My first big one.

[spanish]

When a was 12yo, in 1978, I spent all my money to buy the best spotlight for sale in El Corte Ingles, the best store in Spain.



Brand "International". Made in Japan, when Made in Japan means cheap and good. No so good than a maglite of course, the body is steel, thin and not very strong, but in Spain in 1978, nobody had a maglite. The country was poor and Maglite was very expensive due tax and duties issues.

The "International". You could buy 2D, 3D, 4D and the biggest, 5D. This is a 5D of course. The diameter of focus is 8,5 centimeters and has 37 centimeters of length.



The switch off goes up and down, and move the bulb changing de focus. So is focusable. The battery emplacement is in the bottom.

The original bulb was a "standard" 6v and 0.5A (with a spare). But when I was 14yo, I discover how to improve it. I thought: 5 x 1.5 v are 7.5 v, but the original bulb is 6 v. If I use rechargeable batteries 5 x 1.2 are 6v, so, I can put a 4,8 bulb and a new bulb with "krypton" technologies (0.7 A) started to sale.



Only a problem. First krypton bulbs had bigger globe and wasn't possible to replace. No problem, I was only 14, so I had a nail, a candle and burn around the hole of the plastic focus to do bigger.

And finally take the most brightness spotlight for a teen. A over-voltaje bulb, yes, but a lot of years running and still goes the second bulb. More brightness than a 5D maglite.



Now is a bit spoilt due acid of broken batteries but we spent a lot of time together including in the army.

 

[65535]

Im sure a local high techie in spain could easily clean your light up making it look as good as new. battery acid can be cleaned and the hole can be reamed. It's a very nice light I woudl love to see some beamshots with that interesting reflector.

 

[carbine15]

Would it be fair to say that this was your first loved flashlight?

 

[paulr]

Nice! Here in the USA we have a store called Radio Shack that used to give away free stuff to get customers coming in to buy stuff (they pretty much stopped that now, because people were just taking the free stuff). They would print a coupon in the newspaper and you'd bring the coupon and get a free flashlight. When I was around 10yo they had a coupon for a 5D light that I guess used a PR12 bulb. (Of course when people got the free light, they'd end up buying 5 batteries so Radio Shack made money that way). It was made of plastic and was cheap and junky, but it was free, and I had a great time with it except that its switch was terrible and it flickered a lot. It was sure bright though. I had other junky lights in those days too and I think it was their low quality that made me a flashaholic. I kept buying more and more expensive lights trying to find one that did not flicker. Even today though, the expensive flashaholic lights being made now sometimes flicker and it drives me crazy.

Welcome to CPF and your English is fine.

 

[spanish]

Im sure a local high techie in spain could easily clean your light up making it look as good as new. battery acid can be cleaned and the hole can be reamed. It's a very nice light I woudl love to see some beamshots with that interesting reflector.

Still goes.

I'll take some beamshots.

Paulr thanks for you wellcome. Your coments about my english help me a lot.

 

[Niteowl]

Welcome to CPF spanish!

That's a great story, sounds like you were ahead of the curve back then. A nail and a candle, that's roughing it! And it still works, cool.

 

[jclarksnakes]

Spanish,
....I used to see lights like that back in the early 80s in open air market hardware "stores" in Korea. I am not sure if they were the real deal from Japan or if they were knockoffs of them.
JC