amandainvermont
VFG Member
I went through two mugs of coffee enjoying THIS AMAZING SITE which is packed with great information about early Christmas tree lights, and other Christmas memorabilia. I didn’t begin to look at everything.
There’s even some direct relevancy to vintage fashion via the founder of the Ever Ready Company.
His name was Akiba Horowitz and he was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who entered into the United States through Ellis Island in 1891.
“He was born in Minsk, Russia. A successful businessman in the distillery trades, he emigrated to the United States when anti-Semitic policies in Russia became unbearable. Upon his arrival in America, he changed his name to Conrad Hubert. He was then 35 years of age.
The beginnings of Hubert's success in America were rooted in a now-obscure electrical novelty of the time: the electric scarf or necktie light. First marketed in America by the Ohio Electric Works in 1895, the device was a typical necktie pin with the addition of a tiny light bulb. Unobtrusive wires connected the bulb to a button switch and battery hidden in the wearer's pocket, and the light was made to flash at an opportune time by a discreet push of the button.
The pins were available in a wide variety of shapes and styles: among the most popular were various faces with glowing red eyes.”
And there’s a neat photo of a woman by her newly acquired aluminum tree wearing an aluminum corsage.
There’s even some direct relevancy to vintage fashion via the founder of the Ever Ready Company.
His name was Akiba Horowitz and he was a Jewish immigrant from Russia who entered into the United States through Ellis Island in 1891.
“He was born in Minsk, Russia. A successful businessman in the distillery trades, he emigrated to the United States when anti-Semitic policies in Russia became unbearable. Upon his arrival in America, he changed his name to Conrad Hubert. He was then 35 years of age.
The beginnings of Hubert's success in America were rooted in a now-obscure electrical novelty of the time: the electric scarf or necktie light. First marketed in America by the Ohio Electric Works in 1895, the device was a typical necktie pin with the addition of a tiny light bulb. Unobtrusive wires connected the bulb to a button switch and battery hidden in the wearer's pocket, and the light was made to flash at an opportune time by a discreet push of the button.
The pins were available in a wide variety of shapes and styles: among the most popular were various faces with glowing red eyes.”
And there’s a neat photo of a woman by her newly acquired aluminum tree wearing an aluminum corsage.
