I drove Mazda Miatas for about 14 years, which is not worthy of mention in a history blog, except that it will explain why I do a little double-take when I see a Mazda ad from 1909.
Mazda was the brand name for incandescent lighting products from GE and Westinghouse from 1909 to 1945, so you see ads for the product scattered through the pages of newspapers from that time period. When calling for bids on illumination for the new Capitol Bridge in Boise in 1931, they specified “ornamental mazda incandescent lights.” And, yes, they forgot to capitalize the brand name in the legal notice.
So, no, they weren’t driving Japanese convertibles back in the early part of the 20th century. There is a connection to my little roadsters, though. The Mazda trademark, which GE let drop in 2000, was shared with the Japanese car company for many years, applying to electrical lighting for GE, and automobiles for Mazda.
Mazda was the brand name for incandescent lighting products from GE and Westinghouse from 1909 to 1945, so you see ads for the product scattered through the pages of newspapers from that time period. When calling for bids on illumination for the new Capitol Bridge in Boise in 1931, they specified “ornamental mazda incandescent lights.” And, yes, they forgot to capitalize the brand name in the legal notice.
So, no, they weren’t driving Japanese convertibles back in the early part of the 20th century. There is a connection to my little roadsters, though. The Mazda trademark, which GE let drop in 2000, was shared with the Japanese car company for many years, applying to electrical lighting for GE, and automobiles for Mazda.
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