united kingdom came up with the idea of electric christmas tree lights.
united kingdom came up with the idea of electric christmas tree lights.
who came up with the idea of electric christmas tree lights?
united kingdom
the first known electrically illuminated christmas tree was the creation of edward h. johnson, an associate of inventor thomas edison. while he was vice president of the edison electric light company, a predecessor of today's con edison electric utility, he had christmas tree light bulbs especially made for him. he proudly displayed his christmas tree, which was hand-wired with 80 red, white and blue electric incandescent light bulbs the size of walnuts, on december 22, 1882 at his home on fifth avenue in new york city. local newspapers ignored the story, seeing it as a publicity stunt. however, it was published by a detroit newspaper reporter, and johnson has become widely regarded as the father of electric christmas tree lights. by 1900, businesses started stringing up christmas lights behind their windows. christmas lights were too expensive for the average person; as such, electric christmas lights did not become the majority replacement for candles until 1930.
christmas lights
miniature christmas lights were first developed in 1895 by ralph e. morris, an employee of the new england telephone company. morris’ idea for miniature christmas lights occurred as he was looking at the tiny bulbs on telephone switchboards. however, many americans still distrusted the safety of electric lights throughout the early 1900s and candles were still used to illuminate trees. the early christmas tree lights were simply night-lights strung together to form light strings. when general electric commercially introduced christmas lights, they quickly became popular. edison electric soon followed suit with an electric christmas lamp.
pre-lit tree