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TABLE OF CONTENTS HISTORY THE TIMELINE MANUFACTURER'S HISTORIES THE PATENT PAGES THE PRE-ELECTRIC ERA VINTAGE ADVERTISING THE LIGHT SET GALLERIES RELATED LINKS |
SOME HELP WITH DATING YOUR LAMPS AND OUTFITS, page two |
The earliest Christmas lighting outfits used screw-in current taps like the ones pictured above. In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, American homes wired for electricity were wired for lighting circuits only, and usually only a single light bulb socket was provided for each room. Any additional electrical devices had to be powered from the ceiling outlet. As electricity became more popular, wall lighting as well as ceiling lighting became popular, and suddenly lighting the family Christmas tree with electricity was a bit easier. Actual wall outlets like the brass example pictured above were seldom found-this example was salvaged from a circa 1915 mansion in Knoxville, Tennessee. Pictured below are some of the variations of screw in current taps that the collector may find today. The bladed wall plug that we are familiar with
today was actually a development of a device that was originally
used to facilitate the interconnection of stings or festoons of
Christmas lights. Patented as the Tachon connector in 1924, the
device was actually in use in various forms as early as 1917, and
before being patented by Lester Haft, was made by several companies
including Propp, Bryant, and Monowatt among others. The Tachon
started out as a screw in type of connector with a safety cover, but
soon evolved into the two parallel blade type that we are still
familiar with. Below are pictures of the two types of Tachon
connectors:
Once the bladed plug was firmly established as the most popular type of connector, the screw in type power taps evolved into an adaptable model, with a removable snap on screw in adapter covering the parallel blades. Collectors today will find most of these round, black or brown plugs to be missing their adapters, as by the late 1920s bladed wall plugs were being installed in electrified homes and the adapters were no longer needed.
HERE
ARE A FEW MORE DATING HINTS:
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TABLE OF CONTENTS HISTORY THE TIMELINE MANUFACTURER'S HISTORIES THE PATENT PAGES THE PRE-ELECTRIC ERA VINTAGE ADVERTISING THE LIGHT SET GALLERIES RELATED LINKS |
Note: This is an archive of the late Bill Nelson's "Antique Christmas Light" web site as it existed in 2001. Except for contact information, link updates, and some information that has been lost, we have attempted to keep the text and illustrations as Bill presented them. However, the original pages included much outdated HTML code and graphic conventions, so we have done a lot of work "behind the scenes" to bring you this archive. Consequently:
OldChristmasTreeLights? and FamilyChristmasOnline? are trademarks of Breakthrough Communications? (www.btcomm.com).
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