As has been our family’s tradition for the past 23 or 24 years, we have spent Christmas Eve with dear friends Raymond & Jeanne. We decorate their tree while Raymond prepares a sumptuous meal. While I have photos of all this year’s meal courses, another unique feature of this event is stringing the “bubble lights” they have for their tree.
“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 thus creating the bubble light. 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. As Christmas lights, bubble lights were very popular during the 1950s through the 1970s, before miniature ‘fairy’ lights became popular.
Bubble lights were being manufactured by The Telsen Electric Co. (1935) Ltd, in Manchester, England, possibly as early as the late 1920s. Bubble lights for Christmas decoration were patented in the United States by Carl W. Otis in 1944 and introduced there in 1946 by NOMA, one of the largest American manufacturers of Christmas lights. While NOMA was the largest company to make these lights, other manufacturers included Raylite (Paramount/Sterling), Royal Electric Company, and Good Lite/Peerless.” » http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_light
Retired economics professor (“dismal scientist”). Married 40+ years to the love of my life; we have two grown daughters, both married, two granddaughters and a...
I went to a local historic house just after Christmas. They had a tree with all bubble lights. They each had their own rate of speed for the bubbles depending upon the liquid, something I never knew. But, we never had bubble lights on our trees. I had never seen them until I met my husband. I posted a photo of the tree around the 30th.
![A ‘school photo’ portrait [Filler]](https://media.365project.org/1/9434205_hijklnqsv2_sq.jpg "A ‘school photo’ portrait [Filler]")
