The Mazda
Lamp Story...
On December 21, 1909,
General Electric first used the name Mazda on their lamps. The name was
trademarked, and assigned the number 77,779 by the United States Patent
ands Trademark Office. Today, we associate the name with automobiles, but
when it was first used by GE it was chosen to represent the best that the
American lighting industry had to offer at the time, and was selected due
to the fact that Persian mythology gave the name Ahura Mazda to the god of
light.
The earliest light bulb
filaments were made of various carbonized materials, including bamboo.
Light output was rated in candlepower, with 1 candlepower or (1CP) being
roughly equivalent to the light output of a single beeswax candle. Most
carbon Christmas lights were rated at either one or two CP, but sadly, the
output from each lamp varied widely. Practically speaking, it was
virtually impossible to accurately rate the output from carbon filaments,
even though each filament was made to the same standards.
In the early days of electric
light bulbs, most of the bulb manufacturers each had their own set of
production standards, and light bulb quality and light output was quite
different both from brand to brand and from lamp to lamp within each
brand. Lamp bases were not standardized, and light output ratings would
vary greatly. This inconsistency was most frustrating to the consumer,
which resulted in less than stellar light bulb sales. In 1909, General
Electric came up with the idea of a set of manufacturing specifications to
which all American lamp manufacturers could adhere, thereby effectively
"standardizing" light bulbs in the United States.
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1917 ink blotter designed by Maxfield Parrish |
General Electric's new service
would be available for a price to all lamp makers who subscribed, and the
MAZDA name would be widely advertised by GE in almost all of the popular
magazines of the day. The MAZDA name and standards were available for
license only for lamps using tungsten filaments. Tungsten, a vast
improvement over the carbon filaments, had a brighter, whiter light output
which was much more even from lamp to lamp, assuring equal brightness when
used in a string of Christmas lights. Improvements to household light
bulbs were not usually incorporated into the small and much less used
Christmas light bulbs until several years later due to increased
production costs, and the use of tungsten in the manufacture of Christmas
lamps did not appear until about 1916. It had been available in household
lamps since 1907.
This
ad, from the a 1917 issue of Popular Science magazine, explains the Mazda
"mission", and reads as follows:
"NOT THE NAME OF A THING, BUT THE MARK OF A
SERVICE."
"The new light that MAZDA service throws on lamp-manufacturers' problems
is reflected in the brighter, whiter light that MAZDA Lamps give in your
home."
"The Meaning of MAZDA"
"MAZDA is the trademark of a world-wide service to certain lamp
manufacturers. Its purpose is to collect and select scientific and
practical information concerning progress and developments in the art of
incandescent lamp manufacturing and to distribute this information to the
companies entitled to receive this Service. MAZDA Service is centered in
the Research Laboratories of the General Electric Company at Schenectady,
New York. The mark MAZDA can appear only on lamps which meet the standards
of MAZDA service. It is thus an assurance of quality. This trademark is
the property of the General Electric Company."
Circa 1920 box of Westinghouse
MAZDA Christmas lamps |
Many of the lighting companies then in business licensed
the MAZDA name, among them the various Edison divisions of GE, Westinghouse and National
companies. Most Christmas lamps after about 1925 or so will be found with
either the General Electric or Westinghouse name on them, as the pair was
by far the largest supplier of Christmas and other light bulbs in the
United States. Westinghouse first used the Mazda name in 1912.
In 1921, GE further specified
particulars to licensees of the Mazda name with the following regulation:
"Words that are
descriptive of the appearance of the lamp will precede the word MAZDA,
as in the case of the White MAZDA lamp. Words descriptive of the
function of the lamp will follow the word MAZDA, as in the case of the
MAZDA Mill Type lamp, the MAZDA Train Lighting lamp, or the MAZDA Motion
Picture lamp."
General
Electric heavily advertised their MAZDA trademark in one of the most
successful advertising campaigns in history. The lamps were more expensive, but promised better, more
reliable and economical operation. The 1917 ad pictured here on the right
is typical of those found in many magazines of the time. It compares the
"wasteful carbon shape" to the tungsten filament. Bombarded with ads like
these, the
buying public gradually abandoned their old carbon filament lamps in favor of the
new tungsten.
In
about 1920, the Edison Mazda division of General Electric commissioned world famous artist
Maxfield Parrish to create a series of calendars and other advertising
paraphernalia based loosely on major events in the history of lighting.
The picture on the left is from a 1923 calendar and is entitled "The
Lamplighter of Bagdad". (Apparently neither the Edison companies nor
Parrish himself caught the misspelling of the name "Baghdad"). Parrish's
beautiful and most effective works of art created for this advertising campaign are highly
collectible and most sought after.
By 1920 or so, the conversion to tungsten in the Christmas lighting
industry was complete. The major exception was with lamps imported from
Japan, many of which continued to utilize carbon filaments until 1927.
This was most evident in their clear glass figural lamps, but smooth cone
miniature base C-6 lamps from Japan can be found with carbon filaments as
well. Pictured below are two examples of these late 1920s Japanese lamps:
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1925 Japanese
carbon figural |
1927 Japanese
carbon cone |
Pictured
here on the left is a typical 1920s ad by General Electric/Edison Mazda,
and is from the December 12, 1925 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.
The charming picture is by book illustrator Rundle. The ad promotes the
use of electric lights for the Christmas tree and reads in part:
"Nothing adds
so much to Christmas cheer and the decoration of your home as electric
light. It is the least expensive of the season's joys. For the cost of an
old fashioned Christmas tree candle, for the cost of a few tree ornaments,
you can light up your whole house in a blaze of cheer. And keep the cheer
of Christmastide in your home throughout the year. Use light freely, for
electric light is the cheapest light the world has known. Just remember
that the best and cheapest light lamps to burn are Mazda Lamps. Mazda-the
mark of a research service."
"Edison Mazda Lamps are a General Electric Product."
As the decade of the 1930s
began, Americans had fully accepted the MAZDA name as a symbol of quality
for their Christmas light bulb needs, and many outfits proudly proclaimed
the inclusion of MAZDA lamps in their sets. Only the economic factors
continued to be a bit of a hindrance, as a typical MAZDA Christmas lamp
sold for 5 cents, while the Japanese tungsten equivalent were two for a
nickel. Competition from the Japanese became more fierce as the effects of
the Great Depression settled in, and many lighting outfit advertisements
from NOMA and General Electric urged they buying public to "Buy American".
Comparison studies of American MAZDA versus Japanese tungsten lamps were
commissioned by both General Electric and Westinghouse. Although the test
criteria would probably not withstand close scrutiny by today's testing
standards, results of the studies showed an average life of 46.8 hours for
the Japanese tungsten lamps, compared to an average 207.4 hours for a
MAZDA tungsten lamp, a dramatic difference. Nonetheless, the Japanese
lamps gave good enough service to be huge sellers up until the beginning
of World War II.
General Electric dropped the
Mazda trademark in 1945, and ceased licensing the name as well. This
cutoff date gives the collector a handy benchmark to use when trying to
apply a date of manufacture to a light bulb. Only leftover stock carried
the Mazda name on any General Electric or Westinghouse lamp sold after the
1945 cutoff.
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