Quote:
Originally Posted by duncanlowe
I remember as a youngster going on cub camp and taking a torch. Flat beast with a single battery that was a 4.5v with two contacts on the top of different lengths. But interestingly we had a box of spare bulbs at home. This used a 'prefocus' type. So I went through the box selecting the one that gave the brightest light.
Of course you can all predict the outcome: it was great when switched on briefly, but failed fairly fast when used for more than a few seconds.
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My father got through several of those Ever Ready 1289 torches as military issue for cockpit use, it was a sort of dark turquoise colour with a NATO stock number stamped into it. He described it as "The most infernally
useless thing ever made by man". As a kid, I used one a few times and I had to agree- the switch had to be operated several times before a very variable and unreliable light was at last obtained that would randomly go out again, sometimes a sharp knock would get it going again, sometimes not. I'm sure that Ever Ready would have charged the MOD top whack for them, too.
I actually managed to buy a slab of 6x GP brand 1289 batteries for a quid from Anchor Surplus of Nottingham just shortly before their premises burned down. Though use-by dated 2014, they were still measured as pretty good.