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 cannonballs 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.