors on each of the star rays, giving
a brilliant and beautiful effect on the tree. This is a very hard to
find outfit. |
 |
 |
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