R.E. Dietz Company was a lighting products manufacturer. They are best known for hot blast and cold blast kerosene lanterns. The company started in 1840 when its founder, 22 year old Robert E. Dietz purchased a Lamp & Oil business in Brooklyn, New York. Though famous for well built indoor & outdoor kerosene lanterns, the company was a major player in the automotive lighting industry from the 1920s through into the 1960s.
R.E. Dietz also produced the majority of road work warning lights. First oil lanterns (Traffic-Gard trademark) and road torches which looked like cannon balls with large wicks. Kerosene was normally used in these lamps. Later they developed some of the first transistorized warning lights (Visi-Flash trademark) using standard 6v lantern batteries. These lights either blinked in timed intervals or had a steady light.
