Flashlight fun surfing the Patent Office

Just got into this today. Since Mag-Lite is such a patent-happy company, did you guys ever wonder what they might have designed that was never sold? I punched Maglica into the uspto.gov site and started looking. Only goes back to 1976 with text searches but that's enough.

If you have a high speed connection it's worth some time. In addition to seeing stuff like a 3-cell rechargable Mini-Mag with a tail cradle (a la SL Jr.), some of the patents also reference older ones that can't be searched for. Like neat stuff Don Keller and Petzl did years before.

Hmm, this really is kinda neat from a historical perspective. Looks like the PR base Magcharger didn't work out. And the dual-switch twistie tail Mini-Mag. And how about the AAAA Mag with the tail focus and clickie?

An unrelated referenced patent from one of these turned out to be an early '70s tailswtich that could twist for constant on, and had a button for flash. Sound familiar, SF users?

Somewhere there has to be a room full of these things, like PK's desk.

Do you think you could find some of the newer patents that Surefire has applied for? Might give us an idea of what's on the menu for 2005? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif