History Of Christmas Lights
Author: Joe Will

The early Christmas trees were lighted with candles, then glass
covers with candles inside or metal lanterns with small wicks
hung on the Christmas tree branches like ornaments to brighten
up the Christmas tree. The early Christmas candles were a fire
hazard and buckets of water were usually kept nearby the
Christmas tree just incase a fire did start up.

Electric Christmas Lights Make Christmas Safer.

With the invention of the electric Christmas lights, tree
lighting became much safer and brighter. The electric Christmas
Lights are one of America's unique contributions to the
Christmas holidays that followed the invention of the
incandescent electric light bulbs with a carbonized filament in
1879. The next development was the tungsten filament light
bulbs. Early Christmas tree lights were simply night-lights
strung together to make the light strings. Tungsten which
produces the light gives a whiter light and for the same amount
of electricity they give out almost three times as much light as
the early carbon electric lights would have. The next
improvement was the coiling of the tungsten which gave more
filament in the same space of the bulbs thus more light. It was
found that by using nitrogen-argon inside the bulbs would extend
the life of the lights and make the lights more efficient. The
nitron-argon filled tungsten bulbs are over twice as efficient
as the ordinary tungsten bulbs which has its filament in a
vacuum. When general electric commercially introduced the
Holiday Lights, they caught on immediately. Edison electric soon
followed with an electric Christmas lamp. New York city's first
Christmas display of lights was shown in 1882. New Yorkers used
eighty, red ,white, and blue, flashing light bulb colors to
light up the Christmas holiday season.

Miniature Christmas Lights History.

The miniature lights were conceived in 1895 by Ralph E. Morris,
an employee of the new England telephone company. Morris's idea
for lights occurred as he was looking at the tiny bulbs in the
telephone switchboards. Today American's enjoy a variety of
colorful light bulb colors and shapes. In the 1930's the popular
cartoon figure lights were used were use to decorate Christmas
trees.

In the mid 1940's and into the 1950's the country was
introduced to the American Christmas bubble lights. The
Christmas bubble light bulbs had a liquid filled colored tube on
top of the holiday light. When the Christmas bubble light bulbs
heated up, bubbles would rise in the Christmas bubble lights
bulb tube.

LED Holiday Lights History.

LED is short for "light emitting diode". By definition the LED
light bulb is a solid-state device that controls a current
without heated filaments like tungsten in the light bulbs which
are the most common today. LEDs are not bulbs or lamps in the
true sense of the word. The LED lights are much more reliable
than the tungsten bulbs. The entire unit is totally embedded in
an epoxy resin. This embedding makes an LED light virtually
indestructible. There are no loose or moving parts within the
solid epoxy light enclosure. They are brighter and can produce
an infinite number of colors. An LED light can burn 1,000
continuous hours and the commercial Cree and Luxeon LEDs will
last for 50,000 hours. The biggest advantage in the amount of
electrical power an LED lights use versus a tungsten light bulb.
A savings of up to 90% energy consumption can be achieved.


About The Author: Joe has specialized in Christmas Decorations
for over 25 years. You can view his writings at
http://www.christmas-decorations-gifts-store.com. Joe also has a
unique selection of Christmas lights at
http://www.christmas-decorations-gifts-store.com/store/PPF/Category_ID/72/products.asp