September 2006
Lamp
Tales
Walton
EMC Customer-owners love their electric lamps
Your response
to our call for ugly or unusual lamps was superb. Even better than the lamps
themselves are the stories and memories behind them.
Thanks to
everyone who sent a photo and story. We’d like to publish them all,
but space constraints meant we had the difficult job of choosing just a few.
Make sure you read
the information on how to make
your lamp (and all lighting) more efficient.
Ring,
Ring
George Schmid’s
Western Electric hang up hand set telephone can’t receive  calls from
friends and loved ones anymore, but it still brightens his life.
That’s
because Schmid’s Uncle Otto turned the phone into a desk lamp that
lights when the earpiece is lifted from its hook. “This telephone was
one of this first ones made for the New York Telephone Company by Western
Electric,” says Schmid.
Besides
the lamp being made by his uncle, Schmid has another connection to the
telephone lamp-both he and his uncle worked for the New York Telephone
Company. After 32 years of service, he retired in 1977 and moved to Snellville.
“Collectors have offered to by it, but it’s
not for sale,” says Schmid.
Sweet
Tunes
You can
almost here smooth notes and sweet tunes when you take a look at Peggy Klasnick’s
straight saxophone lamp.
“This
was my Dad’s straight saxophone from the 1950s,” says Klasnick. “When
I moved to Snellville in 1981, I had it made into a lamp at the shop that
once sat at the corner of Highways 78 and 124 in the stone house.
”Most people
think of saxophones as one instrument, but they’re really a group of
instruments. Out of 14 invented in the 1840s, only four are widely available
today. Klasnick’s straight sax is officially known as a soprano saxophone.
It’s
not common today, but when used it might play a part similar to a
clarinet.
The lamp
helps light her family room. “Every
new person who comes in wants to know the story behind it,” says Klasnick.
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