Small Home Gazette, Fall 2023
History Brief: Electric Lighting Outfit
A 1903 ad for Edison General Electric Company tree lighting outfit.
In 1882, Edward Johnson, a partner in Thomas Edison’s Electric Light Co., hand-strung 80 red, white and blue bulbs and put them on a tree in the parlor window of his New York home. The display of lights, each about the size of a walnut, created quite a stir.
Johnson wanted to replace the candles clipped to tree boughs, a practice that was dangerous. To prevent a fire, candles on the tree were typically lit for a few seconds. A family would gather to look and then blow them out. Sand and water buckets were close by.
In 1903, General Electric created the first Christmas light kits consisting of “…28 one-candle power miniature Edison lamps, neatly packed in handsome box.” With a retail price of $12—more than $370 today—only the wealthy and electrically wired could afford a kit. That changed in the 1920s, when G.E.’s lights became less expensive.
In the mid-1920s, NOMA* would develop a cheaper set and take over the industry once cornered by G.E. Destined to become the world’s largest Christmas light manufacturer for over 40 years, NOMA would offer significant light innovations—the mesmerizing “bubble lights” from the ‘40s, for example.
* National Outfit Manufacturer’s Association Electric Company.
