©AWMoore 2003
The roots of Acorn Brass go back to 19th Century Glasgow, where William McLennan was a brass founder. William's daughter Margaret McLennan married an Englishman, James B. Knight, and together the family emigrated to Canada in 1884. James B Knight died in 1890, and the family moved to Chicago where the various family members worked and resided until moving on to warmer climates in the 20th century. Interestingly, William McLennan's grandson James Seaton Knight and his three brothers all started out working for Swift and Company in the Chicago stockyards, where they got their first jobs through their uncle James McLennan, an early electrical engineer who was responsible for wiring the Swift and Co. meatpacking plant.
James Knight, around 1904
James Seaton Knight then went on to start the Acorn Brass Manufacturing Company, which was to become the shared business of the Knight family, produced soda fountains and other items for L. A. Becker and Company towards the end of the 19th century. Around 1900, Beckers set up their own factory in Chicago, and Acorn began to operate independently, at first producing the same kind of soda fountain equipment, then diversifying into the lighting business. The company founder, James Seaton Knight, was ten years older than his little brother Stanley Hooper Knight.
Acorn Brass had no sales structure, and so started to use independent salesmen who worked on a commission only basis. Stanley and James Knight eventually left the family business and set up the Knight Light and Soda Fountain Company, also in Chicago, who also marketed lamps under the brand name "Sunray"
Acorn Brass were located at 426 Clinton Street, Chicago, and they made a range of pressurised fuel appliances including free standing lamps and lanterns, cookers, and hollow wire systems until they ceased trading in the mid 1920s. Acorn sold their products via independent salesmen, and through catalogue houses such as Sears Roebuck. In his book "Lanterns that lit our World: book 2" Tony Hobson notes that the Chicago Solar Light Company was also based at 426 Clinton Street. Acorn Brass Manf were at some time in their history also based at 3218 West Lake Street, Chicago, and later in Aurora, Illinois.
There
is some disagreement (as always!) amongst collectors regarding the
provenance of Acorn Brass products. From the evidence of old
catalogues I am certain that Acorn Brass did manufacture their own
products, at least in the earlier years. Many of their early lamps
were elaborately embossed with the Acorn logo indicating they were a
primary manufacturer, and their advertising literature quite clearly
states "Manufactured by the Acorn Brass Manufacturing Co.
(Chicago) It is entirely possible that later agreements existed
between Acorn and other makers, and that companies such as National
Stamping provided entire lamps or perhaps components for resale.
Photographs provided by Jamie Shafer (grandson to James Seaton
Knight) show the Acorn Brass works in full production, and it is
clear that they had considerable manufacturing capacity.
James Seaton Knight on the left in January 1904, he would then be 29 years old.
Acorn Staff, James Knight is the fifth man from the right in the double row in back.
In the following images taken from an Acorn catalogue, similarities with other manufacturers products can be seen. This is suggestive of interrelationships and possible "badge engineering", but in itself is not adequate evidence that the lamps were made by another company. It is also tempting to interpret the letters MW as a link to Montgomery Wards......
The Acorn Brass Manufacturing Company also produced traditional style lanterns, including the Uni-lite and the Uni-Arc, for sportsmen, campers, farmers and motorists. The Uni Arc was a more powerful lantern with a large tank, suitable for circuses, streets, parks, fairs and chautauquas, and appears to be the only Acorn lamp with an integral cleaning needle. The needle was operated by pulling a wire which hung down inside the globe and passed through a hole in the globe support plate, the top end of the wire was attached to a lever built into the generator underneath the burners.
The Acorn Brass Manufacturing Company was apparently a prolific supplier of pressure fuel lamps and lanterns, for in addition to this range their catalogue shows many types of hanging lamp and hollow wire system lamps. The company did not survive the early years of the depression, and for this reason, Acorn lamps and lanterns in good working order are extremely rare.
References:
I am extremely grateful to Stanley Knight and Jamie Shafer for the Knight family history and photographs of the early Acorn Brass staff.
Other information comes from Acorn catalogues.
To contact me please go to the mail page.
