Antique and Vintage Flashlights

The invention of the flashlight in 1898 is usually linked to the invention of the dry-cell battery. As portable devices, flashlights could not have been powered by the then-prevailing wet-cell technology because wet-cell batteries used a liquid conducting solution such as copper sulfate or ammonium chloride, which made them heavy and required the batteries to be placed on a level surface when in use. So, in 1886, when a German inventor named Carl Gassner patented his dry-cell battery (a U.S. patent would follow in 1887), it represented a portable-power breakthrough that paved the way for countless devices, including flashlights. An even more direct breakthrough for flashlights occurred in 1898, when the National Carbon Company introduced the first D cell battery, whose small, cylindrical size made it a much more flexible battery for what would become flashlights than the common #6 batteries, which weighed more than three pounds each. Roughly concurrently, another inventor, this time from England, named David Missell patented a cylindrical device designed to hold several D cells in order to light a carbon filament at one end. This flashlight patent was acquired by Ever Ready, which used it to release its first flashlight in 1899. Once carbon filaments were widely replaced by tungsten ones beginning in 1910, the flashlight was on its way. All sorts of cylindrical flashlights followed, with improvements to everything from their on-off switches to the materials used to make these illuminating devices more comfortable to grip. Close cousins of flashlights were the lamps designed to be attached to bicycles, small rectangular lights meant to fit in a coat pocket or a purse, and flashlights with heads that swiveled or were set at a right angle to the battery-filled cylinder, such as those created for the military and the Boy Scouts. Other lantern-type flashlights hung from the lend of a handle, with the lamp pointing straight ahead and a large rectangular battery below. Because flashlights became so inexpensive to make, they were used as promotional items and even as toys, decorated with lithographed images of everything from Disney characters to heroes from Westerns, including Gene Autry and Hopalong Cassidy. In addition to Ever Ready, which changed it name to Eveready before becoming Energizer, other popular vintage flashlight brands include Ray-O-Vac and USALite.