The tradition of Christmas tree in its wake brought about extensive decorations also. Legend has it that the first tree was decorated in Latvia. Martin Luther of 95 these is perhaps the first person to decorate the full Christmas Tree. He got this idea while on walk he saw moonlight falling on the Fir tree. He brought a tree in to the house and decorated the tree for his kids. This was perhaps the first time a tree was decorated. Wow if they could only see the LED Christmas lights used today.
The first lighting of tree took place in middle of 17th century. However it was only after almost two centuries that tree could be decorated. Candles were glued with melted wax to the tree or were attached by pins. Since there was no electricity or was not easily available all the lighting used to take place only on the night of December 24.
A time line of development of lights is:
1882: Edward Johnson, a business associate of Thomas Edison, electrically lighted a Christmas tree for the first time. 1892: The General Electric Company was founded and bought the patent rights to Edison's light bulb and his light bulb factory. 1895: The first electrically lighted Christmas tree was displayed in the White House. This was first public event where public saw the lighted tree. 1900: The earliest known advertisement for lamps to be used on Christmas Trees was sponsored by General Electric. It appeared in the November 28, 1900 edition of Scientific American Magazine. The lights were available for both rent as well as sale. 1901: The first commercially available light sets were offered, but mainly to businesses interested in attracting attention in their storefront windows. These sets were sometimes socket-less, and had to be hand wired. 1904-1905: The first sets of pre-wired lights intended for Christmas trees were offered to the public by General Electric. The outfits included miniature base GE/Edison carbon filament lamps, with prominent exhaust tips at the top of the glass envelopes. Although it is not known for sure, but the socket string (or festoon) was manufactured by The American Ever Ready Company. 1905-1906: The American Ever Ready Company sold their first Christmas lighting sets under their own name. The company apparently tried to patent their lighting strings but eventually failed, opening the market to all who wanted to make their own strings. Ever Ready made light sets under this name from 1905 until the merger with the National Carbon Company. This is the same company producing Eveready batteries today. 1907: Tungsten, a more efficient material for light bulb filaments was first used in the manufacture of light bulbs. Due to high cost, the material was not yet utilized in Christmas tree lamps. 1909: It is about this time that figural Christmas lights were introduced in the United States. The earliest lamps were imported from Austria and Germany. 1909: The "MAZDA" name was first used by General Electric. The name was taken from Persian mythology: the female Ahura Mazda being the god of light. It was soon licensed by Westinghouse as well, and became accepted by the buying public as a sign of quality and long life. 1910: The General Electric Company begins to change the shape of their Christmas lamps from the traditional pear shape to a perfectly round globe. The lamps still had an exhaust tip at the top, and still used carbon filaments. 1910-1920 1912: The General Electric Company now uses and licenses the MAZDA trademark exclusively for the new tungsten filament lamps, and does not allow its use with carbon filament lamps. Tungsten burns more evenly and lasts far longer than carbon filaments. 1916: General Electric first used the tungsten filaments in their globe shaped Christmas lamps. Tungsten filament globe lights could be found either with or without the exhaust tip on them. Soon, many Christmas lighting outfit manufacturers proudly proclaimed the inclusion of MAZDA lamps in their strings. In the famous advertising paintings for General Electric Mazda Lamps done by Maxfield Parrish, there were often women depicted in flowing robes, a tribute to the heritage of the trademark. 1918: The use of carbon filaments in American manufactured Christmas light bulbs virtually disappeared. Carbon filaments were still being offered in less expensive imported figural lamps. 1920: General Electric offers for the first time a flame or cone shaped Christmas lamp, with a tungsten filament. This shape was soon to become the industry standard, manufactured until the early 1970s. The earliest of these cones are smooth and slightly larger than the later lamps which are ribbed. 1921: The infant Underwriters Laboratories first tested and established standards for American electric Christmas light strings. 1922: The round globe lamps are discontinued by General Electric, in favor of the now popular cone shape. 1922: The Japanese began offering huge quantities of figural lamps molded in milk glass. Paint adhered better to this glass, and when it did flake off the light was still a bit more attractive than the clear glass type. These milk glass lights did not have the superior detail of the Austrian and German lamps, but due to the fact that they were machine-made, their cost was far less and hence they dominate the market. 1923: Lester Haft, an employee of the C.D. Wood Electric Company, invented the "Tri-Plug" or"Tatchon" connector for Christmas lights. It intended to facilitate the interconnection of several strands of lights. There were two versions, one for the familiar bladed plugs and another that accepted the earliest form of screw-in type connectors.
1924: The smooth cone lamps by General Electric and Westinghouse were replaced by the slightly smaller ribbed or textured variety. These lamps continued to be made, virtually unchanged, until the early 1970s. 1925: A trade association is formed by 15 of the firms then engaged in Christmas lighting manufacture. All of these companies also held licenses for the Tri-Plug connection device. The trade group is named The National Outfit Manufacturing Association, or NOMA. 1926: The above named trade association members officially merged into a single company, becoming the now-famous NOMA Electric Corporation. It was the largest Christmas lighting company in the world, and is still a licensed trademark. 1926: Eugene Kukla invented a small wooden bead, usually painted red (and sometimes, but rarely, found in green and even blue) that was attached below the outfit light sockets and served to hold the lamp upright on tree branches. It was a common but incorrect belief that Christmas light bulbs would burn longer in an upright position. Originally offered by the M. Propp Company on their lighting outfits, NOMA became the owner of the rights to manufacture the beads through the 1927 merger with Propp, and trademarked them as "Berry Beads". 1927: General Electric first used the large, intermediate size base for their new outdoor Christmas light bulbs. The outfits consisted of 7 lamps, and were wired in parallel so that the failure of a single lamp would not affect the rest. The earliest of these lights are round, but by 1928 they were the familiar swirled or flame shape. Also, the early lamps were painted on the outside, but later issues feature a scratchproof inside color. These lamps are still made today, although they are once again smooth rather than textured, and the color is on the outside. It is interesting to note that General Electric and the various Edison Electric distribution companies sponsored many neighborhood "decorating with color-light" contests, in an effort to induce sales of the new outfits. Their strategy worked quite well, as within several years communities all over the United States held friendly outdoor decorating competitions at Christmas time. 1932: General Electric offers bell shaped lamps for the first time. These are called by collectors "MAZDA Bells". 1934: General Electric first offers their new, candelabra based lamps for indoor use. These are cooler burning, and are parallel wired so the failure of a single lamp will not affect the operation of others in the string. NOMA and ClemCo first sold sets with these new C-7 lamps. The sets were slow in gaining acceptance, as a major disadvantage was their high manufacturing cost. Parallel wired indoor lighting sets did not become popular until after the end of World War II. 1935: General Electric introduced their new candle shaped lamps. These lamps had a major disadvantage in that the filaments often burned quite close to the glass envelope, creating a circular burn spot in the paint of the lamp. 1939: March of this year saw the formation of NOMA Electric Company Limited in the United Kingdom, a company still in business and still manufacturing Christmas lights today. 1941-1945: World War II begins. No Christmas lights are manufactured throughout the War years, and many of the smaller lighting companies, unable to convert their factories to Wartime materials production, go out of business or are swallowed up by the larger companies, such as NOMA and Paramount. 1946: Sylvania first introduced their fluorescent Christmas lights. An unattractive milky white in the box, they glow with wonderful pastel colors when power is applied. The sets were expensive, selling for $6.95 (around $50.00 today), and were not big sellers. 1946: NOMA first markets their famous Bubble Lights. Unable to hold a patent on them, many other companies offer their own bubbling light sets by 1947. 1950: About this year, Americans were introduced to the now universal miniature or "Fairy Lights". First produced in Italy, other countries soon followed, including Germany, Holland and Japan. The earliest of these sets have no bases and are direct wired into the light string. Later sets used tiny screw-in bases, with companies finally progressing to the familiar plastic base push-in lamps. The lights were never produced n America. Huge amounts of imported sets begin to have a dramatic effect of the American Christmas Lighting Industry. 1951: General Electric switches to the use of aluminum for their lamp bases. Most of the other lighting companies soon follow. 1953: Several companies offer "expanded" series wired light sets, consisting of 15-20 miniature base lamps that were smaller than the traditional cone lamps. They did not remain on the market long, as the midget or "Fairy" lights were gaining in popularity. 1955: This year saw the first widespread appearance of "Twinkling Lamps", candelabra based units with the flasher built in to the lamp. Introduced in Japan, General Electric and Westinghouse soon offered their own varieties, both with transparent paint. The earliest of the flashing lamps have a larger globe size than normal, and have inside, solid color paint. 1956: Low-voltage transformer outfits appear on the market. These were high-quality outfits, and were run from a transformer, which to some made decorating a bit difficult. They sold for about $7.00 a set, which was expensive for the time, and was probably one reason they disappeared from the market by about 1963. 1957: General Electric first offers the globe shaped Lighted Ice bulbs. A popular offering, these lamps can still be found today. 1959: The Aluminum Specialty Company first introduced the aluminum Christmas tree to a somewhat confused American public. Marketed as a permanent tree, sales were somewhat less than stellar. Electric tree lights then available on the market could not be used with these new trees, due to safety concerns. The only way to light them was with a spotlight, or rotating color wheel. 1960: The Aluminum Specialty Company offered its flagship aluminum tree, The Evergleam. Sales really took off. Since aluminum is an excellent conductor of electricity, standard lighting outfits could not be used. As mentioned directly above, spotlights or rotating color wheels had to be used. The aluminum tree became so popular with Americans, that sales of strings of electric lights took a nosedive, severely impacting an industry already struggling with offshore competition. 1963: General Electric offers 100% American made lighting outfits, advertising that this is the first time the company has ever sold lighting outfits that were entirely GE manufactured. 1965: NOMA, the largest Christmas lighting company in the world, files for bankruptcy. 1970: By this time, almost all Christmas lighting outfits are foreign made. NOMA is no longer the major company it once was, and in fact is a trademark name only. Americans are lighting their trees almost exclusively with imported miniature lights.
Electric Lights on trees in America:
The electric lights were used on the Christmas Tree for the first time in 1882 BY Edward Johnson. He was an assistant of Edison. The tree was kept in a parlor in Johnson's' City Home in New York. The tree was an instant hit and was favorably reported in Detroit Tribune and Post. Alternative claims about Ralph Morris being the first person to use electric lights have often been made but this not true; he did use lights but as late as 1908.Edison incidentally used in his brochure a piece about the uses on electricity to light Christmas trees also. Festoons or the electric sockets were available since 1903 to general public and they ensured that simple public could also use it to light trees. GE is characterized as the inventor of festoons. GE offered the first set of 24 lights to public for $12.0.and was enough to light a medium sized table top tree.
Now today Christmas lights are everywhere, all different styles and types with mostly LED technology. For all that has been I say Thank you, for all that will be I say YES!!
The first lighting of tree took place in middle of 17th century. However it was only after almost two centuries that tree could be decorated. Candles were glued with melted wax to the tree or were attached by pins. Since there was no electricity or was not easily available all the lighting used to take place only on the night of December 24.
A time line of development of lights is:
1882: Edward Johnson, a business associate of Thomas Edison, electrically lighted a Christmas tree for the first time. 1892: The General Electric Company was founded and bought the patent rights to Edison's light bulb and his light bulb factory. 1895: The first electrically lighted Christmas tree was displayed in the White House. This was first public event where public saw the lighted tree. 1900: The earliest known advertisement for lamps to be used on Christmas Trees was sponsored by General Electric. It appeared in the November 28, 1900 edition of Scientific American Magazine. The lights were available for both rent as well as sale. 1901: The first commercially available light sets were offered, but mainly to businesses interested in attracting attention in their storefront windows. These sets were sometimes socket-less, and had to be hand wired. 1904-1905: The first sets of pre-wired lights intended for Christmas trees were offered to the public by General Electric. The outfits included miniature base GE/Edison carbon filament lamps, with prominent exhaust tips at the top of the glass envelopes. Although it is not known for sure, but the socket string (or festoon) was manufactured by The American Ever Ready Company. 1905-1906: The American Ever Ready Company sold their first Christmas lighting sets under their own name. The company apparently tried to patent their lighting strings but eventually failed, opening the market to all who wanted to make their own strings. Ever Ready made light sets under this name from 1905 until the merger with the National Carbon Company. This is the same company producing Eveready batteries today. 1907: Tungsten, a more efficient material for light bulb filaments was first used in the manufacture of light bulbs. Due to high cost, the material was not yet utilized in Christmas tree lamps. 1909: It is about this time that figural Christmas lights were introduced in the United States. The earliest lamps were imported from Austria and Germany. 1909: The "MAZDA" name was first used by General Electric. The name was taken from Persian mythology: the female Ahura Mazda being the god of light. It was soon licensed by Westinghouse as well, and became accepted by the buying public as a sign of quality and long life. 1910: The General Electric Company begins to change the shape of their Christmas lamps from the traditional pear shape to a perfectly round globe. The lamps still had an exhaust tip at the top, and still used carbon filaments. 1910-1920 1912: The General Electric Company now uses and licenses the MAZDA trademark exclusively for the new tungsten filament lamps, and does not allow its use with carbon filament lamps. Tungsten burns more evenly and lasts far longer than carbon filaments. 1916: General Electric first used the tungsten filaments in their globe shaped Christmas lamps. Tungsten filament globe lights could be found either with or without the exhaust tip on them. Soon, many Christmas lighting outfit manufacturers proudly proclaimed the inclusion of MAZDA lamps in their strings. In the famous advertising paintings for General Electric Mazda Lamps done by Maxfield Parrish, there were often women depicted in flowing robes, a tribute to the heritage of the trademark. 1918: The use of carbon filaments in American manufactured Christmas light bulbs virtually disappeared. Carbon filaments were still being offered in less expensive imported figural lamps. 1920: General Electric offers for the first time a flame or cone shaped Christmas lamp, with a tungsten filament. This shape was soon to become the industry standard, manufactured until the early 1970s. The earliest of these cones are smooth and slightly larger than the later lamps which are ribbed. 1921: The infant Underwriters Laboratories first tested and established standards for American electric Christmas light strings. 1922: The round globe lamps are discontinued by General Electric, in favor of the now popular cone shape. 1922: The Japanese began offering huge quantities of figural lamps molded in milk glass. Paint adhered better to this glass, and when it did flake off the light was still a bit more attractive than the clear glass type. These milk glass lights did not have the superior detail of the Austrian and German lamps, but due to the fact that they were machine-made, their cost was far less and hence they dominate the market. 1923: Lester Haft, an employee of the C.D. Wood Electric Company, invented the "Tri-Plug" or"Tatchon" connector for Christmas lights. It intended to facilitate the interconnection of several strands of lights. There were two versions, one for the familiar bladed plugs and another that accepted the earliest form of screw-in type connectors.
1924: The smooth cone lamps by General Electric and Westinghouse were replaced by the slightly smaller ribbed or textured variety. These lamps continued to be made, virtually unchanged, until the early 1970s. 1925: A trade association is formed by 15 of the firms then engaged in Christmas lighting manufacture. All of these companies also held licenses for the Tri-Plug connection device. The trade group is named The National Outfit Manufacturing Association, or NOMA. 1926: The above named trade association members officially merged into a single company, becoming the now-famous NOMA Electric Corporation. It was the largest Christmas lighting company in the world, and is still a licensed trademark. 1926: Eugene Kukla invented a small wooden bead, usually painted red (and sometimes, but rarely, found in green and even blue) that was attached below the outfit light sockets and served to hold the lamp upright on tree branches. It was a common but incorrect belief that Christmas light bulbs would burn longer in an upright position. Originally offered by the M. Propp Company on their lighting outfits, NOMA became the owner of the rights to manufacture the beads through the 1927 merger with Propp, and trademarked them as "Berry Beads". 1927: General Electric first used the large, intermediate size base for their new outdoor Christmas light bulbs. The outfits consisted of 7 lamps, and were wired in parallel so that the failure of a single lamp would not affect the rest. The earliest of these lights are round, but by 1928 they were the familiar swirled or flame shape. Also, the early lamps were painted on the outside, but later issues feature a scratchproof inside color. These lamps are still made today, although they are once again smooth rather than textured, and the color is on the outside. It is interesting to note that General Electric and the various Edison Electric distribution companies sponsored many neighborhood "decorating with color-light" contests, in an effort to induce sales of the new outfits. Their strategy worked quite well, as within several years communities all over the United States held friendly outdoor decorating competitions at Christmas time. 1932: General Electric offers bell shaped lamps for the first time. These are called by collectors "MAZDA Bells". 1934: General Electric first offers their new, candelabra based lamps for indoor use. These are cooler burning, and are parallel wired so the failure of a single lamp will not affect the operation of others in the string. NOMA and ClemCo first sold sets with these new C-7 lamps. The sets were slow in gaining acceptance, as a major disadvantage was their high manufacturing cost. Parallel wired indoor lighting sets did not become popular until after the end of World War II. 1935: General Electric introduced their new candle shaped lamps. These lamps had a major disadvantage in that the filaments often burned quite close to the glass envelope, creating a circular burn spot in the paint of the lamp. 1939: March of this year saw the formation of NOMA Electric Company Limited in the United Kingdom, a company still in business and still manufacturing Christmas lights today. 1941-1945: World War II begins. No Christmas lights are manufactured throughout the War years, and many of the smaller lighting companies, unable to convert their factories to Wartime materials production, go out of business or are swallowed up by the larger companies, such as NOMA and Paramount. 1946: Sylvania first introduced their fluorescent Christmas lights. An unattractive milky white in the box, they glow with wonderful pastel colors when power is applied. The sets were expensive, selling for $6.95 (around $50.00 today), and were not big sellers. 1946: NOMA first markets their famous Bubble Lights. Unable to hold a patent on them, many other companies offer their own bubbling light sets by 1947. 1950: About this year, Americans were introduced to the now universal miniature or "Fairy Lights". First produced in Italy, other countries soon followed, including Germany, Holland and Japan. The earliest of these sets have no bases and are direct wired into the light string. Later sets used tiny screw-in bases, with companies finally progressing to the familiar plastic base push-in lamps. The lights were never produced n America. Huge amounts of imported sets begin to have a dramatic effect of the American Christmas Lighting Industry. 1951: General Electric switches to the use of aluminum for their lamp bases. Most of the other lighting companies soon follow. 1953: Several companies offer "expanded" series wired light sets, consisting of 15-20 miniature base lamps that were smaller than the traditional cone lamps. They did not remain on the market long, as the midget or "Fairy" lights were gaining in popularity. 1955: This year saw the first widespread appearance of "Twinkling Lamps", candelabra based units with the flasher built in to the lamp. Introduced in Japan, General Electric and Westinghouse soon offered their own varieties, both with transparent paint. The earliest of the flashing lamps have a larger globe size than normal, and have inside, solid color paint. 1956: Low-voltage transformer outfits appear on the market. These were high-quality outfits, and were run from a transformer, which to some made decorating a bit difficult. They sold for about $7.00 a set, which was expensive for the time, and was probably one reason they disappeared from the market by about 1963. 1957: General Electric first offers the globe shaped Lighted Ice bulbs. A popular offering, these lamps can still be found today. 1959: The Aluminum Specialty Company first introduced the aluminum Christmas tree to a somewhat confused American public. Marketed as a permanent tree, sales were somewhat less than stellar. Electric tree lights then available on the market could not be used with these new trees, due to safety concerns. The only way to light them was with a spotlight, or rotating color wheel. 1960: The Aluminum Specialty Company offered its flagship aluminum tree, The Evergleam. Sales really took off. Since aluminum is an excellent conductor of electricity, standard lighting outfits could not be used. As mentioned directly above, spotlights or rotating color wheels had to be used. The aluminum tree became so popular with Americans, that sales of strings of electric lights took a nosedive, severely impacting an industry already struggling with offshore competition. 1963: General Electric offers 100% American made lighting outfits, advertising that this is the first time the company has ever sold lighting outfits that were entirely GE manufactured. 1965: NOMA, the largest Christmas lighting company in the world, files for bankruptcy. 1970: By this time, almost all Christmas lighting outfits are foreign made. NOMA is no longer the major company it once was, and in fact is a trademark name only. Americans are lighting their trees almost exclusively with imported miniature lights.
Electric Lights on trees in America:
The electric lights were used on the Christmas Tree for the first time in 1882 BY Edward Johnson. He was an assistant of Edison. The tree was kept in a parlor in Johnson's' City Home in New York. The tree was an instant hit and was favorably reported in Detroit Tribune and Post. Alternative claims about Ralph Morris being the first person to use electric lights have often been made but this not true; he did use lights but as late as 1908.Edison incidentally used in his brochure a piece about the uses on electricity to light Christmas trees also. Festoons or the electric sockets were available since 1903 to general public and they ensured that simple public could also use it to light trees. GE is characterized as the inventor of festoons. GE offered the first set of 24 lights to public for $12.0.and was enough to light a medium sized table top tree.
Now today Christmas lights are everywhere, all different styles and types with mostly LED technology. For all that has been I say Thank you, for all that will be I say YES!!
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