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Old 13th Nov 2016, 9:28 pm   #120
Techman
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Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Lincolnshire, UK.
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

There are some very nice examples of vintage torches being shown, many of them much older than the examples that I have.

Shown below is the screwdriver torch with three out of the four original bits. Also, the Readers Digest pen torch that lives permanently in the top pocket of my leather jacket - none of this modern LED torch stuff for me In the pictures can be seen a lens which is all that remains from some forgotten torch, probably once belonging to grandparents - I seem to remember the torch it came from and which probably was the victim of rotten batteries. The copper plated 'oil lamp look-alike' I've had for a lifetime and is a bit of a rare survivor, having suffered from rotten batteries many years ago. It has a three position and off switch and originally had three bulbs, white, green and red flashing. It now only has the white light bulb which could actually be the green one with the colour rubbed off. The long, red flashing bulb I remember breaking as a child when I tried to fit it into a torch that it was too long for - probably the other torch of the type shown by me in post #17, but which as well as having the coloured cylinders which slid up round the bulb, also had a 'focusing' arrangement which adjusted the lens in and out and probably crushed the bulb as it was turned back down nearer to the reflector. The copper plating is no longer in good condition on this lamp but with a bit of cleaning and bending of the contacts it produced light for the first time in around fifty years. A word of warning with these old torches and modern batteries - they were made in the days of cardboard cased batteries and modern metal cased cells/batteries can short out/cause leakage between the internal contacts in these old lamps, as I found out when I left it over night to find it was only giving half brightness the next day. One of the two 'C' cells was dead due to its metal case causing leakage of current - lucky it was just a 'Poundshop' zinc carbon, as an alkaline type supplying a much higher current could have caused things to get a bit hot!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil G4SPZ View Post
I think I have some of these somewhere, in a packet confusingly labelled 'flashlight bulbs'...
If these are the long form red type, then this is exactly the type with the internal bi-metal strip that was originally in this lamp and I would love to be able to find a replacement for this lamp and wonder if you would be able to spare one. However, if these are part of a set in an original packet or for what ever other reason, then I quite understand if you would rather keep them complete.

Pictures below:-
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Last edited by Techman; 13th Nov 2016 at 9:43 pm.
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