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Author Topic: Another Identity Question - Solar Electric Company  (Read 6160 times)

Offline the-riddler

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Another Identity Question - Solar Electric Company
« on: December 05, 2012, 08:39:51 pm »
I have a working, antique bulb from Solar Electric Company, likely manufactured early 1900?s.

It has a mushroom-shaped, frosted bulb, with a manufacture label on the bottom and a decal across the entire top reading ?LITHOLIN?.

The orange glow is the photo shows the bulb lit, using a lamp dimmer.

Can anyone provide any insight into the history of this bulb and its manufacture, or, direct me to some resource that I may reference.

Offline Tim

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Re: Another Identity Question - Solar Electric Company
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2012, 09:04:37 pm »
I don't have a lot of information on this bulb, but I have seen others before produced by this company.  It likely dates to around 1907 and employs a carbonized filament.  The Solar Electric Company was formed in 1897, and from I can gather, they were in the business of advertising signs.  You have a primitive form of an advertising bulb where the advertising brand name, in this case Litholin, was adhered onto the bulb's envelope.  Many years later, a variety of neon light bulbs were made with advertising logos and figures inside them.  Your bulb is a primitive form of such an advertising bulb.  Since I don't have one in the collection, I can only speculate that the odd base on your bulb houses a flashing device (for effect).

Nice find!