ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area A Liberty Lampholder????

Yesterday on my walk after work and before dinner I strolled into a lighting supply house just for kicks to see if they had anything weird in the way of wiring devices (the places run by Chinese guys in New York always seem to get a lot of off-the-cuff foreign stuff) I can add to my little collection.

I came out with a festoon lampholder, made by the old Eagle Electric company (now Cooper Wiring) with the inscription "PROCLAIM LIBERTY THROUGHOUT THE LAND..." all in capital letters molded all around the lower lip of the socket.

And to top if off....it looks a bit like a bell - narrow at the top where the wires pass through and flares out at the bottom around the screwshell. The steel hook at the top adds to the whole "bell look."

It's obviously not current manufacture since it was stamped Eagle USA instead of Cooper Mexico and the barcode sticker doesn't say "Made in Mexico."

Catalog number is 732.

Here's what I'm talking about (lifted from the Eagle Electric online catalogue):



(too bad i don't have a digital camera so I could take a pic of the real thing)

I wonder who's idea was it to mold this into the socket? And WHY??? Who would read it or even notice it?

Maybe we'll never know...the designer responsible for coming up with Eagle's molds probably died 30 years ago or something. Lord knows the cosmetics of most of Eagle's products hasn't changed in ages.

Still...it's kind of neat to see writing like that on something as mundane as a lampholder.

[This message has been edited by SvenNYC (edited 05-24-2003).]

Sven you can still get sockets like this, in my area sometimes called a carnival socket.

They can be used as a temp socket and the flare at the socket end will hold a yellow plastic construction cage on.

Another use for this socket is for signs and chase lighting at carnivals and amusement parks.

Drill the right size hole through the sign material (wood about one inch thick works well) and the flare stops the socket from going through, now install the two conductors under the twist connector and the wires keep the socket in the sign.

Put in S-11 sign lamps and you got a carnival sign.

Bob, oh yeah, I'm aware of that. They're used a lot also for those festoons that the Business Improvement Districts drape across the streets from two poles during Christmas.

They're also used at big street fairs like the San Gennaro
Festival, etc.

The local Home Depot has a bin full of them but they're Leviton branded.

I'm just puzzled as to why the manufacturer would inscribe "proclaim liberty..." on a lampholder and shape it like a bell....

Where did that inscription come from? Anyone know?

I'm guessing that it goes with the whole all-American image of the company....and its emblem the eagle.

Cooper Wiring still makes them, but now like everything is probably in Mexico. I wonder if they kept the inscription.....