thermal guy
Flashaholic
I probably should know but who is this guy? Surefire?
Peter Hauk ???
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bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
Peter hauk was one of the founders of laser products: "Humble as it may be, the common light bulb is not at all common once SureFire engineers inject their cool science. Technically known as a lamp assembly, not a "light bulb," SureFire incandescent light sources are custom designed, manufactured and tested to an incredible degree.
Dr. Peter Hauk, who holds a Ph. D. in quantum chemistry, oversees all of SureFire's lamp development programs and his comprehension of the science of light is a constant source of bewilderment— not to men- tion confusion— to his less-intelligent co-workers, like the hapless copy- writers of this catalog.
We'll try to distill Dr. Hauk's encyclopedic knowledge of photometric principles down to a Google-sized bite. There are really three fundamen- tal reasons why Dr. Hauk's lamps are so bright and SureFire's beams are so flawless.
First, the hotter you run the tungsten filament, the more light you get. Dr. Hauk specifies that our custom-wound, pure tungsten filaments run at a color temperature of 3,150° Kelvin.
Such high filament temperatures are only possible within a high- pressure, pure Xenon gas atmosphere. Dr. Hauk specifies a 100 percent Xenon fill and, in some models, adds a halogen cycle to enhance the life of the filament. A family of elements, halogens form a sort of transfer sys- tem for collecting tungsten molecules that have boiled off and migrated
to the lamp wall and redepositing them on the tungsten wire, where they boil off again in an ongoing cycle, the halogen cycle.
Dr. Hauk's lamps also operated on the principle that the more power you put in, the more light you get out. Practically speaking there is no more powerful source of energy for a flashlight than a lithium battery.
Unlike cheap offshore-made batteries, SureFire's American-made batteries come with two safety devices built in. One is called a thermal shutdown device and it serves as a self-cancelling heat safety in case the lithium battery gets too hot.
A lithium battery generates significant heat when its energy is sucked out too rapidly. Without a thermal safety device, the battery can heat to dangerous, even explosive, levels. Please note that all American-made lithium batteries come with effective safety devices, but offshore-made batteries fall short. There have been problems with offshore-made lithium batteries. If you choose not to purchase SureFire brand batteries, please buy an American-made battery, for your own safety.
A third principle is that the more perfectly shaped the reflector, the better the light is focused into a lovely beam. Dr. Hauk designs our reflec- tors to create an intensely bright center spot and a soft corona of periph- eral light, with minimal wasted light. He tests every lamp from every man- ufacturing lot in his Black Lab, a specially constructed testing center with matte black walls and ceiling.
SureFire reflectors are a perfect parabola with a special wave-like coating to increase the surface area. The custom lamp assemblies are then centered to exacting tolerances in the reflector, again maximizing the beam's quality.
Given the amount of testing, verifying, experimenting and innovating, it's little wonder that SureFire offers almost 50 different incandescent lamp assemblies, ranging from 15 lumens to 500 lumens. Of course Dr. Hauk could take the rest of this catalog to explain exactly why SureFire incandescent lamps are so astonishingly bright. Suffice it to say, there's a lot of cool science at work."
Dr. Peter Hauk, who holds a Ph. D. in quantum chemistry, oversees all of SureFire's lamp development programs and his comprehension of the science of light is a constant source of bewilderment— not to men- tion confusion— to his less-intelligent co-workers, like the hapless copy- writers of this catalog.
We'll try to distill Dr. Hauk's encyclopedic knowledge of photometric principles down to a Google-sized bite. There are really three fundamen- tal reasons why Dr. Hauk's lamps are so bright and SureFire's beams are so flawless.
First, the hotter you run the tungsten filament, the more light you get. Dr. Hauk specifies that our custom-wound, pure tungsten filaments run at a color temperature of 3,150° Kelvin.
Such high filament temperatures are only possible within a high- pressure, pure Xenon gas atmosphere. Dr. Hauk specifies a 100 percent Xenon fill and, in some models, adds a halogen cycle to enhance the life of the filament. A family of elements, halogens form a sort of transfer sys- tem for collecting tungsten molecules that have boiled off and migrated
to the lamp wall and redepositing them on the tungsten wire, where they boil off again in an ongoing cycle, the halogen cycle.
Dr. Hauk's lamps also operated on the principle that the more power you put in, the more light you get out. Practically speaking there is no more powerful source of energy for a flashlight than a lithium battery.
Unlike cheap offshore-made batteries, SureFire's American-made batteries come with two safety devices built in. One is called a thermal shutdown device and it serves as a self-cancelling heat safety in case the lithium battery gets too hot.
A lithium battery generates significant heat when its energy is sucked out too rapidly. Without a thermal safety device, the battery can heat to dangerous, even explosive, levels. Please note that all American-made lithium batteries come with effective safety devices, but offshore-made batteries fall short. There have been problems with offshore-made lithium batteries. If you choose not to purchase SureFire brand batteries, please buy an American-made battery, for your own safety.
A third principle is that the more perfectly shaped the reflector, the better the light is focused into a lovely beam. Dr. Hauk designs our reflec- tors to create an intensely bright center spot and a soft corona of periph- eral light, with minimal wasted light. He tests every lamp from every man- ufacturing lot in his Black Lab, a specially constructed testing center with matte black walls and ceiling.
SureFire reflectors are a perfect parabola with a special wave-like coating to increase the surface area. The custom lamp assemblies are then centered to exacting tolerances in the reflector, again maximizing the beam's quality.
Given the amount of testing, verifying, experimenting and innovating, it's little wonder that SureFire offers almost 50 different incandescent lamp assemblies, ranging from 15 lumens to 500 lumens. Of course Dr. Hauk could take the rest of this catalog to explain exactly why SureFire incandescent lamps are so astonishingly bright. Suffice it to say, there's a lot of cool science at work."
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bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
Speaking of cool science what many people didn't know at the time was that the laser sight used in "Terminator" was a real functioning laser weapon sight developed by these guys.
Bravo BB.
thermal guy
Flashaholic
Thanks big. The way my thread got shut down figured I missed something and this guy was a cereal killer or at the very least a Biden supporter. Sry just a joke. oh and are you sure about that laser working in the terminator? I had heard the opposite and it had to be fake because the technology wasn't there yet.
bigburly912
Flashlight Enthusiast
Absolutely amazing..... but it's real! 10000 volts to start up and 1000 to keep it running. Arnold had a button and battery pack ran down his leg he had to hit to initiate it. : D
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/201...-story-behind-the-45-long-slide-laser-siting/
https://soldiersystems.net/2013/07/28/anyone-remember-the-terminators-pistol/
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chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
Aren't they annoying. You're looking forward to breakfast, pull out the box, and it's empty. Why do they put it back in the cupboard if it's empty?!?
TG, the laser site was invented by SureFire founder Dr John Matthews in the late 60's or early 70's I forget. He sold the idea to the US Navy. It was used as a pistol site at first. The US government kept the technology under lock and key for a while.
Later he and some others invented fiber optic cables. Between the two that is how he was able to keep Laser Products, later called SureFire afloat for a decade.
All that lab work and R&D inventing light bulbs and safer "camera" batteries was expensive but he had the resources to keep things going until that first big contract with the US military and how he could hire folks like Dr Hauk, PK and a few other really talented people.
Later he and some others invented fiber optic cables. Between the two that is how he was able to keep Laser Products, later called SureFire afloat for a decade.
All that lab work and R&D inventing light bulbs and safer "camera" batteries was expensive but he had the resources to keep things going until that first big contract with the US military and how he could hire folks like Dr Hauk, PK and a few other really talented people.
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chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
Hard to believe Surefire is still a private company.
About 15 years ago a friend and I were at Surefire in Fountain Valley to pickup something for the shooting range he worked at and I was standing outside in the rain smoking a cigarette and this old guy with a British accent came out and hit me up for a lighter. We started to chat about weapon lights and he went into a mind numbing explanation on excessive lumen output and the way it affects your situational awareness, especially when indoors... causing tunnel vision, among other things. The guy was fascinating and after about 20 minutes he said "oh... break time is up. the good thing about being the boss is there's nobody to get mad at you when you get lost in conversation". I then realized i had not introduced myself, and after i did he replies that he's Dr. Peter Hauk, and gave me his card.
chillinn
Flashlight Enthusiast
That is a really cool story. Thanks for sharing that Andrew LB.
I have one similar, but it has nothing to do with flashlights. I stayed a month at a friend's rented bungalow. My friend stayed with his fiancé. He let me stay while I was supposed to be recording a record, but Tony Lucca took up all my studio time, so I did not get much time to work on it. My friend was a young producer at the time (still a producer today), and his landlord in the house at the property his bungalow was on in North Hollywood was the producer of American's Most Wanted, but meeting him briefly didn't really thrill me; I didn't watch the show much. I had lived in LA before, and I got over getting star struck pretty fast. I had seen Eric Clapton riding around the Palisades in a classic convertible Mustang, got stuck in traffic once in Malibu for an hour next to Tori Spelling (that was weird), and when I was sent out for lunch at the record studio I worked at off Sunset, I walked passed Paul Sorvino parked in a big pink Cadillac, he smiled at me when I waved. But this sort of got to me. I took a phone message for my friend who seemed to know everyone. It was Henry Winkler. A few years later I was visiting my old drama teacher, someone who has trained a few stars (I only participate in amateur productions and public theater, so I am not a star, but my Kevin Bacon number is 2), and she told me she went to grade school with Henry. Wish I had known that when I took the call, would have had something to say other than "thank you Mr. Winkler, I'll make sure he gets your message." Sorry, this is a terrible story.
I have one similar, but it has nothing to do with flashlights. I stayed a month at a friend's rented bungalow. My friend stayed with his fiancé. He let me stay while I was supposed to be recording a record, but Tony Lucca took up all my studio time, so I did not get much time to work on it. My friend was a young producer at the time (still a producer today), and his landlord in the house at the property his bungalow was on in North Hollywood was the producer of American's Most Wanted, but meeting him briefly didn't really thrill me; I didn't watch the show much. I had lived in LA before, and I got over getting star struck pretty fast. I had seen Eric Clapton riding around the Palisades in a classic convertible Mustang, got stuck in traffic once in Malibu for an hour next to Tori Spelling (that was weird), and when I was sent out for lunch at the record studio I worked at off Sunset, I walked passed Paul Sorvino parked in a big pink Cadillac, he smiled at me when I waved. But this sort of got to me. I took a phone message for my friend who seemed to know everyone. It was Henry Winkler. A few years later I was visiting my old drama teacher, someone who has trained a few stars (I only participate in amateur productions and public theater, so I am not a star, but my Kevin Bacon number is 2), and she told me she went to grade school with Henry. Wish I had known that when I took the call, would have had something to say other than "thank you Mr. Winkler, I'll make sure he gets your message." Sorry, this is a terrible story.
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