The Alter Light Company, Chicago

Introduction

About 3 years ago, I discovered another prominent lighting firm among the Chicago directories, The Alter Light Company.

After creating an Ancestry tree for Jacob Alter (1864-1935), founder of the firm Alter Light Co., it wasn't long before I discovered one of the Jacob’s current day descendants is the well-known author, political analyst and filmmaker, Jonathan Alter. Jonathan and his 3 siblings are Jacob Alter’s great grand children. While Jonathan was able to provide interesting background on his family’s roots, details of Jacob’s Chicago firm were limited.

Most of the Alter family’s history is included here for completeness as once again, it tells a familiar tale of early immigration, the struggle to gain a foothold in a new country, build a livelihood, family and ultimately prosper. This should be familiar to readers who have read my pages dedicated to other important firms including, Suess, D.L. Neuhauser, John Morgan & Sons, Willy Lau and many others.

Special thanks to Jonathan Alter and Jennifer Alter Warden for the inclusion such interesting family background.

Family Background

Included here in quotes are memories that Jacob’s grandson Jim documented back in 2014.

“Jacob was born in 1861 in Hungary. He came to America in 1890, leaving his wife Mina (Goldberger) in Hungary with their daughter Gizella and son Leo until he could send for them. He arrived in Michigan with a pushcart and sold to the Indians, near Traverse City. He earned enough money for Mina’s passage to America.”

“Later when Harry was born, they settled in Detroit and that’s when Jacob got into the gas mantle business. Jacob got rich in the mantle business; you can see Alter Mantles at the museum in Dearborn Michigan.  His biggest customer was the Coleman Company. The mantles are the elements that light up inside of a gas lamp. “

“In 1893 Jacob went to Chicago for the Colombian Exposition. It was the greatest World’s fair of all time. He wandered around and telegraphed Mina – ‘I’m never going to leave Chicago, pack up the kids and the house. We’re moving here.’”

They lived at various times on Ellis Ave and Blackstone St. on the South Side, later moving to the West Side.

“When the gas lamp was replaced with electricity, Jacob went into the electric light business. When G.E. bought him out he put his money into the stock market. The boys all said, ‘Sell, Papa!’. But the famous mantra of the Alter family was ‘Never sell American short ‘. He didn't’ lose everything but he lost an awful lot.”

Jacob’s son Harry Alter (1891-1984), served in WW1. Harry initially worked for his father and then started his own business, the Chicago-based Harry Alter Co. The company was run by Harry's son James and his first cousin Robert. The company became the top Midwest distributor of Majestic Radios ("The Monarch of the Air"). This was one of the top-selling radios in the U.S. It was manufactured by Grigsby-Grunow, which grew from 40 to 6,300 Chicago-area employees in five years.
The bulk of Harry Alter's fortune was tied up in the Grigsby-Grunow relationship.

After the crash in 1929 Harry, Leo and Irving turned the company into an air conditioning and refrigeration wholesaling company, which it remained for half a century (under James Alter's leadership) before being sold by the family in the 1990s.

Liberty Mantle

The earliest business record mention of Jacob appeared in the Chicago Tribune in August of 1902.  This showed an incorporation partnership with Freidrich E. Reichard, it was a new company, Liberty Mantle Manufacturing Co. with manufacturing facilities at 110 Franklin Street in Chicago.  A few months later, in December they filed a patent on the name “Lightine”. 1904 and 1905 saw growth of their products with frequent advertising by their retail customers in Kansas and Missouri.
In 1907, a massive fire was reported in the basement of their Lake Street premises. The loss was estimated to be $100,000, a colossal sum at the time.  It is unclear whether this marked the end of Liberty, but by the end of 1909, there appeared a casual mention in the papers that Liberty were no longer in business.

Alter Light Co.

Unfortunately we have yet to discover details of the Alter Light Company’s registration. However, appearing in March of 1908 were want ads for Jacob Alter’s Company, so this would suggest that Liberty was no longer in the picture and Jacob was already running his own firm. He was still heavily invested in the profitable market of mantle manufacture, competing against the likes of Welsbach, the inventor and industry leader.  Alter Light self-described itself as Manufacturer, Jobber, Importer. The manufacturing we can probably limit to that of gas mantles which continued to be a mainstay for the firm. The term Jobbers is little used today, but loosely described as a quantity buyer of goods directly from manufacturers and reselling them to dealers. So Alter Light was a wholesaler. As importers, we have yet to explore further.

Alter Light Co. exhibited at the Light & Gas Exhibition in February of 1909.

The Press, together with this trade publication photo, confirms that mantles were still their chief line of business. Yet another fire occurred in early 1913 causing $2000 of damage.  Production continued through the fall of 1915 when a want ad for assemblers of electric fixtures appeared in the Chicago Tribune. While significant, the ad was not specific as to what was being assembled.

We would know little about the company’s involvement in electric lighting had it not been for the lucky discovery of the company’s 1916 catalog. This catalog, containing over 130 pages, was in the library at the Rakow Library, Corning. While the image quality is poor, most likely copied to microfiche, it gives great insight into the size of the company and product depth.

While the well established gas mantle products continued to be sold, the company offered both wholesale and retail customers an extraordinary range of parts, accessories and lighting fixtures. However, the modest range of mostly familiar leaded lamps in the catalog suggests that Alter Light were simply agents for these rather than actual manufacturers. This assumption comes from the lack of advertising in local press for stained glass workers, only a single advert for assemblers has surfaced and yet frequent ads requiring workers to sew gas mantles continued.

As this was catalog D, there were likely 3 previous editions that have yet to surface. Amongst the pages of the catalog, there are all kinds of domestic electrical accessories, hair dryers, vacuum cleaners, toasters and other electrical convenience items now finding their way into the homes of America. A vast array of lighting parts is illustrated, both for gas and electrical lighting. There is huge range of shower (hanging pendant) fixtures with molded glass shades and numerous variations. These are typical of the products made by Williamson, Beardslee and others, well beyond the scope of this website. So Alter Light were one of a number of suppliers embracing the transition to electricity. Their Peer companies included Williamson, Sibley & Pitman and H.J. Peters.

Despite the breadth of the products in the catalog, only a handful of pages are dedicated to leaded lamps. These pages are shown below, courtesy of the Rakow Library. Collectors will recognize several makers being represented here. Perhaps the most surprising being the Duffner & Kimberly double-dome chandelier. Duffner & Kimberly were out of business in early 1911 and Oliver Kimberly carried on for a few years, finally going bankrupt in 1914. So, this suggests that this Duffner double-dome may have been an inventory clearance after Oliver Kimberly's bankruptcy in 1914. To see this single fixture from a top of the line maker like Duffner seems out of step with those from the other makers in Alter's catalog. They were all prominent makers, but their fixtures were priced more economically and addressed a different market.

The images we show here are generally of poor quality, some are difficult to identify. However, the most obvious makers appear to include Mosaic Shade Co, David Neuhauser, Lamb Brothers & Greene, Royal Art, Art Shade Company and so on. There is some need for caution in attributing the work of some of these makers however. Beyond the obvious copying of designs that occurred occasionally, evidence suggests that some firms had arrangements to market the work of others alongside their own. This is especially true of Williamson where a few pages of their 1909 catalog show images copied exactly from those of Bent Glass Novelty. Had this been a covert copying, it is likely there would have been legal copyright issues when discovered. For further details on this discovery see the Bent Glass Novelty pages.

As always, we are fully prepared for new information to come to light. Perhaps the discovery of earlier catalogs, photo albums or other ephemera will require a revisit to edit this page. We more than welcome that opportunity.