History of the First Tubular Flashlight

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The First Tubular Flashlight was invented in 1898 by David Misell, a British subject who lived in New York City for a number of years.

Misell had a number of electrical gadget patents to his credit. He patented a Signal Light with a wood case in April 1896 which looked very much like a hand lantern. This patent was a few months ahead of the Acme Bike Light but for some reason, it never got off the ground.

While working for Dr. Ted Birdsall in 1896, Misell created a Portable Electric Lamp which was a hand lantern. It appeared to have potential, but that too was never a commercial success.

In 1897 David Misell noticed the popularity and success of Acme Bicycle Light and redesigned his Signal Light patent and applied for a bicycle light patent on Oct. 8, 1897. It was patented on April 26, 1898. The Misell Bicycle Light held 3 batteries.

In 1897 Conrad Hubert, eventual founder of the Ever Ready Company, was selling novelty Electric Necktie Pins in his novelty shop in New York City. These tiny electric pins must have stimulated his interest to acquire something more substantial in portable electric light and the David Misell Bicycle Light caught his attention.

In the Fall of 1897, Conrad Hubert met with David Misell who had acquired the shop and inventory of Dr. Ted Birdsall following his untimely death in 1897. Misell was looking for someone to buy or finance his operation.

While Hubert and Misell negotiated over the bicycle light, Misell mentioned that his assistant, Gustave F. Hitzelberger was “getting up” a tubular light. Hubert ended up buying the entire operation including the shop, Bicycle Light patent, and the rights to the tubular light that Misell and Hitzelberger were working on. Conrad Hubert chose to call it a flashlight.

The tubular flashlight battery consisted of 3 cells 2-1/4” inches in length x 1-1/4 inches in diameter. This was 3/4 inches shorter than the 3 inches batteries used in the Misell Bicycle Light and in the Acme Electric Lamp. This shorter battery allowed the tubular flashlight to be short enough to be carried in the pocket, a favorable selling point to the 1898 consumer.

Misell and Hitzelberger went to work for Hubert, making bicycle lights and flashlights. Hubert quickly realized the tremendous potential of the tubular pocket light and concentrated most of his energy promoting it.

Misell had experience in acquiring patents and applied for a patent of the flashlight on March 12, 1898, and assigned it to Conrad Hubert and his new company, The American Electrical Novelty & Mfg. Co. After the application was accepted Hubert went into production and placed several flashlights in the hands of NYC policemen and the responses were very favorable.

About the same time, in the Spring of 1898, Hubert reserved a space at the 3rd annual Electrical Show in Madison Square Garden, New York City. The show lasted the entire month of May in 1898 and the flashlight was a success.

The flashlight patent design was approved on January 3, 1899. The flashlight patent itself was approved on January 10, 1899. The success of the Ever Ready Flashlight diminished the sales of Acme Electric Lamp Company products and the flashlight became the most popular form of portable electric light.

Because the first flashlights were made in a small and modestly equipped shop they were made without threads, on either end. The lens was held by friction fit and the endcap was secured with a bayonet type fastener. After the success of the flashlight was assured, Hubert moved into larger quarters and began equipping the flashlight with threaded fittings on both ends.

The endcap was blank, and remained without a trademark until 1901. The switch was a spring-loaded momentary contact type. It provided light when the ring was depressed. The ring contact switch was used until 1903 when the permanent type, Ever Ready Glove Catch switch was patented and placed into use.

Contrary to many articles that have been written, the first flashlight was not made as a toy. Conrad Hubert never made a toy flashlight during the 16 years he owned or controlled the Ever Ready Company.

Bill Utley flashlight1@cox.net

[lightlover]

flashlightbook,
your authority is undeniable and your attention to detail is remarkable. You are a credit to the board.

Respectfully yours,

lightlover

[EMPOWERTORCH]

What type of filament did the first torch have? I don't think that tungsten filaments were availablle until the 1910's, so one must assume that this torch had a carbon filsament?

[Kirk]

Hello!
Flashlightbook, I'd like to field this one, if I may.
What I have learned from various books and searching the internet for lightbulb info is carbon was used almost exclusively for filaments up to around 1906. The metals Osmium, Platinum, and Tantalum were all tried before manufacturers settled on Tungsten. Carbon filaments had to be made relatively thick to withstand vibrations which meant they had pretty high resistance and wouldn't glow brightly (or at all) when used below about 3 volts. And with the very low-capacity batteries available back then and with carbon's high current needs, you had to "flash" the "light" on for short periods only. Tungsten was a the major turning point in flashlight design, allowing much smaller batteries that still provided satisfactory performance. I have a small pocket light that used a 3-AA battery pack (I think) and a carbon filament bulb. The bulb puts out about 2 candlepower's worth of light and gets pretty darn hot pretty darn fast. I have not left it on because I don't want it to "blow", but I have no doubt it is a "battery sucker". In its time it was tons better and safer than a candle, but we've come a long ways. As an aside, the British Navy specified carbon-filament bulbs for its Destroyers and Battleships up until the 1930s because the carbon withstood shocks from firing the big guns better than tungsten filaments of the day. I always thought of carbon as fragile or brittle--think charcoal. I guess I was wrong! Hope this sheds some light on the subject.
Kirk

[EMPOWERTORCH]

fascinating...! Thanks Kirk!
We really take our torches for granted nowadays with high brightness filament and LED lamps in a handy portable package. It's facinating to know the origin of the American word "flashlight" and the reason why they were so called. The early torches had to be pulsed on occasionally hence the word "flashlight". Like all words they stick around in some quarters of the planet, so long after torches were equipped with latching switches the word "flashlight" became a generic term in America. Here, the word never caught on, possibly bewcause it was a trade name, so we brits adopted the word "torch" to refer to a portable light. This is a continuance of parlance from its earlier sense when a torch was a burning firebrand plucked out of the fire to provide a handcarried light.
As has been said before, the electric torch is far safer than its firebrand predecessor!
It also fascinates me that our modern torches bear a lot of similarities to those of oveer 100 years ago! Other than the very recent LED and fluorescent torches, the most common design is a tubular shape with the bulb contained in one end in a parabolic reflector. And my chinese Tiger Head torch has a 3position lastch switch with an intermittent button which is activated on the middle setting... harking back to the days when torches were truly flash-lights!