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Old 14th Feb 2023, 8:58 pm   #261
Herald1360
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

They have a specific capability for focussing the beam too (very useful before prefocus bulbs came along with a defined distance between the filament and the mounting plane of the bulb). It's what the extra locking "ring" (usually a sort of dished three tanged crude nut thing) on the bulb is meant for.

The 800 battery also gave the most Watt hours per £ of affordable consumer batteries- of considerable interest to impecunious young geeks back in the day!
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Old 14th Feb 2023, 9:02 pm   #262
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Philpott View Post

......


Some modification would of course be needed to use (for example) a couple of C cells in holders.

Dave
Or extract a couple of the same size cells from a 996 lantern battery and build your own 800. Easy if you do have a scrap one to scrounge the brass straps from.
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Old 14th Feb 2023, 10:15 pm   #263
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Quote:
Originally Posted by broadgage View Post
The type of cycle lamp to which you refer often turn up on ebay, generally at affordable prices. Suggested search term is "ever ready bicycle lamp"
This will be going on my birthday list when it next rolls around. (The older I get, the more fondness I have for those childhood memories. And don’t get me started on the endless evenings I spent investigating magnets! They are still magical as far as I’m concerned)
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Old 14th Feb 2023, 11:02 pm   #264
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

The cycle lamp your referring to was very common in my day as a young boy . Apparently the GPO even had their own version of the 800 battery for their cycle lamps made by Ever Ready
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Old 15th Feb 2023, 12:40 am   #265
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Somewhere in the garage I still have one of those grey cycle lamps. To be precise, most of it. The last battery that was in it, leaked and ate away part of the case, but I didn't have the heart to bin it as it still worked. Strange, as none of the dozens of blue Ever Ready U2 cells that I used in my battery tape recorder ever leaked.

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Old 15th Feb 2023, 2:47 am   #266
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

For Australian readers, the 800 cycle lamp battery equivalent is Eveready No. 701. That's "Eveready" black cat in the number nine, not "Ever Ready" orange shield on blue.
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Old 15th Feb 2023, 10:47 am   #267
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Quote:
Originally Posted by FireballX View Post
I recall as a child of maybe 4 or 5 years old being given in the early 60s an ‘Ever Ready Front Cycle Lamp’, model number 2306. It was grey, all-metal, took an 800 battery inserted via the top, and had a screw-off front glass arrangement rather like removing a threaded jar lid.
I had several of those, and I believe they made them in black too. PIFCO made a rather more vulgar version: chrome finish, slider switch on the top cap, and a plastic tell-tale indicator above the somewhat larger diameter glass so you could tell if it was on. Made in Hong-Kong ('Empire -Made').
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Old 15th Feb 2023, 4:27 pm   #268
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

I wouldn't call myself a collector of old torches but I do have some that I've accumulated over the years.

Here's one of them - a SAFT Mazda torch (lampe de poche) that I bought new on holiday in France c.1982 about 40 years ago. It's made entirely of plastic - and most interestingly the whole green shell is a single moulded piece. The two halves are joined together by a moulded plastic hinge, which according to a label inside, is guaranteed for 10,000 openings. Moulded inside the case are the words "design guy boucher" and "SAFT MAZDA" "MADE IN FRANCE" on the outside.

The torch uses an Ever Ready 1289 or equivalent 4.5v battery block with brass strip terminals on top. These are still available but not that common in the UK - I think they were more popular in mainland Europe. Back in the late 1980s I obtained an adaptor to use 3x AA batteries instead - the inside picture shows this.

The Ever Ready 800 cycle lamp batteries were available in the UK until the 1980s then they were discontinued. I was told they were hand-assembled and quite labour-intensive to produce. I had heard there was an adaptor to replace those with 'ordinary' batteries. Has anyone actually seen a number 800 adaptor?
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Old 15th Feb 2023, 4:47 pm   #269
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I remember seeing the adaptors advertised, but haven't seen one in the flesh.
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Old 15th Feb 2023, 5:21 pm   #270
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https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/114236237...Bk9SR9KD-d3KYQ
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Old 15th Feb 2023, 5:33 pm   #271
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Here're a couple of my Ever Ready 'plastic fantastics'. A rechargeable NiCad handlamp based on the version that took two 996 lantern batteries (post 35) and a 1980s 'D'-cell bicycle headlamp which superseded the grey metal version discussed recently.
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Old 15th Feb 2023, 8:25 pm   #272
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

I used to have a rather nifty 'handlamp' - made by Ever Ready it had a Xenon bulb and was powered by a big blue rectangular steel-cased 6V '991' battery which had two screw-terminals on top which provided both the power connection and held the battery into the bottom of the lamp.

For its day it was really powerful - the beam would happily pick out things 500 yards away. The slide-switch on the handle eventually gave up so I replaced it by a toggle-switch.
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Old 16th Feb 2023, 3:36 pm   #273
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Here's another vintage torch from the 1980s - a British Telecom one made in West Germany (!) Not sure if this was issued to their engineers or if it was a promotional item. It came from a forum member who worked for British Telecom or BT / Openreach as it's called these days.

Inside, there's space for two AA batteries. One of the spaces is marked with + and - signs, the other space is marked 'Reservebatterie / Spare Battery / Pile de Reserve'. This implies the torch only consumes one battery at a time but I can't see how it could work without both batteries being in circuit and being used together.

About the 800 battery adaptors: I never saw any back in the day, just heard they existed. The one in the link appears to be a new reproduction. It's also a lot more expensive than buying a new torch, so that wouldn't have been a practical option for the average person. Presumably it's sold as a nostalgic or collectors item.

I certainly remember the 1980s Ever Ready bicycle lamp that replaced the old 800-battery ones. I also remember having an Ever Ready rubber torch with separate on / off push buttons that made a distinctive 'dink' noise when pressed. And a (Crompton Vidor?) fluorescent lantern that took two 996 spring-terminal batteries, but could also be connected to a car battery.
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Old 16th Feb 2023, 10:10 pm   #274
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Okay, here are three torches from the late 1990s that I suspect few will have seen, all made by Freeplay, the company that sprang (pardon the pun) from Trevor Baylis’s invention of the clockwork radio.

Two examples of the “FPSL” or Freeplay Self-powered Lantern, the yellow one being the Mk I and the transparent one being the Mk II, both powered by the same 2” wide constant torque spring motor that powered the first two generations of Freeplay radios. Both use incandescent bulbs and store energy in a NiMH battery pack.

The third, smaller, translucent blue torch is a “Freeplay 2020” from the very early 2000s. This is two separate torches in one, a spring-driven LED light and a rechargeable incandescent light. The spring is 1” wide and powers the LEDs for about ten minutes.

These are big and heavy torches and must have been costly to make. A surprisingly large number seem to have survived in reasonable condition, probably due to being put away in case of an emergency that never happened. All the spring-powered torches suffer from stretched or broken drive belts which are relatively easy to replace, as long as you ignore the warning signs!
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Old 28th Feb 2023, 7:47 am   #275
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Here's a Hong Kong classic, the Star Tricolor Flashlight. It has two cylindrical coloured filters that push up over the bulb, as well as a flash button and a beam focus control. The green filter was good for spooky lighting effects, and if you pushed both filters up at once you got murky brown light. A popular Xmas present in the 1960s.
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Old 29th May 2023, 10:58 am   #276
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Default Re: Old torches - anyone here collect them?

Got this one from an antiques fair yesterday, it’s a small black Bakelite ‘Magnet’ branded torch. Not found out when it was made yet!

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Old 29th May 2023, 2:35 pm   #277
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Magnet was a GEC trade mark, used on a lot of their consumer goods in the 1920's and 30's.
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