Who Made 1st Good Mini AA?

[jayflash]

Mag, apparently, gets credit for popularizing the AA light. Were they the first with a decent design? My first AA mini was a early 80's Streamlight Mini-Mitelite. It looks like a Mag but uses a flange base bulb. Now they're called the Streamlight Jr. & have a clicky which also fits a Mag. So...who's on first?

 

[paulr]

There were and always have been tons of decent AA lights. AA's are called penlight cells because of that. I remember having a PR base Duracell 2aa light in the early 80's that was pretty good. Before that, there were Eveready penlights with #222 screw-base bulbs that weren't bad. Earlier than that was before my time. But in the old days, most batteries were zinc-carbon, and AA's just didn't have enough juice to run a flashlight very well for very long, so AA penlights were sort of the equivalent back then of coin cell keychain lights today. Good primary AA lights like the Minimag may mostly be a result of alkaline AA's becoming popular, rather than being a flashlight improvement that could have happened anytime along the way.

 

[jayflash]

I still use an old style clickie top AAA penlight with a 222 krypton 600mA lamp because it's easy to pocket & use. I'm just curious when the "Mag" style or other heavier duty AA types were first made...1970's perhaps?

Anyone have an LED replacement in mind for my old AAA penlight? It's got to be small, as easy to use & brighter. Hate to admit it but sometimes I'm forced to wear a pocket protector loaded with implements including the penlight.

 

[Empath]

While Mag-Lite wasn't the first to manufacture a solid aluminum light of the nature of it's D and C cell lights, it was the first to produce the same concept in a AA flashlight. With it, they introduced the T1 bi-pin lamp that is so popular in AA lights today. Other manufacturers attempted to borrow the same concepts, such as Brinkmann and Streamlight. Legal action was quickly initiated against them, so, any follow-up products of the same nature had to be made with a view to non-patent and non-trademark infringement.

It's interesting that word got out that Mag-Lite would be introducting a single AAA light. Before they did though, others tried to be the first to produce a single AAA and AA aluminum flashlight. What they weren't counting on was the departure from the larger circumferenced head when Mag-Lite produced its Solitaire flashlight. The large headed lights from the other manufacturers pretty well fizzled, and the Solitaire basically cornered the market for single AAA flashlights. Today, of course, we know new technology has all but placed that bit of history making innovation on a steady path of obsolescence.

 

[jayflash]

Ah, yes, technology. I never figured a flashlight being the recipient of bright, LED's & regulated, step-up circuits. Happily, I've retired my fourth (5th, 6th??) Solitare in favor of Arc's AAA.

 

[Double_A]

I remember those Everyready penlights paulr referred to. When I was a kid, I had a buddy who had one. His had a turquoise plastic head/bezel. I want one like his so bad. The thing was they were trim, the top pushbutton switch seemed to work real well and the 222 lamps had that glass lens molded in. They were cool, not like some clunky d-cell light.

My dad worked for PacBell and I remember back then he was issued a very similar penlight for his tool pouch. He (They) had soom great hand tools back then. Really nice Klein stuff, much better than the stuff Klein makes now.

GregR