National Mazda Squirrel Cage Light Bulb Nipple Tip Does Not Work

This is an old Mazda light bulb with a pointed tip. It is an early issue, probably dating from the 1910s or 1920s. It does not work and may have been dug, although the glass is very clean with no scuffing, but does have a small rust spot on the glass. The inside of the glass has a light charcoal gray cast to it, and the original fine tungsten filaments, which originally zigzagged up and down in a so-called squirrel cage, broke away and are loose inside. This example is particularly nice in that the inside of the bulb is hand numbered, and even the globe at the base has an inked letters and numbers where it is glued into the brass base. This is the bulb design copied today with modern filament-like LEDs.

Mazda was a trademarked name registered by General Electric (GE) in 1909 for incandescent light bulbs and was a new national standard for light bulbs. The Mazda name was created for the tungsten filament light bulb, which had a more predictable lifespan over earlier carbon filament bulbs. The name was used from 1909 through 1945 in the United States by GE and Westinghouse and their subsidiaries.