They paid Henry Field, who owned the Henry Field Seed Company of Shenandoah, Iowa along with a 1000 watt station KFNF, five hundred dollars to talk about their lamp on his “Evening Letterbasket” program. They were one of the first companies to use radio as an advertising medium in the Midwest. It was so much more efficient than other mantle lamps – to say nothing of the conventional flat and round wick lamps of the day – that it quickly made other kerosene lamps obsolete.Īladdin was also one of the pioneers in modern sales techniques. Initial sales of the Aladdin were beyond all expectations. Johnson trademarked the Aladdin lamp in 1908 and introduced it to the public in early 1909. The use of a round wick to provide an even steady flame, and a rare earth mantle that glowed to produce the light of a 60-watt light bulb when heated by the flame from the kerosene lamp, made Aladdin unique among other kerosene-burning lamps.

Wirth which helped to provide “better light for better sight.”

The Aladdin lamp (the name derived from the famous story, Aladdin) became a reality when Johnson acquired improved center-draft burners patented by Charles E. As a result of these shortcomings, Johnson searched for a better mantle lamp. The burner was designed to fit common American-made lamp fonts however, the Practicus, with its single wire mantle support, often went out of adjustment, required constant attention, and the slim chimneys cracked. Properly adjusted, the Practicus produced white light of about 60 candlepower.

Thus, the Mantle Lamp Company of America (later to become “Aladdin Industries Inc.”) was established. In 1908, he moved the business to a more centralized location in Chicago. Having obtained the rights to sell Practicus mantles and other foreign alcohol-burning lamps in America, Johnson formed the Western Lighting Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1907.

Just one year later, Johnson experienced the brighter, more luminescent light that was produced by a mantle lamp created by Eckel & Glinicke in Germany, the “Practicus.” Johnson remembered the difficulties of keeping up with his studies by the less brilliant kerosene lamp and saw an opportunity in his future. By the age of 22, he held the position of bookkeeper and salesman for the Iowa Soap Company in Burlington, Iowa. The story goes that while growing up in a sod farmhouse a few miles south of Minden, Nebraska, Victor Samuel Johnson attended to his studies by the dim flame of a kerosene lamp.

Aladdin oil lamp value