When is a Mazda lamp not a lamp for a Mazda?

When it's a regular ol' Mazda lamp!

Last week we visited the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose (which is hands-down one of my favorite tourist attraction/historical artifact/monument to home improvement project gone awry on the face of the earth), and this little bauble caught my eye.

Turns out GE got the trademark in 1909, and Westinghouse still holds the trademark today when used in terms of lighting, while the Miata folks hold the mark in the automotive space. A Mazda lamp is a tungsten filament bulb, which was the higherst performing filament material of the time, so they had to give it a super rad name. "Mazda" in this context refers to Ahuru Mazda, the universal god of Zoroastrianism, whose name means "light of wisdom." 

His historic appearance is pretty metal, and ironically looks a lot like the "Toyota Bird" that appears on the hood badge of AW11 MR2s for some reason that no one has ever explained to me in a satisfactory fashion.

He was also on The Simpsons

I have a couple of these small Mazda bulbs. I knew that they weren't actually for Mazdas, but didn't know about the Westinghouse connection. I don't think these have Westinghouse on the box. 

Cool, isn't Ahura Mazda the same god the car company is named after? I didn't know anyone else used the name, makes sense tho.

I learned a little about Zoroastrianism in college. Kind of unique among the world's religions.

Freddie Mercury's father practiced Zoroastrianism.

In reply to CyberEric :

Yep. Also fortunately sounds like the name of the founder, Matsuda.

We had an ancient string of Christmas tree lights that were Mazda lamps, that we inherited from my wife's parents. I'd guess they were from the 1940s. Same style of plain brown cardboard packaging as in the photo.

Zoroastrianism is apparently the only correct religion, according toa short stay in hell.  A Good, thought provoking book, if you're into that sorta thing..