We all love putting lights on Christmas trees. They are one of the prettiest things that adorn the Christmas trees on the festive occasion.
As the Christmas season approaches near, we start buying electric lights to decorate Christmas trees. But do you ever wonder who invented the first Christmas tree lights? What was the inspiration behind the invention of these lights? What was the era during which these lights were first used? You’ll be glad to know that Christmas lights have evolved a lot over the last century. They were not the same as they are today available at whitestores.co.uk.
It was in the year 1882 that Edward H. Johnson assembled the first-ever set of electric lights for Christmas trees. An engineer and a businessman by profession, Johnson was instrumental in inventing the first Christmas lights. In 1871, Johnson hired Thomas Edison as a consultant for his Automatic Telegraph Company.
We all know that Thomas Edison was the first person to invent the practical light bulb. He also created the first strand of electric lights. It was during the 1880s when these strands of electric lights were hung around the Christmas trees outside the Menlo Park Laboratory. People passing by the laboratory got to have a look at the decorated Christmas trees. Even after being fascinated by these lights, it took almost 40 years for these lights to become a norm on Christmas trees. It took a long time for this to become a tradition.
So what did people use to decorate Christmas trees before electric lights were invented? It has been reported that families used to light candles to decorate Christmas trees at their homes. This practice had its drawbacks as it put them on the risk of fire.
Johnson, who was a partner of Edison in his company, put together the first set of lights in 1882. He wired as many as 80 red, blue and green lights using hands and put them around Christmas trees. This tree was not only illuminated with lights but also revolved using electricity.
This idea used by Johnson was way ahead of his times. Those were not the times when the use of electricity was welcomed by people. There were several reasons behind this kind of behavior by people. One, power wasn’t routinely available to people, and second, it wasn’t cheap to be used extensively. One thing was sure that it would take a lot of time for these decorative lights to be accepted as a norm.
Some people credit President Cleveland to have started this tradition. It was in 1895 that he ordered the White House family yo illuminate the Christmas trees with electric lights. He wanted multicolored lights to be used for the purpose. A drastic change was seen in the year 1923 when President Calvin Coolidge lit almost 3,000 lights on the Christmas tree outside the White House.
It was not always that stringed lights were available in the market in ready to use condition. It was in 1903 when the General Electric began to offer pre-assembled Christmas lights for Christmas trees. Before that Christmas lights were just reserved for a specific privileged section of society. This was because the wiring of Christmas trees was very expensive and people had to hire electricians to do this job and fix the lights on Christmas trees.
When it comes to naming the inventor of Christmas tree lights, we always think of Thomas Edison and Edward Johnson. These were indeed the men who brought the concept of electric bulbs to the world, but they were surely not the ones who popularised them.
There’s another name associated with the popularisation of the strands of electric lights as we know them. Albert Sadacca belonged to a family that owned a lighting company. He played a crucial role in the popularisation of electric lights. He offered to sell colored strands of Christmas lights to the public. For a significant part of the 20th century, Albert’s company, National Outfit Manufacturers Association remained the only player in this field. They dominated the Christmas lights market until the 1960s.
Albert suggested the idea of selling electric Christmas lights to his family after reading about a fire hazard that occurred due to the use of candles. With time, people became more used to electricity, and they got accustomed to using electric lights on Christmas trees.
Several public events were held in the US where public Christmas trees were lit using electric lights.
Today the use of Christmas lights is widespread. People all over the world use them to illuminate the trees on the occasion of Christmas. These lights are used not only to decorate Christmas trees but also to decorate the boundaries of windows.
You can buy different variants of Christmas lights at whitestores.co.uk.
