who in the hell invented x-mas lights??!!!

willdabeerman

if i ever find out who invented x-mas lights ill.....well...ill......damn!!!!!!!! i just spent all f-in afternoon puttin all the lights up and now?...well guess what?...only half the bastards work!!!!!!!!!!! man i am so frustrated......(sorry)... any1 with any ideas?

imanaliento

uh, you could plug them in before you put them up.

also buy one of those reels like for extension cords that you just wind up when you are ready to put them away for the year..

Edited by - imanaliento on 1 December 2002 17:52:20

Scully

Next time, plug them in before you put them up, you'll see which ones need replacing, and can get them fixed before you go to all that work.

Love, Scully

blondie

Oh, this is a rhetorical question. Here's a literal answer and the inventor of other customs. Lights may be unreliable but it sure beats candles.

Christmas Tree Lights

Albert Sadacca was fifteen in 1917, when he first got the idea to make Christmas tree lights. A tragic fire in New York City involving Christmas tree candles inspired Albert to invent electric Christmas lights. The Sadacca family sold ornamental novelty items including novelty lights. Albert adapted some of the products into safe electric lights for Christmas trees. The first year only one hundred strings of white lights sold. The second year Sadacca used brightly colored bulbs and a multi-million dollar business took-off.

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blchristmas.htm

or another version

http://www.oldchristmaslights.com/history.htm

Edited by - Blondie on 1 December 2002 17:51:34

Been there

Sorry about your frustration Wilda,

#1 Rule.....Plug in and test before you put them up. If they are continuous lights then one is probably burnt out. Or it could be a blown fuse. In the plug there is a little box area to pop out. There will be alittle extra fuse that comes with the lights.

JH

Years ago, a teacher told me that they were wired in series. So if just 1 was burnt, the whole bunch didn't light up. And you had to guess which bulb was burnt...

This is how they are wired today:

Christmas Lights

I thought I understood Christmas tree lights. If the bulbs are wired one after the other in series, they all go out when any one does. If they are wired in parallel like rungs on a ladder, the other bulbs stay bright, but they tend to run hot. The new lights on our tree have three wires, not two. If a bulb burns out, the others stay lit. Then I noticed a bigger mystery as I played with them. If I gently twist a bulb in its socket, it goes out and the others stay on. But if I twist too much or remove the bulb, they all go out. How do Christmas lights work?

Parallel Circuit
Series Circuit

Christmas tree lights are definitely wired in series. But each bulb contains a shunt resistor in parallel with the filament, barely visible as a fine wire wrapped around the base of the metal posts that support the filament within the bulb. This extra wire allows current to bypass a burned out bulb and keep the rest going. Removing a bulb (or twisting it until the wires break) removes the shunt as well, so they all go out. These lights have three wires to carry electricity from end to end so that strings of lights can be daisy-chained together.

Edited by - jh on 1 December 2002 18:28:52