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Author Topic: Antique Flashlights  (Read 9541 times)

Offline ALM

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Antique Flashlights
« on: September 26, 2003, 10:39:00 pm »
Describe them, please? ?A bit of a while ago, one or more persons were asking about them.

At an auction tonight, I saw what I believed to be one in some crapass lot of stuff. ?Clearly, someone else must have seen it, too, for my rather substantial absentee bid was blown completely out of the water by someone else.

I wish I could have STAYED for the auction, because I probably would have paid more... but considering that I was unsure of it... I was taking a chance with the bid I left.

The best way to describe it is this...

- It was about the overall size of a standard flashlight.

- At what I believe was the base, was a claw-like "holder" - if I remember, it was 3-prong. ?I dunno what it was for.

- The tube was much like today's lights, and it slid open exposing a long spring, perhaps to hold a batter? ?The spring was the entire length of the tube, so I'm not sure how this whole setup would have worked.

- At the top end was a "holder" type mechanism made of 4 "prongs." ?It that area, it held what appeared to be a glass ball... no filament in it, and it didn't look like it was designed to have one. HOWEVER...

- ... there was a space between that glass ball at the closed end of the tube, which has a flat piece of metal like an end-cap on it. ?I'm betting that a lightbulb of some sort fit between that cap and the glass ball that sat (loosely) in the 4-pronged tip.

It's times like these I wish I carried my digital camera with me at all times. ?Maybe what I saw wasn't an early flashlight at all... but my gut tells me it was. ?Nowhere on the unit did I see a manufacturer's name.

Thoughts given the above description?
« Last Edit: November 14, 2004, 01:29:53 am by tim »

Offline Chris W. Millinship

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Antique Flashlights
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2003, 07:29:00 am »
That thing you saw doesn`t sound much like any flashlight I know of. Early flashlights don`t look all too different to today`s ones.


One group of folks who have a vast collection of flashlights are slowly publishing them online at the recently launched http://flashlightmuseum.com  . Everything from the early EverReadys to the latest SureFires all arrange dby manufacturer, and with a value guide too.

Another place is Stuart Schneider`s site at http://www.geocities.com/~stuarts1031/flashlight.html  which has some great examples of very rare, early lights.


 


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