Here is a most unusual outfit, consisting of only seven series wired candle shaped holders and American-made clear glass carbon lamps. Prior to this discovery, this collector had never seen a seven light series wired outfit designed for operation on 110-120 volts. The set works perfectly, and the lamps operate with proper brightness. There have been no repairs whatsoever to the cord, so the possibility of a previous owner having removed a defective socket can be eliminated. The seven section insert is original to the box as well.

A very colorful box contains a typical-for-the-times set of smooth cone miniature base lamps. However, the inner flap of this outfit contains a wealth of information useful to the collector. First, it identifies the Bryant-Owl festoon as original to the box. Secondly, the nomenclature leads to the assumption that bladed connectors were not yet used as wall plugs, but only as interconnecting devices for things like Christmas lights. No mention is made of the Haft patent which would have covered these lights if made after 1921. Smooth cone GE MAZDA lamps were introduced in 1919Since the picture of the lamps on the flap shows smooth cones, this dates the set to the years 1919-192, a rare opportunity for a collector to pinpoint a set so closely.1

Here is an outfit that is an example of late use of carbon filament lamps. It is presented in a box similar to the one pictured directly below, but was marketed under USALite's Bluebird brand name. A close-up of the box label appears below.

Here is an unusual outfit, courtesy of Rob Runge. This is a rare outfit from Louis Szel's Five Seas Trading Company. Szel was a pioneer in the early Christmas lighting industry, concentrating mainly on importing lamps from Germany and Austria. This is only one of three outfits this collector has seen, and features unusual ground-glass covered composition sockets, an effort to simulate snow. The outfit originally included German twisted lamps, but now has later GE C-6 cone type lamps from the 1950s. Many of the sockets still retain their original soft copper positioning strips, an aid to fastening the sockets on the tree branches. Szel was later to become one of the founders of the famous NOMA Electric Corporation.

Another outfit from Five Seas, this time with the proper carbon filament lamps installed.

An interesting set that uses an early form of the Tatchon connector to facilitate the addition of more lights. The lamps are tungsten filament examples with an exhaust tip. This set is an example a late use of this style of lamp.

From the Triangle Electro Trading Company comes this outfit using the "new" smooth cone lamp style. The box is rather plain, but the outfit does include an early Inspector's Tag, promoting the quality of the outfit.

This outfit contains 8 smooth cone carbon filament General Electric lamps. Carbon filaments are exceedingly rare in American made smooth cone lamps, and were offered only during the two or three years when GE was sponsoring the transition from carbon filaments to tungsten filaments in their Christmas lamps. (The Japanese manufactured smooth cone carbons for a period of about eight years or so in the 1920s.)  The outfit retains its original lamps, and even has the cover cap for the end of cord add-on connector. Note that the lamp colors are not duplicated within the string, and include an uncommon shade of yellow as well as pink and purple. The box art suggests other uses for this "Yere Round" set, which include Porch Parties, the 4th of July, Lawn Parties Halloween and House Parties.

Despite the fact that the cover and inner flap of this very hard to find outfit declare that the "Tree Light" brand is a trade mark, this collector can find no evidence of the mark ever being registered. The cord is unmarked as to maker, and the outfit contains eight smooth cone carbon filament Japanese lamps. The outfit also includes an extension socket. The ends of the box state that the set is American made and the model number is 2X. The American made nomenclature refers to the cord set only, not the lamps.

This Yale Brand outfit originally included eight German pine cone lamps and an eight socket string with porcelain sockets. The set is now equipped with Japanese pinecone lamps, most likely later replacements. This seems to be a late use of ceramic socket material, as by the time this set was offered, composition was in widespread use for festoon construction. This may also be an example of the use of leftover stock, as the Yale Electric Corporation was a later incarnation of the Interstate Novelty Company, an early and prolific manufacturer of Christmas lighting outfits.

Another late use of materials, this outfit included an old fashioned junction box, rather than a Tatchon-type connector. Also included were older carbon filament lamps.

This outfit demonstrates an early use of tungsten pine cone shaped lamps that were hand painted. Messervey's also operated across the Canadian border. The company mainly distributed figural lights, and was not in business very long. The box art used on their containers was quite "generic", and can be found on later boxes by other manufacturers as well.

Here is a set of figural lights from Messervey's of Buffalo, New York. These lamps were the company's main product during their short period of operation. The set includes a Santa Claus figure, a snowman, banana, bulldog on a ball, a frog, a man smoking a pipe, a pear and a fish.

This set is extremely rare. A very early "multiple wired" outfit, the set contains 7 candelabra based 120 volt lamps with carbon filaments. These lamps burn at a very high temperature, which makes them a bit too dangerous to be effective Christmas lights. Despite the advantage of independently burning lamps, sets of this type were not big sellers. Multiple wired outfits did not become popular until later, when in 1927 GE developed lamps that used coiled tungsten filaments which burned at a far lower temperature.