In the early 1880's, Bernstein perfected his hollow woven silk ribbon filament for incandescent lamps. This early Bernstein has a "Hairpin" filament made of Bernstein's famous hollow silk ribbon. This Bernstein lamp's "Hairpin horseshoe" filament is made of a hollow braided silk ribbon sleeve, the hallmark and exclusive feature of Alexander Bernstein. Looking through a magnifying glass at this Bernstein Ribbon Lamp filament, the woven braid texture of the gray hollow silk ribbon is easy to see. This filament actually looks like a miniature version of the metallic braided shield found on coaxial cable. The electric engineering and scientific community in the 1880's regarded Mr.. Bernstein's Ribbon Lamp as a triumph and the "most efficient" incandescent lamp of its day. Published support from their time reads: (a) "The best lamp yet constructed . . ." (see pg. 551 - 555, "Electrical Engineering for Light Artisans" by W. Slingo & A. Brooker, pub. 1890, London). (b) "These (Bernstein) are the only carbons made from an animal substance, and with a hollow structure; and the advantage claimed for this structure is increase of surface, and consequently of radiating capacity for a given degree of resistance." (see pg. 194-196, "The Elements of Electric Lighting" by Philip Atkinson, pub. 1888, New York). A significant feature and indicator of the age and value of this Bernstein Ribbon Lamp is its hand blown glass globe, in the picture note the gentle transition of the glass as it leaves the base collar indicating it is from the "hand blown era." The following is a suggestion to help distinguish this early incandescent lamp from newer light bulbs. An older hand blown "lamp" can likely be distinguished from a newer mold blown light bulb in that hand blown lamp glass sweeps up gently from the base collar, without the typical standard step-out shape of a mold blown mass production light bulb. In other words, hand blown glass comes out from the base collar at a parallel with the collar and gently widens in diameter, where as the mold blown glass steps out immediately from the base collar at nearly a perpendicular angle before it sweeps up to form the globe. The mass production "mold blown era" of incandescent lamps was ushered in by General Electric starting in the early 1890's. The "hand blown era" of the incandescent lamp is regarded as being the decade of the 1880's. This Bernstein Ribbon Lamp is from the hand blown era. This wonderful Bernstein lamp also has a great Bernstein paper label. The lamp is 5.5 inches tall and has a 2.5 inch diameter globe. The Bernstein "Ribbon" Lamp, is truly a rare piece of early electric lighting history. This Bernstein lamp has a plaster secured brass Thomson - Houston base with a double embossed rib. A T-H base with double embossed ribs like this one without an intruded groove is quite early and rare compared to the many variations of the single and multiple "intruded groove" T-H brass bases or "solid porcelain" T-H bases more commonly found.