We are staying with cones this time around as well. But from inverted cones that are used to hold and eat ice creams, we are moving on to those that are used in the festive period of Christmas and New Year: the Christmas tree. An integral part of the festivities, having a Christmas tree and decorating it is now done by many people, irrespective of the religion they follow.
The lighting used, as you might have noticed, is key to the decorations. Traditionally, wax candles were used since the 17th century to decorate the tree. The problem, however, is obvious. The danger of dried wood catching fire was imminent, which meant that people often had to huddle around their trees when the candles were lit, with emergency buckets of sand and water to douse the fire if it came to that.
Edison’s lamps And then, Thomas Edison perfected his incandescent lamps. When he strung together a number of these incandescent bulbs and used it on his Menlo Park laboratory compound in 1880, he was not only advertising his work, but also laying a precursor to the modern Christmas lights.
The man who is credited as the first to use these lights for a Christmas tree is Edward H. Johnson. Johnson, who was responsible for initially hiring Edison, worked hard with Edison’s Illumination Company and eventually became a company vice president.
With people still remaining sceptical about the usage of electricity indoors, the idea surely didn’t catch fire immediately. Even after American President Grover Cleveland had employed multi-coloured electric lights for the family’s White House tree, it remained a fad for the rich, owing to its high prices, even when rented.
Sets shop The credit for popularising Christmas lights generally goes to Albert Sadacca. Legend has it that as a teenager Sadacca was influenced by reading an account of a bad fire caused by a candlelit tree bursting into flames. Hailing from a family that sold ornamental novelties, he set up a business to sell coloured Christmas lights.
With the public’s trust in electricity improving, and mass production of lamps reducing the rates, Sadacca’s timing was perfect, which meant that sales improved drastically. By 1925, Sadacca’s company proposed that a number of companies selling Christmas lights come together, forming a consortium called the NOMA Electric Corporation. Even though NOMA no longer exists, it was the world leader in Christmas-light industry for over four decades.
Christmas lights these days either employ incandescent lamps or LED lights, which is growing in popularity. While most of the initial models came in series connection, wherein the failure of one lamp meant that the entire lighting failed, models these days are available both in series and parallel connections.
