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Old 30th May 2019, 4:55 am   #183
TonyDuell
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Biggin Hill, London, UK.
Posts: 5,190
Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

A little more modern than the above torches, there was a vintage-ish torch in a charity shop in Orpington yesterday.

I would guess 1970's vintage, made in Hong Kong according to the (original) box. It runs off 4 C-size cells (or 'UM1' as they call them). It's approximately square in cross section, a little wider than 2 C cells side by side and a little longer than 2 C cells end to end if you see what I mean.

There is a translucent panel on the side of the body, illuminated by an internal bulb. And a reflector on the end with another bulb. A centre-off slide switch selects one or the other (but not both). Both bulbs are those 'pre-focus' flanged type.

There are 2 unusual features (at least to me), both relate to the reflector thing. The first is that in the middle of the 'lens' for that reflector there's a plastic knob. Turning it screws down a transparent red plastic sleeve around the bulb, thus turning that beam red. The second is that inside the torch behind the reflector there's a clip to store a spare bulb. That bulb is present and it's one of those flashing bulbs with an internal bimetallic strip. The instructions on the side of the box imply you can swap the bulbs over to get a flashing red light.

Note I said is 'was' in the charity shop. I don't normally collect torches but this looked unsual enough to add to my collection of odd electrical things.

I can't find any pictures of it on the web, I'll try to take some of mine sometime.
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