- Edward Hibberd Johnson
Edward Hibberd Johnson (1846-1917) was an
inventor and business associate of Americaninventor Thomas Alva Edison . He was involved in many of Edison's projects, and was a partner in an early organization which evolved into theGeneral Electric Company , one of the largestFortune 500 companies in the United States. When Johnson was Vice President of theEdison Electric Light Company , a predecessor ofCon Edison , he created the first known electrically illuminatedChristmas tree at his home inNew York City in 1882. Edward H. Johnson became the Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights.Biographical information
Protégé of William Jackson Palmer
In 1867, a very optimistic, eager 30-year-old retired Union Army general named
William Jackson Palmer and his 21-year-old chief assistant Edward Hibberd Johnson headed west from their hometown ofPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania . General Palmer was the construction manager for theKansas Pacific Railroad , mapping routes through New Mexico and Arizona to the Pacific coast.The Kansas Pacific Railroad was an enterprise of the Philadelphia interests which controlled the
Pennsylvania Railroad (whose presidentJohn Edgar Thomson had employed Palmer as his personal secretary before the War). Under General Palmer's direction the Kansas Pacific was extended fromKansas City, Missouri , reachingDenver, Colorado in August, 1870.Hiring young Thomas A. Edison
In 1871 Edward H. Johnson, as the assistant to General William J. Palmer, wassent back East to manage the
Automatic Telegraph Company . When Johnson hired 24-year-oldThomas A. Edison , the contracted employee quickly outshone the particular company, and Johnson brought his enormous talents to the attention of the principals of the company. Of Edison, Johnson later wrote::"He ate at this desk and slept in a chair. In six weeks he had gone through the books, written a volume of abstracts, and made two thousand experiments ... and produced a solution."
The Philadelphians then backed Edison's evolution into a full-time inventor, established in his "invention factory" in
Menlo Park, New Jersey . Johnson became Edison's trusted executive as his inventions and business developed in the 1870s and later.Recruiting Frank J. Sprague
Johnson apparently had a good eye for young talent. In 1883, he is also credited with recruiting into Edison's organization a
naval officer Frank J. Sprague , who he met at an International electrical exposition. Sprague became a brilliant electrical genius and inventor, and was responsible for major developments in electric railways and electric elevators which were instrumental in the growth of U.S. cities in the later 19th and early 20th centuries.Partner in the Edison companies
Edward H. Johnson was a partner in the
Edison Electric Lamp Company , a partnership formed in early 1881. Other partners were Thomas Edison,Charles Batchelor , andFrancis Upton . In May 1881 the company changed its name to the Edison Lamp Company. A year later it moved its factory from Menlo Park to East Newark (Harrison), New Jersey. The partnership became a corporation in 1884. The company merged with several other Edison companies in 1889 to become theEdison General Electric Company . The same year, it acquired theSprague Electric Railway and Motor Company . OnApril 15 ,1892 , it merged with the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, another electrical manufacturer, in the consolidation forming theGeneral Electric Company , which is today one of the largestFortune 500 companies in the United States.Heading the forerunner of Con Edison
Edward H. Johnson was also became president of
Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York . This company was organized onDecember 17 ,1880 , to construct generating stations inNew York City . Its first central station, located on Pearl Street in lower Manhattan, opened onSeptember 4 ,1882 . The company was the prototype for other local illuminating companies that were established in the United States during the 1880s, and was a predecessor ofCon Edison , the electricutility company which powers New York City today.First electric Christmas tree lights
The first known electrically illuminated
Christmas tree was the creation of Edward H. Johnson. While he was Vice-President of theEdison Electric Light Company , he had Christmas tree bulbs especially made for him. He proudly displayed his Christmas tree — hand-wired with 80 red, white, and blue electric light bulbs the size ofwalnut s — onDecember 22 ,1882 , at his home inNew York City . The story was reported in the Detroit Post and Tribune by a reporter named Croffut. Croffut wrote "Last evening I walked over beyond Fifth Avenue and called at the residence of Edward H. Johnson, vice-president of Edison’s electric company". Although Johnson's address at that time is not known, he lived in one of the first areas of New York City wired for electric service. Edward H. Johnson became known as the Father of Electric Christmas Tree Lights.From that point on, electrically illuminated Christmas trees, indoors and outdoors, grew with mounting enthusiasm in the United States and elsewhere. In 1895, U.S. President
Grover Cleveland proudly sponsored the first electrically lit Christmas tree in theWhite House . It was a huge specimen, featuring more than a hundred multicolored lights. The first commercially produced Christmas tree lamps were manufactured in strings of nine sockets by theEdison General Electric Co. ofHarrison, New Jersey and advertised in the December 1901 issue of the "Ladies' Home Journal ". Each socket took a miniature two-candela carbon-filament lamp.External links
* [http://www.oldchristmaslights.com/history.htm A Brief History of Electric Christmas Lighting in America]
* [http://www.inlightimes.com/archives/2002/12/f2.htm The story of Christmas Tree Lights]
* [http://www.todayinsci.com/12/12_22.htm December 22 - Today in Science History ] at www.todayinsci.com
* [http://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/O_Tannenbaum/12-The_Evolution_of_the_Modern_Christmas_Tree.htm]
* [http://www.necanet.org/whats_new/report.cfm?ID=2668]
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