The Lighting Time Table

To read the entire tutorial, you can just click on the first link and then continue to the next section at the bottom of each page. Or, you can select links below of interest to you.

PRE 1900 SECTION

Overcoming Obstacles
About Early Electric Lighting, Generators, Arc Lamps, The First Edison Socket, Menlo Park, etc.
The First Fixtures
About The Start Of The First Incandescent Lighting Fixtures
Light Reflection
About Early Light Bulbs And Candle Power vs. WATTS
Edison-Bergmann
About Sigmund Bergmann And The Start Of Bergmann And Company Lighting Fixtures
Lighting Break Down
A Quick Break Down Of Different Lighting Time Periods
Styles 1881 to 1884
Bergmann Fixtures And Styles
Other Pre-1888 Styles
About Early Companies That Sold Lighting Systems And The Fixtures That They Sold With Their Lighting Systems
The U.S. Elect. Co.
The United States Electric Company History And Early Items
The Brush Elect. Co.
The Brush Electric Company History And Early Items
Thomson-Houston
The Thomson-Houston Electric Company History And Early Items
Westinghouse
About The Westinghouse Manufacturing Company History And Early Mergers
Mid 1880's Styles
About The Start Of Electrical Supply Houses and how new lighting styles came about
Pre 1900 Sockets
About Early Light Sockets And How To Tell The Difference
1887 New Items
1888 New Items
1890 New Items
1891 New Items
1892 New Items
1893 New Items
1894-1896 Items
1897 New Items
1898 New Items
1899 New Items
Above are catalog items sold in different years. There is no space to duplicate items, so only new and unique items from each year are shown. You would need to view the catalogs for yourself to be complete as I am only highlighting items. You can view catalogs here.

EXTRA INFO
Victor Shade Holder
About The Victor Shade Holder, Atwood And The Standard Holder

I.P. Frink 1899 Items
About Frink & Wheeler
New Wheeler Inverted
Three Links About Mirror Reflector Manufacturers And Their Items And History.
Wheeler Reflector Co.
NEW - A history of The Wheeler Reflector Company and tips on how to tell if mirror has been replaced on a shade

Early Desk Lamps
Some Help In Telling Them Apart

Vitrite And Luminoid
About The Vitrite Holders And Early Vitrite History

Brush-Swan Holder
About Brush-Swan Shade Holders

Cord Balls
My cord pendant adjuster project, as well as a good history about them.

POST 1900 SECTION

About 1900 Styles
This section covers a basic into into the 1900 section covering information about the 1899 transition, electrical code changes, lighting influence, sharing and licensing of patents and then into the new section of electrical specialty manufacturers,

Electrical Specialty Manufacturers
Harvey Hubbell
This section covers some early history periods of pre Hubbell-Grier, Hubbell-Grier, Harvey Hubbell, Hubbell Company. It also covers a number of items that helped change lighting styles,

Benjamin
This section covers some early history periods for the Benjamin Electric MFG. Co, as well as a small section on Dale and The Federal Electric Company
Dale
Federal Electric

This post 1900 section continues to be under current construction

Please Check Back.

Why this site?

I have always been a believer that you can find ANYTHING on the web. You can learn about anything free of charge and expand your learning in any area of knowledge that you desire.

When I started trying to research and date lamp sockets and early electrical items, I came to a stand still only finding one or two basic pages with limited information.

It did not take me long to understand why.

As I began to make friends that did have 'some' knowledge, I would get a tip (or trick of the trade) here and there - BUT always with the whisper ------------ "...but don't tell anyone else".

It did not take me long to understand, but the common rule of thumb within small circles of friends and some small knowledge groups is: "DO NOT EDUCATE THE PUBLIC" !!!

In most cases this is because someone is an antique dealer, picker, author, lamp restorer, reproducer, etc.

Why the silence? It could be the antique dealer or picker knows that if someone can easily learn about their item, he will not be purchasing it for under 100 times what it is worth.

It could be the lamp restorer, that replaced socket shells and switches (or other items) with dime store parts and then sold the originals on ebay for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

It could be someone that sells reproduction lamps, parts, shades, pulls, etc. and does not want people to know how to tell the difference.

It could be someone that collects parts and then builds his own lighting inventions as all original "rare never seen" items.

The list goes on....

While in my opinion these are all dishonest reasons (which I have learned to hate), it is fair to also point out that there are some legitimate reasons. One such reason is the simple fact that it normally takes money to learn.

For example, I might need to purchase 20 or 30 different sockets from different sources to make a test bed and analyze differences. Or purchase rare catalogs from a collectors market, costing from several hundred to several thousand dollars each (to learn technical or historical information).

While I count these and other learning methods a loss to gain knowledge, I can not judge others in these areas.
I can't expect someone that just paid 500.00 for a copy of a catalog to also provide me a copy for free. Even if he was to share the knowledge that he found in that catalog, I can feel a weird feeling because of it not costing me anything. So in short, when it comes to legitimate researchers, we have a sort of sharing pact. They know and agree that I will be sharing some agreed on items and information publicly. If it is a catalog item, the price for copies is shared with them.

While in the past I have made promises to keep secrets (which I will still honor), I stopped making such promises years ago. I decided to learn on my own (which is a talent that I have always been told that I have).

Now many of these same people come back to ask me questions, and look on me as an expert in many areas.

We all know some things; there are always some that know more about other things; but no one knows everything.

This site is dedicated to RESEARCH - & - THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION - INFORMATION GIVEN OUT FREELY - AT NO COST TO THE READER OR USER OF THIS WEB SITE.

This page has been started as a hobby, not a business.

I will put items up for sale to help support this site and where I have had to put out large funds (like for example having to pay several thousands of dollars for a distributor catalog or hundreds for a copy of one) to recoup some of the investment by a charge for some items or copies of catalogs. On the other hand, most all of the same information found in these catalogs has been and will continue to be extracted and added to sections on this site at no charge to the researcher.