Flashlights, Headlamps

A flashlight, electric torch or simply torch is a hand-held portable electric spotlight. It is known as a flashlight mainly in the United States and Canada and as a torch or electric torch in most Commonwealth countries. more...

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History

In 1896, Joshua Lionel Cowen invented a decorative lighting fixture for potted plants which consisted of a metal tube housing a light bulb and a dry cell battery. It failed commercially, and so Cowen sold his company and patents to Conrad Hubert that same year and turned his attention to building and selling model trains. Hubert renamed Cowen's company the American Electrical Novelty & Manufacturing Company and, recognizing the true potential of Cowen's invention, hired David Misell to produce a tubular flashlight for portable use. They donated some models to the New York City police, who responded favorably to it. These early flashlights ran on zinc-carbon batteries, which were poor at providing sustained currents; they would run down after a while and needed to rest before being usable again. Since these early flashlights also used energy-inefficient carbon filament bulbs, this happened rather quickly, and consequently they could only be used in brief flashes.

General information

A typical flashlight consists of a small incandescent lightbulb with associated parabolic reflector, powered by electric batteries, and with an electric power switch. The components are mounted in a housing that contains the necessary electric circuit and provides ease of handling, a means of access to the batteries for replacement, and a clear covering over the lightbulb for its protection.

Although a relatively simple device, its invention did not occur until the late 19th century because it depended upon the earlier invention of the electric battery and incandescent light bulb.

Incandescent

Incandescent flashlights use bulbs that contain a heated-up coiled wire, which gives off light energy as well as heat. A popular example of an incandescent flashlight is the Maglite by Mag Instrument. The bulbs are filled with gas (usually Halogen, but in higher quality models, Xenon) and are capable of producing upwards of 4,000 lumens . Flashlight hobbyists often modify Maglites by replacing the bulb, reflector, switch, and batteries with more powerful options, producing much more light than a stock Maglite.

LED

Recently, flashlights which use light-emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of conventional lightbulbs have become available. LEDs have existed for decades, mainly as low-power indicator lights. In 1999, Lumileds Corporation of San Jose, CA, introduced the Luxeon LED, a high-power white-light emitter. For the first time this made possible LED flashlights with power and running time better than some incandescent lights. The first Luxeon LED flashlight was the Arc LS in 2001.

Read more at Wikipedia.org