Welcome to Operation Bubble Lights!!!
Although Christmas may not quite be my thing, something has held onto me with a death grip since childhood - BUBBLE LIGHTS. Some of you may be guffawing and going "holy crap I remember those!" and most of you, especially anyone from my generation are going "huh?". Let me introduce you to my obsession so you can spread the love and maybe even get the t-shirt.
From the wiki for Bubble Light:
A bubble light is a decorative device consisting of a liquid-filled vial that is heated and lighted by an incandescent light bulb. Because of the liquid's low boiling point, the modest heat generated by the lamp causes the liquid to boil and bubble up from the vial's base. The liquid is almost always methylene chloride, but some early bubble lights used a lightweight oil. The light from the lamp illuminates the bubbles from underneath, causing them to shine.
Bubble lights for Christmas decoration were introduced to the US in 1946 by NOMA, one of the largest American manufacturers of Christmas lights. were also used in operating accessories for Lionel and American Flyer model trains (in the case of American Flyer as bubblng oil wells), and they were also used in a larger form as decoration for Wurlitzer jukeboxes.
As Christmas lights, bubble lights were very popular during the 1950s and 1960s, and into the 1970s, before miniature "fairy" lights became popular. The original design used a miniature screw base (E-10), such as those used on C-6 cone Christmas lamps. These early designs were nominally designed to operate with 8 on one string, in series, at 15 volts each. However, they were often packaged with a nine-socket string to extend the life of the bulbs. Bubble lights could also be purchased individually for use in an already-owned light string. Modern incarnations either use candelabra base (E-11) 120-volt bulbs, or push-in "midget" size miniature bulbs (most commonly ten 12-volt bulbs wired in series). Bubble lights were being manufactured by the Telsen Electric Company Ltd(1935), in Manchester, England, possibly as early as the late 1940s.
Did you feel the new wrinkle grow in your brain? I hope so, because bubble lights are worth the effort. In the coming days I'll be posting more oddities from my Christmas Tree as I dig them out of the vault. If it's 50's, it's probably on my tree somewhere. FYI I was born in the 70's!
