Progress Lighting Company History
1906
’10
’15
’20
’25
’30
3Victory Lamp Company–first shop opened to produce gas mantles
’35
3Victory Lamp Company worth
$1,000,000–bad investments went bankrupt
100 Years of Progress 1906–2006
Marketing & Product Development
’40
’45
3Frank Rosen, founds
3Ruben P. Rosen, joins father at Progress, 3Move to Germantown and Masters Street, Progress Manufacturing Company 12,000 sq. ft.
producing outdoor lanterns only, 6,000 sq. ft., staff 12
’50
3World War ll, shut down for four years except
sporadic military assignments
advanced equipment to make manufacturing economies and lower prices possible 3Acquisition of Canadian Progress Luminaire
3 31896–Socket for incandescent lamps patented
3Gas filled lamp
3Hubbell invents toggle light switch
37
3Fresnel lens spotlight
World Technology
’16
3Illuminating Engineering Society
3Zipper invented 3Arc welder invented 3Thomas Edison demonstrated the first talking motion picture marked a formal recognition that Nobel Prize in Physics for Planek’s Quantum Theory lighting had moved from the realm of Georges Claude displayed the first neon lamp in Paris 3Cloth covered stranded electric wire perfected lone inventors to that of a profession Halley’s comet observed 3Color photography invented by Auguste and Louis Lumiere 3Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity released 3First plastic, Bakelite, manufactured Stainless steel invented
’09
World Events US Events
’07
3Picasso invents cubism
3Mexican revolution
3World War I begins
Japan annexes Korea
3US Weather Bureau experimented with radiotelegraphy to speed notice of weather conditions 3Titanic sinks San Francisco earthquake 3Ford introduces Model T priced at $850
General Motors formed
’08
US Presidents US Popular Culture
Theodore Roosevelt 3Cornflakes invented by
William Kellogg
3Treaty of Versailles ends WWl 3USSR formed 3League of Nations formed
3Ford produces
49
’22 Woodrow Wilson
3Boy Scouts established 3Lifesavers invented by Clarence Crane
Warren G. Harding 3First PGA Championship 3First Pulitzer Prizes
3NFL founded
3Begins production of recessed downlight
Calvin Coolidge
3Fiber optics—The invention of fiber optics changed the 3Candela–The modern unit adapted in 1948 for the
3First edition of the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary produced 3PAR lamp 3First radar system
built in UK
’39
3Polaroid camera invented
3WWII Begins
Hurricane Express Penny loafers invented by John R. Bass 3First Academy Awards 3The first broadcast of the radio show The Shadow
3NATO established 3Korean War begins
US enters WWII
First US nuclear submarine launched 3Rosa Parks arrested
’37
’47
’50
Harry S. Truman
invented 3Shirley Temple appears in her
3Churchill resigns as Prime Minister of Great Britain
3Pay as you go income tax 3Jackie Robinson becomes first black professional baseball player 3Interstate Highway system begins construction 3First modern credit card (Diners Club) 3Bikini invented 3Supreme Court rules segregation of public schools unconstitutional 3Atomic Energy Act allows private ownership of nuclear reactors One million veterans enroll in colleges
Franklin D. Roosevelt 3Cheeseburger
3SONY produces pocket size transistor radio
’42
3Japan attacks Pearl Harbor,
3FDR launches New Deal–Prohibition ends
3Tarzan is released 3John Wayne stars in
3Microwave oven created by Percy Spencer 3CBS broadcasts first color television program
Helicopter invented 3First electron microscope 3First computer
’37
3Route 66 opened, linking Chicago to Los Angeles 3PEZ candy invented by Edward Haas III 3First Mickey Mouse cartoon
world of communications and technology. The principal of “total internal reflectance” was demonstrated about 1870 by Tyndal, when he shone a light at a spout of water as it gushed out of a tank. The water fell in an arc and the light went with it
measurement of light intensity is the candela (cd)
3First permanent automobile license plates issued Federal Power Act Amelia Earhart–First woman to fly solo across Atlantic 3The first regular television Construction begins on Empire State Building Work begins on Golden Gate Bridge 3Frozen food, processed by Clarence Birdseye, 3Nylon stockings appear in US broadcast in the US 3Social Security enacted hits commercial market for the first time 3Hoover Dam completed Plans submitted for Rockefeller Center 3Zippo lighter invented by George C. Blaisdell John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton split the atom’s nucleus
Herbert Hoover
’27
3First fluorescent lamp
Sydney Bridge completed 3Nautilus travels under Arctic Ocean
3Lindberg flies solo across Atlantic 3New York Stock Market crash
’29
1906–2006
3Broad expansion into fluorescent products
3Stalin formally collectivizes Russian farms 3Mao sets off on Long March. 3Japan takes control of Manchuria
3Jeanette Rankin–First woman elected to congress 31st US aircraft carriers launched one-millionth car Daylight Savings Time introduced CONVEX pioneers interconnection between power utilities 3Jazz sweeps the US 3First US Air Mail 3Women granted right to vote 3First motel opens Prohibition begins 1920-1940–Harlem Renaissance
’12 William H. Taft
3US grants Cuba independence
Years of Progress
100 3AirSweepTM fan production
3Garrett A. Morgan invents traffic signal 3First regular television broadcast 3Subway opens in Rome Vatican State formed 3First television transmission (England) 3Nobel Prize for light diffusion
First talking movie to be released with prerecorded score and synchronized sound effects 3Penicillin discovered
100
3102
3Outdoor lantern production
3First frosted light bulbs produced 3Experimental fluorescent lamp patented 3Flashbulb 3EC–established the Hertz, electrical unit of measurement 3Low pressure sodium lamp 3Gobo/template
by Harvey Hubbell 3Tungsten filament lamp
3101
102
3Gas mantles
’96
3Death of Frank Rosen 1887-1954 3Coast to coast manufacturer, investment in
40,000 sq. ft.
3100 Catalogs 349 First catalog after WWII
Founded in Philadelphia in 1906 by Frank Rosen, under the name Victory Lamp Company, Progress Lighting has grown into the largest manufacturer of residential and light commercial lighting. Over the past 100 years, Progress has diversified and expanded in order to offer a wide range of products in every area of the residential lighting market in the U.S. and Canada. These 100 years have included nearly all of the twentieth century, a period of unprecedented growth
Lighting Inventions
’55
3Retirement of Frank Rosen
Dwight D. Eisenhower
3First Peabody Awards
’43
3The Slinky invented by Richard James 3First Golden Globe Awards
3First Tony Awards 3McDonalds founded 3First Emmy Awards
3Cleveland DJ coins term “Rock and Roll” 3Disneyland opens 3Mr. Potato Head patented 3James Bond introduced in “Casino Royale” novel
first movie Bright Eyes and sings On the Good Ship Lollipop
’53
Progress Lighting Mailing Address Post Office Box 5704 Spartanburg, South Carolina 29304-5704 Street Address 101 Corporate Drive Spartanburg, South Carolina 29303-5007 International 1616 Auto Route 440 West Laval, Quebec Canada H7S 2E7 www.progresslighting.com ©2005 Progress Lighting ®The following corporate identities, reproduced in this timeline, are registered trademarks of their respective corporations: Progress Lighting, Hubbell Lighting, Inc., Boy Scouts of America, NATO, NASA and Thomasville Lighting