Archive for January 5, 2012
A Brief History of Flashlights
Fumbling through the dark when an unexpected power shutdown occurs or looking for your favorite keychain when you accidentally drop it on grass can become really infuriating if you didn’t have your handy pen-like LED flashlights in your pocket. Flashlights are so commonplace and so much a part of our life that one does not even gives them a second thought. We take them for granted. Portable Electric lights are a relatively new invention but quite a lot older than most people think. The hazardous nature of candles, torches and lanterns when near inflammable objects like clothes and papers lead to the need of light sources other than fire. A safer substitute was direly needed.
Since a flashlight cannot exist without batteries and bulbs, only after the invention of these things the first idea of a flashlight evolved. Thomas Edison invented the first incandescent bulb in 1879. The first dry cell was invented in 1986. This was the first battery invented for portable devices and it did not damage easily and did not spill as the electrolyte within was in the form of a paste instead of liquid. In 1899 David Misell, and English inventor acquired patent for the first flashlight. He used to work in “The American Electrical Novelty and Manufacturing Company” founded by Conrad Hubert. The flash light designed by Misell was powered by D batteries laid in a front to back array in a paper tube with the light bulb and a rough reflector made of brass metal in the end. This company donated some of these first devices to the New York City police who highly approved of this gesture.
The early flashlights accommodated Zn-C Batteries which failed in providing steady electric current and voltage which is why they needed periodic rest instead of continuous flow of light. Therefore, they could only be used in brief flashes of light, hence the name flashlight. Since these humble beginnings of early flashlights, these devices have undergone massive changes and additions trough the passage of years. Nowadays mostly the batteries used are Li alkaline in nature which can be stored for years. Solar cells are also employed in some batteries. Recently LED is rapidly replacing light bulbs, making the name of these devices LED Flashlights. The light emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor light source and extremely bright in nature. It was invented in 1999 by Lumileds Corporation of San Jose, California United States. The first Luxeon LED Flashlight was introduced to the market in 2001. The high practicality of these flashlights makes them highly coveted. They have longer life than a normal flashlight and are less fragile than a normal gas lamp.