old light fixtures and lamps
 

I haven't had much free time lately, but just had two weeks off, and mostly worked on the house. The most interesting thing I've been working on is probably the light fixtures.

The same woman lived here from when the house was new (1967) until 2019, but then it switched owners twice and the second guy messed up some things - one of which was replacing most of the original light fixtures with new crappy plastic ones.

Here's some of older ones I installed:kitchen, 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms

Also been repairing some lamps: I've gotten into these ones where there's a girl holding up the light.

Two light fixtures I'm still working on: a retractable one I'm going to put in the dining room, and an older one (probably 1920s) I want to put in the living room.

Has anyone had one of these retractable ones? Are they supposed to stay down when you retract them, or always pull up unless you are holding it? If its supposed to stay down, something is not right with mine.

I think they are supposed to stay down. I've seen a couple of the same model in my area set to different heights.

I've been collecting cool looking MCM table, desk and floor lamps my self, I've got a couple of ceiling fixtures from 30s, but not yet having my own house I haven't had much desire to hoard built in fixtures I can't install and use.

Im unsure what you mean by retract but some things were done with lighting to make them easier to clean and maintain, something you dont see anymore.

I like the glass parts you pictured. But they are all nice.

Tom is right, they are supposed to stay wherever you want them to, and not retract once you take your hand off of them. Of course, this goes for a fully assembled lamp only, the full as designed weight of the lamp must be present for the lamp counterweight spring to be able to hold it in place...

:sigh:I have a house that predates electricity, so I would be a bit silly to re-fit LED sources into a bunch of sconce candle holders, tinware and oil lamps.

Those 1960s pictures bring back memories - I lived that era and was into anything electrical at age 5, when everybody had a "flying saucer" pull down light over their kitchen table. GE even offered 50 watt A19 lamps then and Westinghouse sold "Eye-saving" frosted bulbs with flat sides, a unique design continued by Philips.

On the other hand, I prefer to use machine-age 1920s-30s pre-war lighting I see in old Westinghouse and GE full-line electrical catalogs. The lights in Adams #3 post is a great example of what I use. I have plenty of incandescent stuff in my basement but I also donate much of my excess to Habitat ReStore

It’s funny I bought a house built the same year as yours 30 years ago… It was all original including carpeting and wallpaper. I replaced everything including all the light fixtures. But me being as I am… I saved everything up in the attic. About five years ago I reinstalled each and everyone of them! So I guess I like the way you think.

:thmbsp:all our lights here were from the 50s, not cool either just surface-mounts shaped like mixer bowls with 2-3 lamps each. Those are in boxes in the attic now, thanks for reminding me:D.

The house I grew up in had a light above the kitchen table, shaped like a bowl but at the end of a chain. The light itself was at the end of the chain, with the bulb and its socket inside a removable glass globe. I've never seen anything like that since then; must have been a design unique to the 1950s (the house was built in 1954). This light must have been built like the proverbial tank, as it was still in place in the kitchen, with the original socket (unless it was replaced at least once; if it was, I don't remember), when I moved out in 1999. It still worked, which spoke volumes for the manner in which these things were built in the 1950s.

I haven't been back in my old neighborhood in years, so I don't know whether that light is still in the kitchen anymore; for all I know, the new owners of the house may have replaced it with, Heaven forbid, a modern one made of plastic. The apartment I live in today has a large ceiling fan in the front room (which is actually nearly the entire apartment, as this is a one-bedroom place) with a chandelier (three bulbs) below it.

Those fixtures probably had porcelain sockets instead the cheap bakelite sockets. Many users used too large of a wattage lamps and burned the sockets, so the fixture had to be replaced.

Here's an odd one that someone made on youtube
 

Click to watch

https://www.facebook.com/faithduck/v...1821523985441/

I finally gave up on the retracting mechanism and just put the light up at a set length. The spiral spring in there was bent back on itself and I tried to bend it back - but that didn't work, it just broke. Then, I pulled the spring out of another lamp - but that one didn't have enough springiness left in it to actually pull the lamp back up after it was down. It looks good even if it doesn't retract, I'll post a picture later.

I'm working on that 1920s one now, and I want to strip all the old paint off it and repaint it, but am not having much luck finding paint in a similar color (I was hoping to just find spray paint in a can) - it's sort of a nonmetallic copper color. Has anyone found anything that looks good for these?

The old 1920s light might've been gold leafed. I've seen a handful from around here that were... and always got painted over. Painted so many times the paint got so thick it fell off in chunks and revealed beautiful gold underneath.

I've just painted a 1970s typewriter in rustoleum hammered copper. It's a nice color. A little bit metallic. Doesn't really show the hammertone unless you really lay it on thick. Which is a blessing and a curse.

Oh, this topic is good for Steven's heart.
I have some old German books. One from 1928 about Light and ilumination and other from 1943 (yes, 1943) about building electrical instalations for houses (they are mentioning phones too). From the 1943 I can see what Romanian copyed from Germans :D
In postwar Romania they used porcelain + ebonite to make scrwebases. Later they used only ebonite or plastic. But that ebonite was of good qualty, made to stand up for 100 light bulbs. After 1989 the imported a lot of crap.
At my maternal granparents there is the living room an multiple arm lamp (in Romanian they are called lustră (sg.) - lustre (pl.) ) dating from the '60's. The arms ome kind of Copper or painted iron ... those thing where made to last. I can see sometimes on windows old lustre, made before the '70's (or mid-'70's).
Here is an old ad. Banat is the region where the factory is (the old one was demolished, they built a new one):

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/e1/16/fa/e...02cd14eebf.jpg

Banat also means banned in Romanian.

At my paternal grandparents (from where I got the 'Telecolor') there was a kind of saucer-dish that is at my father now. Don't know if it or Romania origin or imported.
I have at the entrance hall/coridor a lamp that imitates a gas lamp. Bakelite or plastic fitting, but of good qualty.