Your first flashlight - what can you remember?

The first flashlight I can remember owning I got for Christmas '57, I would have been 6.

It had a thin (less than 1mm), I think spun aluminium body and took 2 'C' cells. The body had a single opening at the reflector/lens with a (probably rolled) thread which was visible on both the inside and the outside surfaces. The lens was a single piece of moulded transparent plastic which fit the thread in the body only with considerable galling. The bulb screwed into the chromed reflector with which it made contact. The reflector had just a kind of circular hole with the lips bent this way and that. A spring in the bottom of the body was meant to ensure contact between the bottom of the bulb and the centrepost positive terminal of the uppermost cell, and made assembly of the torch difficult. The switch was a long brass tongue rivetted to a slider in a slot in the body. It made contact with the reflector which fit inside the insulating lens. The exterior was lacquered (I think) black with silver bands left uncoated.

I was pleased to get it, but in the end I didn't think much of it. It was dim and unreliable even for those days, and the batteries lasted no time. I used to borrow my dad's green mil-spec torch, but he didn't really like that...

The other torch you used to see a lot then was a 3D job with a complete rubber skin. The switch was so stiff I used to have to press with both thumbs.

Hmm. I guess I was hooked way back.

Funny what remember when you start to think about it.

w

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

When I was about five I was given one of those
cheap plastic 2AA side by side lights, it was in my Christmas stocking
the first thing I remember is swithching it on and the Bulb going PooFFF??

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

hmmm. It must have been a 2AA sheet metal tube body with the screw on pointing bulb on a colored plastic head (you know the one doctors used for examinations) OR one of this relics with the rectangular 4.5 Volt battery. memories are so and so. Both were sold by the family store.

The strongest and most horrific mamory is when we hiked to a near mountain retreat around 1987??? and when I took my UCAR (from the battery brand) 3D flashlight out oif the backpack. I found the sliding switch module into pieces in the bootim of the pack. (hopefully I had a few smaller ones as a backup we are talking about a teen flashaholic here)!

Now that flashlight was an innovation since it had an adjustable beam, and a signalling button with lockout.

I managed to superglue the switch module to proper operation and that flashlight has given me service up to last year (as a storeroom/warehouse light) when the threads at the plastic talcap gave away to the metal (foil) body respective ones. But I have still have it.

enjoy, kostas

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

wakibaki said:

The first flashlight I can remember owning I got for Christmas '57, I would have been 6...Hmm. I guess I was hooked way back....Funny what remember when you start to think about it...w

Click to expand...

At age four or five I was given a shiny, chrome-plated, red-plastic-headed 1AA flashlight. Ray-o-Vac or Eveready, not sure which brand. Had a tiny slide switch just behind the head. Output was probably 5 lumens on a fresh cell, then rapidly declining. Enough to navigate inside a dark house or to read under the bedcovers.

I loved that little light and managed to keep it for several years before losing it on a camping trip. It was the first flashlight that was all mine and the first flashlight that I truly loved.

.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

My story is here, at post # 86


https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/150257



Moderators: perhaps these 2 threads should be combined, eh ?


Always enjoy reading about this sorta' thing.

:twothumbs

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

As far as I know, it was a 2AA Mini-Mag. It was a good light as we used them for night time games. I think the light dropped a few too many times over the years and was finally tossed out.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

My first real flashlight was bought in '97 when I lived in Jo'burg. We'd been having a lot of power cuts and I managed to figure out that my Commander was useless if I couldn't see the target .

I headed down to Sharp Edge in Sandton City and picked up a 6P/R. I remember asking the assistant if there was an extra zero on the ticket, I think it was over a thousand rand........... That torch got me out of all sorts of trouble, both in the city and when heading North to go fishing (great for spotting hippo when heading to the khazi at night ;-).

Great torch, shame about their attitude towards foreigners who want to buy from the States.... I spend my money on other brands nowadays.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

It was a two D cell Ray-o-vac the all metal kind just like my dads.

Michael

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

ringzero said:

At age four or five I was given a shiny, chrome-plated, red-plastic-headed 1AA flashlight. Ray-o-Vac or Eveready, not sure which brand. Had a tiny slide switch just behind the head. Output was probably 5 lumens on a fresh cell, then rapidly declining. Enough to navigate inside a dark house or to read under the bedcovers.



.

Click to expand...

I think you wrote this for me. My first flashlight experience was almost identical. Sounds like we could have had the same light. Mine may have had some red rings painted on it.

Geoff

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

Ringzero and Geoff, add me to the list. I do remember my 1AA chromed-metal and red-plastic-head model said made in "Japan", so I'm not sure of the brand. I received it from an older neighbor kid sometime between 1967 and 1969.
Mine had one unusual feature, a small hole in the side of the red plastic head. When the light was stood face down, this allowed a small beam of light to project sideways in addition to the red glow coming out all around from the transluscent red plastic.
The main design problem was the mating of the plastic threads to the metal body, very weak.
I have no memory of what happened to that light but I think the head finally wouldn't stay attached.
I do still have my father's 2AA stainless-steel penlight with a twistie collar switch from around the early 1970's. It still works.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

I'm unable to stay logged-in long enough to make an edit to my post. I wanted to add that my father's 2AA penlight was a Ray-O-Vac model and it's probably chromed brass or non-magnetic stainless steel now that I look at it in detail again. The pocket clip and tail-cap are magnetic chrome-plated steel.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

My first flashlight was a 2D maglite. My parents started me off right I guess. :thumbsup:

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

RebelXTNC said:

Ringzero and Geoff, add me to the list...I do still have my father's 2AA stainless-steel penlight with a twistie collar switch from around the early 1970's. It still works.

Click to expand...

Great job that you managed to hang on to it and that it still works after 30+ years. I had a Ray-O-Vac penlight that was probably the same model, or close to it.

Penlights were my next fascination after I lost my little 1AA light. I built up quite a collection of 2AA and 2AAA penlights and was always on the lookout for new models. I managed to glom onto many corporate promotional plastic penlights, from various sources.

The ones I favored for EDC were slender plastic 2AAA models where the pocket clip was also the switch. Throughout Jr. and Sr. High there was almost always a penlight in my shirt pocket.

My favorite penlights for real world use were 2AA Ray-O-Vac and Eveready chrome-plated models with twitsy collar switches. Penlights with clicky plunger switches didn't seem to be as reliable, no matter the manufacturer.


.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

All I remember is a lot of flashlights that didn't work well or long. The first flashlight I had that in retrospect actually worked well was one of those Boy Scout L shaped two D cell models. That thing took a licking and kept on ticking. After that though it was more of the low quality stuff until I got my first Maglite. Got about five now, and they seem to last forever. Recently picked up one of those Petzl Tikka LED headband things on impulse, but haven't used it much yet. Seems to be very functional for what it's intended for.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

NA8 said:

All I remember is a lot of flashlights that didn't work well or long. The first flashlight I had that in retrospect actually worked well was one of those Boy Scout L shaped two D cell models. That thing took a licking and kept on ticking.

Click to expand...

+1

I first encountered those angle-head lights in the Cub Scouts but never owned one. A few years later, in the Boy Scouts, they were in common use and I finally got one of my own.

Very useful for outdoors applications. And quite reliable too, rarely failing to work despite all of the abuse they suffered at the hands of adolescent boys.

.

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

I'm not sure about my first light but the one that comes to mind is from radio shack.Red square lantern style using 4c's I bought it new if Iremember right. The light didn't last very long and ended up being discarded.Fortunately I found a couple at a garage sale a few years ago and picked them up.Cheap light,but it has a large reflector,6v and isn't as big or heavy as a typical 6v lantern. Smaller and brighter defintely flashoholism at an early age !

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

I can't remember properly my first torch... i think if im not mistaken i took my sister electronic board, unscrew the terminal blocks and use the green 5mm led with a 9V battery as a torch....(is that consider as a flashlight?) it gets really hot and turn orange and puff.... it was cool then. Did i get scold? nope because im too young

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

I grew up in the years immediately after WW2, and and lots of stuff of interest to kids was available in army surplus stores. One of my finds was a small two-AA cell flashlight made of OD plastic with a metal head. The pocket clip served as an on/off switch, and it also had a built in red filter that could be slid over the bulb by pressing a small button on the side of the metal head. Even neater was the fact that it was stamped: "U.S. Army Air Corp." That little flashlight flew many imaginary night time missions over Europe!

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

my first real light was a brinnkman maxfire but other than that it was a maglite. i thought a maglite was the best you can buy till i bought my mafire

Re: Ur first flashlight - what can u remember?

As far as I can remember, the first flashlight I remember having was back during the 1989 earthquake. You can tell that was when I got interested in flashlights. I had two flashlights both 2D cells. One was a the Eveready 2D Economy which is still commonly seen today, it was red or orange color. I don't remember the brand name of the other one but it had a magnet so you can stick it on the refrigerator, it was black and yellow color.