Jac Jacobsen

In 1936, Jac Jacobsen received two crane-like spring balanced "monster" luminaires included in a shipment of sewing machines from England. Although the technical invention comprising the luminaire arm was ingenious, the luminaire construction as a whole was primitive and had to be improved a great deal before being approved and presented to the market.

He succeeded and manufacturing started in Oslo in the autumn of 1937. He derived the name LUXO from Latin  "I give light". The original version of the Luxo architect luminaire, L-1, is still in production, and more than 25 million units have been sold worldwide. Jac Jacobsen lived to be 95 years old and was active in the company until his last days.