History: The lamp’s story actually goes back as far as 1909, when American engineer Harrison D. McFaddin filed a patent application for “a new, original and ornamental design for lamp shades”. After he got the patent approved, the lamp quickly went into production with the first lamp being produced later the same year by the H. G McFaddin & Co.
The neat, green glass shades were made using the cased glass technique, which is when you create a single glass piece by fusing two or more glass layers with different colors.
The reason behind this is likely due to the fact that theEmeralitewasembracedbyfinancialinstitutionswhichorderedthelampsinhugenumbers. One of themainreasonsisthatgreenwasandstillis, thoughttobepsychologicallysoothing, enhancingconcentrationandfocus.
The emeralite capitalized on this, as the shade prevented intense light from being cast towards the user, but gave off a pleasant green light. By adding in some effective marketing, the emeralite became more than just a lamp, it became an elegant and stylish tool, thought to improve worker efficiency by lessening eyestrain and promoting concentration and focus.
