When I was a pup, my folks and I were at the Grand Canyon when two airplanes crashed...one right behind the other into the wall of the canyon. We seen it happen, it was on the far side from us. A park ranger came and my Dad asked him if he seen those two "Flashes"... Dad took his flashlight and shined it over to the canyon wall...and I recall being able to faintly see boulders. I have no idea how far that was or what flashlight it was. At the time I was about 6 I think. I do remember the flashlight took 6 D cells or so and the head was huge...4 or 5 inches across. The light was chrome finished. So the old ones were...or at least some were close to as bright as what we have now I would think. Thinking of these old lights brought all that back! TL
Yep. THANKS!!!I was thinking of trying to find something on the crash.I hadn't thought of it in years. I read from your link that the planes left LA in the morning... so perhaps we didn't see the crash as I remember.... makes me wonder. There is no one to ask. I do recall the flashes...or some flashes. Ha! I recall as well being scared to death we would fall into the canyon. Scary at night.
Forgetting when day and night was during your involvement in the event so long ago, isn’t bad for such and old memory, it is easy to mix up the timeline of what was going on when it happened and the searching and what was going on after dark came.
You sure put me on a walk down memory lane. Most of these lights were dirt-cheap.These mean green or yellow colored plastic lights cost less than one guilder. They hardly ever worked when you needed them to work. But we never tested them because the batteries cost more than the light itself. It sat in the kitchen drawer until we were warned by a distinct odor that the batteries were leaking. We bought a new one and the whole cycle started all over again.
Ha! Well, I guess not considering half of the time I can't remember where I live! I know it was dark... I'll see if I can find an exact time of the crash somewhere. It has me wondering now. Those old lights are just pure treasure. I'd pay about whatever it took if I had Dad's old one available to purchase. Odd how life works! Thanks again for finding that info. TL
Don’t doubt yourself - it probably was relatively dark regardless of the time of day as there were heavy thunderstorms and cloud cover (which is what caused the crash).
Here’s my 80 year old. It’s an early zoomie; well sort of; the screw in back adjusts the focus more than switching from flood to zoom. The bulb on top is solid glass- yes I said solid. I included a pic with it burning but since it’s made of unobtanium I never turn it on and then with only weak batteries. 2D cells power it. The switch on back goes L-R solid, off, front. No hint of who made it to be found. I’ve seen similar shaped lights but none exactly match the shape and details. Printed on back is “Krause Corner Drug Store” in Carlisle Ohio. If anyone is near there maybe you can see if any old folks remember the place.
I was just asking one of our well renowned flashlight fixer upers earlier, if he could maybe fix my grandpas old light as it quit working about 12 years ago. I think it may be in the switch or the weird looking filament/bulb in it where the problem lies, but I don’t know. The light is at least 60 years old as I am 52 and my dad said he used it long before I came along. It is a “Big Beam” brand and was made in Chicago Illinois. I do know it had a great beam and a lot of brightness to it for an old flashlight though, like the Q-beam of the day back then. The head even swivels so you can sit the light down and point it from straight up to about 25 degrees down past level. This is exactly like mine but not the actual light.
I can’t see the switch in your pic, but most of these had simple “slide” switches which are still made in numerous sizes, so you could find a replacement. Matching the original rivets would be the tough part. You could probably disassemble both switches (new and old) and replace the internal parts as needed. Slide switches usually fail from the sliding “U” losing it’s springiness or from the tuny spring above it failing. For a display model simply squeezing that “U” tighter and stretching the spring (if so equipped) will restore operation. You may be able to access that without removal of the whole switch from the bottom, thus saving the original rivets.
The bulb is probably a “Sealed Beam” and those can still be had as well. This type of flashlight was the “Sky Ray King” of it’s day and other than the cost of batteries and it’s incan technology they can still acquit themselves well.
yes it is sealed beam…it has a clicky type switch (Push button) on the opposite side from pic, but also a number of wires here there and all from one component to the other.
Clicky-switches can still be had too. If you can get a few pics of that switch we might find one. There were not a lot of different clicky-switches made back then, and I’ve fixed a few old lights in my youth with ones scrounged from vacuum cleaners and desk lamps which were identical or close enough to fit. These don’t repair well (if at all) so a replacement would be needed to make it work.
It’s still a piece of history anyway, working or not. Whoever designed it put thought into it’s aesthetics knowing the dies for the stampings would be a significant investment and useless for anything else. Today’s plastic and CNC work pales in comparison; it’s cheap and easy now unlike in the past. 3D printing moreso.
To my eyes this is as much industrial artwork as it is a flashlight, and that is a large part of why I love old flashlights so much :bigsmile:
We watched some of the Thin Man movies over the weekend and was wondering what kind of flashlights he was using. It was hard to tell, but these look pretty close if they weren’t the same.
TL
