November 23rd, 1936:
A Monday night dinner, held just before Thanksgiving in 1936 in Washington DC to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Patent Office, was doubly historic.
The guests attending the dinner were seeing, for the first time, a practical public application of fluorescent lighting. The new lamps, furnished by GE, provided much of the lighting in the large banquet hall.
Ironically, for many years after that dinner, several patent fights over that technology ensued. These fights also led to mergers and acquisitions aimed at beefing up patent portfolios and ramping up U.S. production capabilities.
Fifteen years after that historic dinner demonstration, fluorescent lighting grew to become the top lighting technology in America. By 1951, more light was produced in the U.S. from fluorescent lighting than incandescent lights.
Featured Image Courtesy of Smithsonian Institution Archives.
