Hawkeye Base and Socket

Lamps and sockets manufactured by The Hawkeye Electric Manufacturing Company of Davenport, Iowa are not found too often and identification of these items can be confusing if there is no manufacturer identification. The bases of the Brush-Swan and Hawkeye lamps were about one inch in diameter, although the Brush-Swan might have been about 1/32-inch larger. Both base types had side pins that locked the lamp into the socket. This feature of the lamp was similar to the base design of the Ediswan lamp (or what is called the bayonet base today). Actually, it is relatively easy to distinguish a Brush-Swan lamp from a Hawkeye lamp (or a Brush-Swan socket from a Hawkeye socket) by the location of the side pins (or receiving slots) relative to the two lamp contacts. The Brush-Swan lamp, when fully engaged in the socket, had its pins located about 45 degrees away from a plane through the contact centers of the two lamps or sockets. The Hawkeye design differed from the Brush-Swan in that the pins were located perpendicular to the plane through the two contacts. Pictures of these bases can be found in Schroeder's book (page 58), in Howell and Schroeder's book (page 190), as well as in the The Electrical Engineer, Volume XVIII, No 341, Nov 14, 1894, pg 407. A sketch by the writer is shown.

Two patents were granted to Frank Thone of Hawkeye for socket designs. These were U.S. Nos 379,255 and 418,426. An earlier (ca 1887) Hawkeye socket design, for which a patent was applied for, is shown below.

However, the design must not have been too successful. The socket contacts were made of springs and in the process of lamp insertion the spring ends were distorted in the clockwise direction. The springs retained the distorted configuration, in part, probably because they were heated during lamp burning.