THE NOTEBOOK
PAGE TWOChris Cuff, a good friend and frequent contributor to this site is currently
working on the history of The Ringalite Company, a 1950s manufacturer of Christmas lights. Chris recently discovered that he works in the very town where the Ringalite factory was located, and recently visited the site. The factory still stands, and Chris reports that he even found remains of broken Christmas lights behind the factory. He is currently working with the city department of records to try and find out as much as possible about this company, and has even been able to speak with one of the original owners! I'm looking forward to Chris's report and research, all of which will be published on the website. Stay tuned for more!
An eBay find, this set of NOMA lights is most unusual for several reasons.
First, it came to me in its original shipping box from Montgomery Wards, which is highly unusual in itself. Secondly, the set bears a Ward's catalog number instead of the NOMA stock number, which helps to explain why there are so many different stock numbers on seemingly identical NOMA boxes. Both the shipping box and the light set bear the number 63-1613-32V. An additional oddity is the NOMA box:: While the cover says it is a NOMA set,
the interior flap, which has been factory cut to remove the top third of the flap, says that the set was made by NOMA for the United States Electric Manufacturing Corporation. I find this most odd, since the United States Electric Manufacturing Corporation, or USALITE, made their own outfits for all of the many years they were in business. Traces of the USALITE logo can still be seen on the flap where it was cut. Adding even more to the rarity of this set is the fact that it was intended for 32 volt "farm" or "Delco" electrical systems found in rural America in the 1920s and 30s. Note the 32 volt warning stickers on both the box lid and the interior flap. The set has had its 32 volt plug removed, and I'm currently in search of an appropriate replacement. The set includes 4 volt Japanese lamps, which would be appropriate to this set, but since the box plainly states the use of Mazda lamps, I cannot be sure that the lamps are original. It is amazing to me how just a single set of lights can offer both interesting information for collectors and also be such a mystery. I dearly love research projects like this!
Bruce Feddema, a friend and fellow collector, contacted me to report that he also has a modified NOMA/USALITE box like the one pictured here, except that his outfit is for standard 110-120 volt operation and bears the style number 6593. This number is not a known NOMA style number, so it appears that this outfit was sold through a second party like the set described above. The research continues!
Well, Bruce's information got me really interested in the reasons behind all of the different NOMA style numbers. A few hours spent looking through some very old Christmas catalogs revealed that NOMA apparently made exclusive outfits for many of the leading department stores and distribution jobbers of the time, assigning "proprietary" style numbers to these outfits. Montgomery Wards, Sears, Roebuck and Company and Butler Brothers were three companies that sold NOMA sets exclusively made for them. In many cases, it is impossible to tell these sets apart, except for the style numbers and minor variations in the electrical plugs supplied with the outfits.
MYSTERY SOLVED!!! Well, my research has uncovered an interesting fact: It appears that while the US Electric Manufacturing Company originally joined the NOMA organization, they dropped out shortly afterwards, resuming the manufacture of their own lighting products. This explains the "mystery boxes" in the collections of Bruce Feddema and myself. Thanks to Bruce for his kind input and help in sharing information about his set with me.
Another recent e-Bay purchase, this "generic" set of lights is interesting in that it includes a card
showing how to tie the light sockets to the tree branches, and specifically mentions that devices such as NOMA's "berry beads" and other socket clips are not necessary when using this method. I've never seen mention of this tying method on any set of lights before, and it will be most interesting to see what my research about this set of lights turns up. The cardboard insert included with the lights looks at first glance to be a separated box flap, but
close inspection under extreme magnification shows it to be a factory-cut card, intended to be placed loose within the set of lights. The cord set itself is devoid of any markings, as is the plug. The box style and method of printing indicates that it is a Depression era outfit from the mid 1930s, and since the box has no mention of having included Mazda lamps, I feel sure that the Japanese lamps in the set are most likely original. The fact that the outfit has seen little use would also support the theory that the lamps could well be original.
I was recently able to obtain this Canadian Christmas lighting catalog from Universal, that was issued for the 1953 selling season. It was quite a shock to me when I noticed that almost all of the products offered for sale were products of the Royal Electric Company, (an American operation) although there was absolutely no mention at all of that company's name. You'll notice that the products offered in the catalog are identical in every way to their American counterparts, except for the electric plugs. The Canadian version of the NOMA company shared the NOMA name, but apparently Royal chose to offer their Canadian products under a totally different name. This catalog is indeed an interesting find, and I have more research to do on the Universal Company to determine its connection with Royal Electric.
Well, the mystery of the above catalog continues! While I was going through my catalog collection, most of which are photocopies of the originals, I discovered that the artwork on the Universal 1953 catalog pictured above is identical in every way (save for the company name, of course) to the 1949 American Paramount catalog! There is no connection that I'm aware of between Paramount and Royal in America, so I must assume that the covers of the two catalogs are examples of "recycled artwork" that is common with generic Christmas light boxes. Also, if you take a close look at the house on the Universal catalog, it will begin to look rather odd, as you will soon notice that there is no roof at all on the house in the picture-in fact the doorway decoration actually sticks up above the house!
After much searching, I am finally able to add an example of a typical 1920s radio battery of the type often used to operate the old farm Christmas lighting outfits like the one shown here. The battery is surprisingly well made, and shows no signs of leakage even after all of these years. Interestingly, it is by Eveready, one of the companies that first offered electric Christmas lights, who later merged with the National Carbon Company to produce the famous Eveready Battery. This is called a "C" battery, and is obviously quite different from the C size batteries we know today. It is dated 1924, and provided 6 volts.
Well, disappointment sets in. It turns out that this battery is not one that would have been used to run Christmas lights! I've received three e-mails correcting me on the use of the "C" battery to run the lights. I've been told that the current draw by the carbon lights would of been very heavy on this particular battery and it would not have lasted very long. The battery was apparently designed for grid bias on battery operated radios. It was adjusted for a potential of -4.5 volts on the grids of the tubes it was connected to, and its current load was very minute compared with the Christmas light load. I'm told that what I should be looking for is a type "A" battery, one that would have been used to power the radio tube filaments. I had assumed that the battery pictured was used for Christmas lights because it came packed with an old set of the battery lights. But now that I look at the battery closely, there is a warning on it not to test it with a ammeter but to be sure to use a voltmeter. I'm guessing that is another indication that the battery has a very slight current output. The search continues!
Recently, additional information on the old "C" size battery has just surfaced. I'm told by an old radio collector that this battery could indeed have been used for Christmas lights, provided that several of them were hooked up in parallel to increase the current (not voltage) output. I'm currently investigating this possibility. Supporting this theory is my recent acquisition of a very old Eveready battery box, with instructions inside as to how to hook up several combinations of batteries to provide different voltage and current outputs. The box is sized to hold several batteries of different physical sizes, and five of the old "C" type batteries pictured above fit perfectly in the box. I'm learning more every day...
Yet another mystery! Housed within a
seemingly ordinary NOMA late 20s-early 30s box was an outfit with an interior flap that I have never seen before. Since the inner divider carries the NRA (National Recovery Act) logo, it dates the set to between 1932-1934. But the artwork on the flap is most unusual, and not at all typical of NOMA's regular offerings during this time period. I'm much more
used to seeing the string number, a picture of the wiring (usually a loop or straight-line type string), and a description of the plug This presentation really only shows the patented NOMA "Berry Beads" and the add-on type triplug. "Made in America" is also proudly printed in the center of the tree in the picture. If any of you visitors have seen this box variation before or have any information about it at all, I would love to know about it. This variation does not appear in any of the NOMA catalogs currently in my collection, and I'm most curious to learn more about this interesting outfit.
