The natural marketing area for both Vacuum and Socony in the early days was New York and the New England states. Both companies also looked overseas for expansion opportunities. Vacuum opened a sales office in London in 1885, and by 1900 had affiliates in France, Germany, Italy, Hungary, India, Singapore. Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Cuba. Socony also built its’ foreign trade, particularly in Asia. They developed a foothold in China and it’s vast market for kerosene by using tall-masted, square-rigged sailing vessels called “kerosene clippers” to ship their products half way around the world. As a marketing tool, Socony developed and manufactured the equipment to use the fuel…..small lamps that burned kerosene efficiently, gave off a bright light, and sold for only a few cents. From 1906 these lamps were exported to China in vast quantities, becoming known as “Mei-Foo” lamps, from the Chinese symbols for Socony, meaning “beautiful confidence”.
This may sound like a fairly simple development, but apparently it was very significant in the growth of Socony. Every account I’ve read of the company’s history mentions the Mei-Foo lamps, and many include pictures or drawings of them. Several different sizes of the lamps were displayed at the corporate headquarters offices in New York and later in Virginia. The belt buckle I received as a 15-year employee service award depicts images of Hiram Everest, the founder of Vacuum Oil, and a Mei-Foo lamp. Using these oil lamps as a competitive advantage, Socony was able to develop profitable export markets in Asia, which in turn helped fund the company’s growth a few years later when it was “spun-off” from the Standard Oil Trust.
The lamps are fairly hard to find here in the U.S., although I would think there must be quite a few that survived in China. If you’re a serious Mobil collector you should probably look to add one of these oil lamps to your collection. Here’s a picture of a Mei Foo lamp, and a close-up of the three Chinese characters that gave it the name. Also pictured is a Socony porcelain sign…..the three Chinese characters directly under the “SO” are the same ones that appear on the lamps.
------------------
Richard Weir
"Pegasus"
Hillsboro, Ohio
