Notebook page three

David Neely, a friend and fellow collector, reported the discovery of this interesting set of "Twin Four" lights from the ClemCo Company. The set is unusual in that it contains two strings of 4 C-7 candelabra based

lamps

that interconnect, an effort to make even light distribution on the tree a bit easier. Most C-7 outfits have only 7 lamps in a set. Adding to the mystery, a set of Muter brand lights in my collection is identical in almost every way to this ClemCo set, except for the box art. This suggests a possible connection between the ClemCo and Muter companies. More research will have to be done on this!

Work has begun on a new section of the site: an Interesting Facts page. As research for this site continues, there are so many little interesting facts and stories buried in the history of these fascinating lights that I decided to present them briefly on a single page. CLICK HERE to see the beginnings of the page.

I recently acquired this set of lights as a gift from my wife, and wanted to share the restoration process with you:

Here are three pictures of the outfit as I received it. There is old cellophane tape on all four corners of the box top, which are quite brittle and have discolored the corners. I knew in the beginning that this tape damage is not really repairable, but the tape shows to me that the former owner cared enough for the outfit to keep it in its original box, and lovingly made repairs to it over the years, which is really more important to me than a pristine set. The insert to hold the lights was present, but was flattened, torn, discolored and dirty. There were also several old ornament hooks in the box which predated World War II, and quite a few mica flakes indicating that at one time the owners used the lights on a prewar flocked tree.
Here's the misshapen insert removed from the box. Sometimes these inserts can be ironed flat again, and reshaped to fit back in their box properly, and other times, the cardboard is so brittle and delicate that reshaping will only cause more damage. Luckily for me, this one was still fairly flexible. I will attempt to use a steam iron to restore it.
The ironing process was quite successful! Although the house now smells like a really old garage, the insert took well to a very warm iron and a bit of steam, and flattened out perfectly. The tears have also been repaired with non acidic archival quality glue available from most art supply stores. (I use Aileen's brand acid free white glue for my repairs.)
The reshaped insert is now back in its box. Some of the staining has been removed with a gum eraser, and a quick wiping with a slightly damp cloth has taken care of a lot of the dust and grime that collected over the years.
Now we start work on the cord. It is in really good shape, and other than being a little stiff, the only problem is that the plug has some discoloring from mildew stains. This view shows the staining, and also the good condition that the varnished, braided cotton covered wire is in.
A little buffing with a soft cloth wheel on a Dremel Moto Tool has made short work of the staining on the plug. Bakelite has the amazing ability to take a polish quite well, and, despite the age of this piece, it restored nicely. I also took the opportunity to polish the plug blades a bit too.
Now for the most time consuming part of the restoration-getting the light string back in the box in a manner that resembles the way it originally came from the factory. This is an intermediate base set of lights, and as such, the sockets are large, the wiring thick and stiff with age, and to make matters worse, the varnish covering the wires to weatherproof them has become a bit brittle. To make the wires easier to handle, I warmed them in a 175 degree oven with a bowl of water (not IN the water), and as the heat and humidity began their work on the wires, they became softer and more workable for a time. There is always the concern that the stiff wires will crack with too much handling, so I really take my time with this step.
About two hours later, the light string is back home in its box, neatly coiled in the same manner as when the set originally left the factory. This was a difficult job, as the cardboard insert is no match for the stiff, heavy wires, and I really had to coil and shape the string out of the box, making a multitude of adjustments until the string and sockets would drop into the box in perfect alignment with the insert. The lights that came with the outfit were not original, and were a mismatch of lamps from different time periods, as each was replaced over years of use. Since the box called for Mazda lamps, I installed a matching set of outside painted Mazda "snow-tips".
Now it's time to attack the lid on the set-the most important part! As mentioned before, the corners are split out, and there is discolored cellophane tape on them all. I do not want to try to remove the tape, as while it can be done, the discoloration from the gum cannot be removed. I do, however, want to repair the corners as invisibly as possible. This can easily be done with the white Aileen's glue and some acid-free cardboard of medium weight.
Here is the corner repair in progress. In the center of the lid you can see one of the corner reinforcements that I have fashioned out of the acid free cardboard. These are covered in the Aileen's glue, and then slipped under the folds of cardboard in each corner on the original box. I use the heavy duty paper clamps to hold the corners in place, and when dry, you have a permanent and invisible repair. The corners are now actually stronger than when the box was new.
Here's the completed lid. All four corners are now fixed, and the repair is truly invisible. Luckily, this box lid had ample folds of cardboard to hide the repairs-many of the less expensive outfits were made from much lighter material without the reinforcing folds at the corners.
The completely restored outfit, ready for high resolution photographs to be taken for presentation here on the website. I use an Olympus Camedia 3040 digital camera, which so far has yielded pleasurable results. I take high resolution photos, then compress them for fast loading on the website using Microsoft's PictureIt! photo manipulation software. By compressing hi-res photos, little detail is lost in the conversion, and the picture will load much faster for web site visitors.
Here are the finished photos, ready for uploading to the website in the proper category.
Now that the restoration of the set is complete, it's time to try and find out as much about it as possible. As I mentioned earlier, I had never seen this set before, nor heard of the manufacturer. Researching this set would be fun! Judging by the graphics on the box, it is a mid 30s to early 40s set, but that is about all I could tell about the age, as the box was not dated. I knew the lamps were not original, as they were a mixed lot. The outside paint lamps were marked Japan, an obvious replacement as the box plainly stated "with Mazda lamps". The other lamps in the set were GE inside coated, but lacked the Mazda trademark on them, so they could not be original either. The light string itself is marked "P&S" on the plug blades, and the string matches the box art exactly. I'm confident that the string is original to the box. The P&S brand name had the words "Reg. U.S. Pat. Off", which was very good news. It meant that I would be able to look up the dates that the name was first registered, as well as when the registration was allowed to expire. That would be a good starting point for dating the set. Since the lamps originally included with the outfit were first invented in 1927, I knew the set could be no earlier than that, and the Mazda name was discontinued by 1945, so the age of the outfit could be narrowed down to about an eighteen year window. No Christmas lights or outfits were manufactured during the War years, so an ending date of 1941 chops four years off the window. We're now dealing with a fourteen year time frame. A trip to the Patent and Trademark Office reveals that the P&S name was first registered in 1892 by the Pass and Seymour Company, a manufacturer of electrical light sockets and accessories. The company is still in business today. Amazingly, they have been at that same address for all of this time, the same address that appears on the box of lights. The stylized P&S logo that appears on the ends of the box was first registered in 1934 and expired in 1940. This helps to narrow down the time frame of manufacture even more. We can now say that most certainly, the set was manufactured between the years of 1934 and 1940, which fits in perfectly with the other clues we discussed. Since this brand of lights is not common, it can be assumed that the Pass and Seymour Company did not make these lights for long. Several other companies engaged in the electrical device manufacture offered Christmas lights from time to time, including Snapit, Dialco and Monowatt, none of whom sold Christmas lights for long either. CLICK HERE to see the listing and description of the set in the 1930s section of the web site. .


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