gallonoffuel
Enlightened
I think this has enough flashlight content to belong in General, if not feel free to move it elsewhere.
Thursday I took a trip to northwestern New Jersey to an attraction known as the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. It was formerly an active zinc mine that closed in 1986 and became a museum in 1989. They have guided tours of some of the mine, as well as a museum, and a rock pile for which you can rummage through (for a fee) and pick out a few minerals and bring them home (for another fee). The reason you may want to do this is because many of the minerals in the area fluoresce under UV light. I have a few pieces I took home and plan on building a light box to show them off.
Inside the museum are a number of neat attractions, including a large showcase of minerals from around the world. I have many pictures but I'll refrain from posting those, since the main reason I wanted to start this thread was for their impressive collection of mining lamps and flashlights.
Click images for larger version:
There was a nice variety from 1910's through 1970's lights, nothing much newer then that. The mining lamps I know nothing about, and we only got 30 minutes in the whole museum, so I didn't take closeups of those.
The museum alone is worth going to this place, but seeing the minerals fluoresce and being able to take a few home to play with is also cool. Unfortunately, my Solarforce UV dropin is not of the wavelength to properly stimulate the local minerals, but it does work on some of the imported varieties they have on display. This is how they look:
And the tunnels themselves are fun as well, lots of dark areas a flashaholic could show off in, but part of the atmosphere is the ambient lighting they have. I refrained from bringing anything overpowering, just carrying my E1L so we didn't trip on anything.
I think it's a worthwhile trip even for non-flashaholics, but when i saw their portable lighting collection I knew i had to post these for the membership to ogle at!
Thursday I took a trip to northwestern New Jersey to an attraction known as the Sterling Hill Mining Museum in Ogdensburg, NJ. It was formerly an active zinc mine that closed in 1986 and became a museum in 1989. They have guided tours of some of the mine, as well as a museum, and a rock pile for which you can rummage through (for a fee) and pick out a few minerals and bring them home (for another fee). The reason you may want to do this is because many of the minerals in the area fluoresce under UV light. I have a few pieces I took home and plan on building a light box to show them off.
Inside the museum are a number of neat attractions, including a large showcase of minerals from around the world. I have many pictures but I'll refrain from posting those, since the main reason I wanted to start this thread was for their impressive collection of mining lamps and flashlights.
Click images for larger version:
There was a nice variety from 1910's through 1970's lights, nothing much newer then that. The mining lamps I know nothing about, and we only got 30 minutes in the whole museum, so I didn't take closeups of those.
The museum alone is worth going to this place, but seeing the minerals fluoresce and being able to take a few home to play with is also cool. Unfortunately, my Solarforce UV dropin is not of the wavelength to properly stimulate the local minerals, but it does work on some of the imported varieties they have on display. This is how they look:
And the tunnels themselves are fun as well, lots of dark areas a flashaholic could show off in, but part of the atmosphere is the ambient lighting they have. I refrained from bringing anything overpowering, just carrying my E1L so we didn't trip on anything.
I think it's a worthwhile trip even for non-flashaholics, but when i saw their portable lighting collection I knew i had to post these for the membership to ogle at!
