A new century had come to America, but it had yet to bring it from the age of darkness. People still lived by the flickering light of flat wick oil or kerosene lamps. The dawn of the new century was about to change the lives of many people and one company would be at the heart of bringing light into their lives. "The Mantle Lamp Company of America" (later to become "Aladdin Industries Inc.") was about to bring America forth from its darkness with a unique product--the Aladdin mantle lamp.

Aladdin lamps were unique in the use of a round wicks combined with rare earth mantles. The non flickering flame from the round wick would heat the rare earth mantle until it glowed with a steady light equal to that of a 60 watt light bulb.  The difference between the light of the Aladdin lamp, and any other oil or kerosene lamp, was so great that the company offered a one thousand dollar reward to any person who could show them an oil lamp that could equal its brightness. The reward was never collected, and by the early 1930's seven million Aladdin lamps had been sold!

Aladdin was also one of the pioneers in modern sales techniques and would allow customers to trade in their old oil lamp on a new Aladdin lamp. They were also one of the first companies to use radio as an advertising medium in the US Midwest. They paid Henry Field, who owned the Henry Field Seed Company of Shenandoah, Iowa, and the 1000 watt station KFNF, five hundred dollars to talk about Aladdin lamps on his "Evening Letterbasket" program. Included in the program was a cash offer of twenty five dollars for the best ten word slogan submitted. The response was 2200 letters and 800 of those didn't even submit a slogan--they just wanted more information on the Aladdin lamp! Later radio stations to advertise Aladdin lamps included WLS Chicago, WHO Des Moines, and WSM Nashville. As radio grew so did Aladdin's coverage, until it covered the nation!

Aladdin lamps were manufactured in a wide variety of styles. The first were made of metal, either brass or nickel plated brass. There were several models of the metal lamps including table lamps, floor lamps and some very unusual hanging lamps. The 1930's and 40's saw lamps made of colored glass, and included the now much sought after ruby crystal and cobalt blue tall Lincoln drape Aladdin lamps. Another lamp that became the best-selling lamp in Aladdin's history was the Alacite tall Lincoln drape. Alacite glass was a unique trademark of Aladdin and resembled ivory in its color and texture. Moonstone glass was also unique to Aladdin lamps and was so named because the glass itself seemed to glow like the pale moon. The glowing quality of moonstone is as popular with collectors today as it was with customers in the 1930's.

Aladdin lamps have become very collectable today, and for anyone interested in them, the following links will give you an insight into their development, along with pictures to help you identify the many different styles. I have devoted this site to the kerosene (oil) lamps, although Aladdin also manufactured many very unusual electric lamps after the advent of electricity. For anyone wishing more information you will find a link within this site to the aladdincollectors.org web site which is devoted in its entirety to collectors of all types of Aladdin lamps. I hope you enjoy this site, and that it may be of some benefit to you as an owner, or collector, of these amazingly historic Aladdin lamps.