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Looking at Christmas in a New Light Dec. 22, 1882: By Tony Long www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/12/1222johnson-creates-christmas-lights |
Edward H. Johnson, who toiled for Thomas Edison’s Illumination Company and later became a company vice president, used 80 small red, white and blue electric bulbs, strung together along a single power cord, to light the Christmas tree in his New York home. Some sources credit Edison himself with being the first to use electric lights as Christmas decorations, when he strung them around his laboratory in 1880. Sticking them on the tree was Johnson’ s idea, though. It was a mere three years after Edison had demonstrated that light bulbs were practical at all. The idea of replacing the Christmas |
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What Ruth Had to Say |
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Collier's Spin on the Puzzle |
Quiz #425 Results |
Answers to Quiz #425 - December 29, 2013 |
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Thanks to Quizmaster Emeritus Jim Kiser for submitting this quiz. |
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Congratulations to Our Winners! Janice M. Sellers Tish Olshefski Margaret Paxton Kim Richardson Owen Blevins Dennis Brann John Thatcher Gus Marsh Ruth Brannigan Collier Smith Winnifred Evans Catherine Bence Rebecca Bare Cynthia Costigan Tynan Peterson Edna Cardinal Carol Gene Farrant Marcelle Comeau Sharon M. Levy Judy Pfaff Donna Van Benschoten Mike Dalton Grace Hertz and Mary Turner The Fletcher Sisters! Robert Edward and Donald McKenna Quiz Poets Laureate |
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John Thatcher |
Rebecca Bare |
The device to which the boy is listening appears to be either a radio receiver or transmitter. Radio receivers for the home in the U.S. were not needed before 1916, because there were no broadcasters until then. On the other hand, amateur radio buffs were active from around 1900. While the device is on the small side for a very early transmitter/receiver, I can't rule it out. The photo does not show clearly whether the boy's hand is on a key for sending Morse code, or some other device, such as a tuning element that might be found on both receivers and transmitters. My gut feeling is that the device is not a transmitter, and the photo was probably taken after 1916, and more likely in the 1920s when broadcasting became common. Collier Smith N.B. The photo was taken in 1919. See www.shorpy.com/node/7159 - Q. Gen. Well, I didn't miss the date by much. After I submitted my entry, I used Google Image reverse search to track down the image, but the only source I found implied it was from 1882 or so, when the tree lights were first used. I knew that couldn't be right though, based on the radio set. Also, the clothes didn't feel quite right for 1882. Collier Smith |
December 1900. Christmas tree in the home of Wilbur and Orville Wright at 7 Hawthorn Street in Dayton, Ohio, three years before their famous flight. 4x5 dry-plate glass negative by the Wright Brothers. There's a lot of detail here for fans of old-school Christmas decoration. www.shorpy.com/node/2119 |
I’ve calculated the date of this photographed event to be no earlier than 1925. KDKA Radio In 1920, KDKA was the first station to broadcast commercially. Crystal set radios were used residentially by many to tune in to music and announcements in the 20s and were able to be built by hobbyists. Earphones were required for proper listening since the signal was usually weak. During the mid 1920s crystal sets were superseded by amplifying receivers and regenerative circuit radios. Judging from the housing and stylized earphones, the boys radio is a regenerative circuit and not a crystal set. That could place it in the mid-1925s. ALUMINUM In 1888 a commercial plant started manufacturing aluminum in Pittsburgh, PA. About 1903 it moved to Tarentum, PA, just north along the Allegheny River. It produced commercial products and raw goods. Aluminum was used just before 1900 to manufacture bicycles due to its light-weight quality and durability. Eventually smaller residential uses were developed like Christmas tree ornaments such as the swag being placed on the tree in our photo this week. INCANDESCENT LIGHT BULB In 1910, the incandescent light bulb was perfected for residential use. However, in the 1920s electricity prices took a severe pricing cut making it a more affordable means of home lighting. Before that, commercial businesses had upgraded to it due to the increase in brightness. With the benefits from no longer using gas lighting, such as the retrofitted gas outlet, households had brighter lighting, increased affordability of electricity, and greater cleanliness from no longer having carbon film deposited on walls, ceilings, and lungs. By the 1930s 90% of American urban households enjoyed residential lighting using the incandescent bulb. BARETTES Barettes have been adorning hair in some fashion throughout history. However, the one holding the hair of the younger daughter, and probably the older daughter, was not in fashion until the mid 1920s. Ruth Brannigan |
Christmas at the Homes of Our Quizmasters |
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Clues in the Picture |
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Newton Diehl Baker Jr |
Washington Post ad from December 14, 1919. Wireless telegraphy/ telephony sets for the kiddies, and Christmas lights! [Note the ad is undated and the radio set is considerably different from Jack's.] www.shorpy.com/node/... |
Newpaper article about Jack Baker available on eBay. Date given as about 1920. c590298.r98.cf2.rackcdn.com/SI1_158.JPG |
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Family of Secretary of War Newton Baker, Undated www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.21235/ |
Mayors H.T. Hunt of Cincinnati, Brand Whitlock of Toledo, Newton Baker of Cleveland www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ggbain.06666/ |
Miscellaneous - The Evolution of the Wristwatch www.vintagewatchstraps.com/wristwatches.html |
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Newton Diehl Baker and Family |
Newton Diehl Baker III "Jack" 1919 drx.typepad.com/psychotherapyblog/20... |
Elizabeth Leopold Baker |
Newton Diehl Baker II b. 3 December 1871, Martinsburg, Berkeley Co., WV d. 25 December 1937, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH Father: Newton Diehl Baker Mother: Mary Dukehart Lawyer Mayor of Cleveland 1912–1916 Sec'y of War 1916 – 1921 m. 5 July 1902 Wife Elizabeth Wells Leopold b. 21 August 1873, Montgomer Co., PA d. August 1951, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH Children Elizabeth Baker b. 3 July 1905, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH d. ? Aft 1940 m. John P McGean, 26 Dec 1926, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH John McGean worked as a Trust Officer for a commercial bank in Cleveland. He was born 26 December 1903 and died 8 November 1949 in Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH. Newton D. Baker III b. 17 March 1907, Ohio b. 9 January 1982, Geauga County,Ohio m1. Keziah Strong, 24 July 1931, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH m2. Phyllis Ingham Findagrave Memorial #67554807 for Newton D Baker III Businessman As a child, Mr. Baker was called Jack. His father wanted to name him John but his mother named him after his father. He was eight years old when his father joined Woodrow Wilson's Cabinet. He chose not to attend college and went to work at the Glenn L. Martin Co. where he inspected propellers. He also barnstormed with Curtiss-Wright Flying Services. He then spent a year touring the world and then another recuperating from a collapsed lung. In 1942, he became an assistant to the president of the Cleveland Graphic Bronze Company. He commuted between Cleveland and Washington handling the company's government business. Mr. Baker was executive vice president and then president of Harris Products from 1949 until 1956 when it became Maloney Electric Co. He retired in 1959. In 1966, he became an employee of the Lakeview Cemetery and patrolled the grounds trying to keep the park likeness of the cemetery. He belonged to many organizations including the Holden Arboretum. Margaret Baker b. 23 March 1912, OH d. 7 March 1999, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH m. Fulton Wright, 26 May 1934, Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH b. 12 August 1907, Arkansas d. 17 November 1993, Santa Barbara Co., CA, buried in Cleveland, Cuyahoga Co., OH Worked as a statistical clerk in the navigation industry |
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Newton Diehl Baker Jr. Obit Martinsburg Evening Journal December 27, 1937 Click here. |
Edward Hibberd Johnson |
tree’s traditional wax candles — which had been around since the mid-17th century — with electric lights didn’t, umm, catch fire right away. Although the stringed lights enjoyed a vogue with the wealthy and were being mass-produced as early as 1890, they didn’t become popular in humbler homes until a couple of decades into the 20th century. A general distrust of using electricity for indoor lighting, still widespread in the late 19th century, kept the popularity of Christmas lights low. They were most commonly seen ringing the seasonal display windows of big-city department stores. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland (a New York stater himself) supposedly ordered the family’s White House tree festooned with multicolored electric lights. If he did, it barely moved the needle on the popularity scale. Even so, General Electric began selling Christmas-light kits in 1903. Another New Yorker is generally credited with popularizing indoor electric Christmas lights. According to the story, Albert Sadacca, whose family sold ornamental novelties, became a believer in 1917 after reading the account of a bad fire caused by a candlelit tree bursting into flames. Whether or not that’s the reason, Sadacca began selling colored Christmas lights through the family business. By then, the public’s distrust of electricity had diminished. So the timing was right, and sales took off. With his brothers, Sadacca later started a company devoted solely to the manufacture of electric Christmas lights. He succeeded in roping a few competitors into a trade association, which proceeded to dominate the Christmas-light industry into the 1960s. |
Judy Pfaff Michigan |