Adjusto-Lite: "The Lamp with a Clamp"

I've had this lovely brass lamp clipped onto a bookcase in my study for years.  Recently, I took it down and had a good look at it, and history came tumbling out!

In 1899, Simon W. Faber left Antipol, Russia to emigrate to the United States, renting a downstairs basement shop in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  There, he began Faber Brass and Copper Goods, making gift trays and racks.  The company prospered, and in 1910 he was able to move to a bigger factory in Brooklyn, next to the Williamsburg Bridge.  There he began to produce items under the "Faberware" name.  Mr. Faber came up with the Adjusto-lite, initially as a way for him to sleep while his wife read in bed.  In 1930, he introduced the first Faberware percolator.  This was followed by the "Coffee Robot" in 1937, a coffee warmer, and the "Broiler Robot" in 1938.  During the second world war, production was changed to radar components and 50-caliber machine gun belt links.  Following the conflict, the company produced a stainless steel electric frying pan with an aluminum bottom, and a removable probe-style thermostat, the first such device on the market.  The company was sold to Hanson Industries in the 60's or 70's, and is still in business today.

Popular Mechanics, December 1922