This is the first and only flashlight I've bought this year (so far)...
A vintage light with some interesting features. It seems similar in some ways to Foys 'Power Chief' as seen here
with the extending body to take 2 or 3 D cells.
And extended...
This one has more controls than Foys though. As well as the sliding on/off switch and the momentary push button, it also has a couple of bakelite(?) sliding switches, one of which moves the bulb up and down inside the head to change the focus.
The other is a rheostatic dimmer, marked from 0-100. It still works perfectly.
The tailcap has a slide out belt clip, and when removed, opens to show a storage space for 2 bulbs - one 2.5v, one 3.5v for use with 2 or 3 batteries.
It was listed as untested, so it was a nice surprise when it fired up straight away on some ancient alkaline D cells I had knocking around. It won't run using my AA to D converters, they don't seem to reach the contacts correctly.
These British patent numbers were issued around 1936/37. Could it be that old?
That's it, thought you lot might find it interesting. I've not seen an old flashlight with these features before.
Interesting features! The rheostat is especially interesting considering the limited output of those lights…who would need/want to dim them
Very cool light!
Yes, the output is extremely limited, compared to any cheap LED. The beamshot looks like a deformed doughnut when zoomed out, and when zooming in and out it looks vaguely disturbing, like some kind of alien sphincter opening and closing.
Thanks for sharing this gem! Interesting that the bulb is behind the flashlight's GUI and design technology. Is a drop-in possible and would you be modding it?
