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A BRIEF
HISTORY
The world's first practical light bulb was
invented by Thomas
Edison in 1879, (CLICK
HERE to
see the patent) and
it was to be only three years later that an associate of his, one
Edward
Johnson, electrically lit a Christmas tree for the first time. The tree
was
in the parlor of his New York home, located in the first section of
that
city to be wired for electricity. The display created quite
a stir, and was dutifully recorded by a reporter named Croffut in the
Detroit Post and Tribune:
"Last evening I walked
over beyond Fifth Avenue and called at the residence of Edward H.
Johnson,
vice-president of Edison's electric company. There, at the rear of the
beautiful
parlors, was a large Christmas tree presenting a most picturesque and
uncanny
aspect. It was brilliantly
lighted with many colored globes about as large as an English walnut
and was
turning some six times a minute on a little pine box. There were eighty
lights
in all encased in these dainty glass eggs, and about equally divided
between white, red and blue. As the tree turned, the
colors alternated, all the lamps going out and being relit at every
revolution. The result was a continuous twinkling of dancing
colors, red, white, blue, white, red, blue---all evening.
I need not tell
you that the
scintillating evergreen was a pretty sight---one can hardly imagine
anything
prettier. The ceiling was crossed obliquely with two wires on which
hung 28 more
of the tiny lights; and all the lights and the fantastic tree itself
with its
starry fruit were kept going by the
slight electric current brought from the
main office on a filmy wire. The tree was kept revolving by a little
hidden
crank below the floor which was turned by electricity. It
was a superb exhibition."
As a side note here, let me
address a question that I often get about the first electrically lit
Christmas tree. There is another story that has been frequently
reported that credits Ralph Morris as the inventor of electric
Christmas lights. The story goes that Ralph, seeing his son push a candle over on
a Christmas tree, nearly set the tree on fire and ended up singeing his
hair. Ralph came up with the idea of pulling the lights from an old
telephone switchboard and wiring them on a tree, and thusly "inventing"
the electric Christmas tree lights. This incident is actually true, but
it happened in 1908. Up until the early 1930s, Mr. Morris'
family truly believed he had invented electric lighting for trees,
totally unaware of Edward Johnson and his parlor tree. I have seen this
story, in various versions, presented on the internet and in published
works as the origin of electrically lighted trees. But this incident
happened more than 25 years after Edward Johnson displayed his tree.
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Since public distribution of electricity was not yet
common, those living outside of a major city who desired one of these
wonderful trees had to supply their own
electric power, typically from household generators. In addition, the
services
of a "wireman" had to be obtained, as few people were willing or even
able to
undertake the job of hand wiring all of the lights on the tree
themselves.
Electric socket outfits had not been invented, and it was a tedious
task at best
to wire all of the lights necessary to illuminate a room sized tree.
Although intrigued,
the public was not yet convinced of the practicality of electric trees.
circa 1900 socketless
festoon type
Christmas lamp
In 1895, President Cleveland proudly sponsored
the first
electrically lit Christmas tree in the White House. It was a huge
specimen,
featuring more than a
hundred
multicolored lights. Finally, the general public
was taking notice, and it was not long afterward that members of
"high
society" were hosting Christmas Tree
parties. They were grand events
indeed, as a typical lighted tree of the early 1900s cost upwards of
$300 (more
than $2000 today), including the generator and wireman's services.
Still out of range for the average American family, smaller
and less expensive battery-operated lighting strings were decorating
the trees
of those adventurous enough to do the wiring. In fact, an article in
Popular
Electricity Magazine had an piece for children, explaining how to light
the
family tree with battery-powered electric lights. The back pages had
instructions on ordering the necessary wire, sockets and light bulbs.
General
Electric even offered miniature light bulbs for
rent in some cities, as an alternative to an outright purchase of the
expensive
lamps. But electric
tree lighting was not to be truly practical until the General Electric
Company came to
the rescue in 1903. That
year, GE offered a
pre-assembled lighting outfit for the first time. Still quite expensive
at $12.00
(the total weekly wage for an average worker and the equivalent of
about $80.00
today), many department stores in the larger, electrified cities
would rent
outfits for the season for $1.50. Called a "festoon", the outfit
consisted of eight green pre-wired
porcelain sockets, eight Edison miniature base colored glass lamps, and
a handy
screw-in plug for easy attachment to a nearby wall or ceiling light
socket. The
set was
suitable for a table-top size tree:
circa 1905 Rental Christmas
Tree Lighting Outfit
Below is a transcript of the contents of
a colorful booklet put out by General Electric in 1903:
READY MADE
ELECTRIC LIGHTING OUTFITS
FOR DECORATIVE LIGHTING
General Electric
Flyer No. 2134
"In electrically
lighted houses,
the use of Miniature Incandescent Lamps renders possible most
attractive effects
and gives an added charm to all forms of decorations. Such lamps, by
their small
size and inconspicuous shape, are especially adapted for table, foliage
and
general house decorations. Having no flame, they are clean and safe to
handle.
They are instantaneously lighted by the touch of a button, and they
will burn
for as long as desired without attention. The only drawback to their
general use
has been the trouble and expense of wiring them so they could be
connected to
the lighting circuit. This difficulty has now been overcome by a
completely
wired outfit, in which miniature sockets and flexible cord are
connected
together, all made up and ready for immediate use.
This outfit consists of a
number of feet of flexible cord with a regular
attaching plug at one end, and branch festoons, each having eight
miniature
pendant porcelain sockets wired thereon. With the outfit is supplied
the
necessary number of Miniature Decorative Edison Lamps, plain and
in
colors.
To arrange the lighting decoration, it is necessary only to screw the
attaching
plug into the nearest regular lamp socket, drape the wires over the
table or
object to be decorated, screw the little lamps into their sockets, and
the
decoration is complete!
The outfit is simple, flexible, thoroughly constructed and perfectly
safe. It is
neatly packed in an attractively decorated wooden box and forms a most
useful
and serviceable device, which should be in every electrically lighted
home. It
is useful as a general house decoration for the dinner table, for the
ornamentation of walls, columns, balustrades, chandeliers, and for
decorations
of flowers, foliage, etc.
The full cost is low, considering that the Miniature Lamps are
included, and an
outfit once purchased will last for years and can be used repeatedly
with little
trouble and no additional expense.
The outfits will be supplied for eight lamps and multiples of eight;
that is 8,
16, 24, etc. lamps. The junction plug is so constructed that extra
festoons can
be connected, and thus the size of the outfit in number of lamps may be
increased or reduced as desired."
"The following
is a list of the
sizes supplied:
Complete outfit,
consisting of one
festoon of eight sockets and ten lamps--six plain, two frosted and two
red--$5.00
Complete outfit, consisting of two festoons of eight sockets each for a
total of
sixteen sockets in all and nineteen lamps--thirteen plain, three
frosted and
three red--$8.50
Complete outfit, consisting of three festoons of eight sockets each for
a total
of 24 sockets in all and twenty eight lamps--twenty plain, four frosted
and four
red--$12.00
Extra festoons, ready for connection to outfit, consisting of eight
sockets and
nine lamps--six plain, two frosted and one red--$4.00
GENERAL ELECTRIC
COMPANY
Main Lamp Sales Office
Harrison, New Jersey"
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It is interesting to note that while GE
sold the first prewired string of lights to the American public, it did
not manufacture the string. That honor goes to the American Eveready
Company, You will recognize the Eveready name as being associated with
batteries today. Eveready did not sell festoons under their own name
until a few years later.
The advertisement pictured on the left was sponsored by GE,
and was published in a December,
1905 edition of
Scientific American Magazine,
extolling the virtues of electric lights for the Christmas tree.
Pictured
on the right is a circa 1910 tree outfit made and sold by the American
Ever Ready Company. (See the
1900-1920 section of
The Light Sets category for more pictures of some of the
earliest lighting outfits.)
The American Eveready Company tried to
patent their lighting strings, but were unable to, as when the
company's patent applications were presented
to the United States Patent and Trademark Office for consideration, the
courts decided that the socket sets were
"based on common electrical knowledge" and not actually a new
invention. It was not long after the decision was handed down that
several companies began offering lighting
sets of their own, and the American electric Christmas lighting
industry was
born.
End of Category
CLICK
HERE FOR THE TABLE OF
CONTENTS PAGE AND LINKS TO ALL PAGES ON THIS SITE
TABLE
OF
CONTENTS HISTORY
THE
TIMELINE MANUFACTURER'S
HISTORIES THE
PATENT PAGES
THE
PRE-ELECTRIC ERA VINTAGE
ADVERTISING THE
LIGHT SET GALLERIES
RELATED
LINKS
FREQUENTLY
ASKED QUESTIONS
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