HISTORY OF THE BUBBLE LIGHT
In 1938, Carl Otis of Albany New York came up with the idea of a bubbling Christmas light. He sent rough prototypes out to ten companies in the business. Noma was the only company that responded. In 1942, during WW ll, they managed to make enough parts for a small test run. About 68 thousand lights were made. They were only sold in Illinois and New York and sold out in a week.
Noma began building production equipment for the lights in 1945. The Noma Bubble-Lite was formally introduced in 1946. Noma alone sold 150 million series bubble lights in five years.
With the technical direction of Christmas historian Thomas Carlisle, Lynn Carlisle, his sister, resurrected this holiday treasure. Lynn's children now operate the company. The string of nine bubble lights is proudly made in the USA; assembled and shipped out of Raleigh, NC.
- Partial text courtesy of Christmas historian Thomas Carlisle