Lanterns were originally invented by Joshua Lionel Cowen in 1898, but they were not intended to be a portable lighting device. Instead, Cowen wanted his design to be sold as decorative lighting to match potted plants. Cowen was not commercially successful and eventually sold his company to Conrad Hubert.
Hubert hired an inventor to use Cowen’s design to create what is known today as a flashlight or electric torch. To begin marketing this new product, Hubert handed them over to New York City police officers to use on the job. These flashlights were very different from the ones we use today. They can only be used in short bursts of light due to low power elements and inability to maintain current. In fact, this inability to sustain a beam of light is where the flashlight comes from.
Early flashlights used incandescent bulbs, and many lights on the market today still use this type of lighting. One of the most popular brands of incandescent flashlights is Maglite, which provides a high-powered beam of light with many of their products. Of course, there are always those who want more than what is available, and it is a common hobby among flashlight enthusiasts to replace light sources or other parts of these products with items that will produce a much more powerful beam of light.
In addition to the incandescent light bulb, the modern age has brought us many more ways to create light. Probably the next most popular light source among flashlights these days is LED light. LED stands for Light Emitting Diodes. The first LED flashlight was launched on the market in 2001 and since LED lighting is much more efficient than incandescent, many manufacturers have been producing LED flashlights ever since. In addition to longer battery life, LED lights also have the advantage of being stronger than normal incandescent lights, making them an obvious choice for manufacturers who want to produce long-lasting products. For people who need a flashlight that can take a beating, LED lighting is a great option and can be found from brands like Maglite, Surefire, and Pelican.
Another light source that has been developed in recent years is the high intensity discharge, or HID, bulb. An example of this type of bulb can be found in Surefire Hellfire Weaponlight. An HID bulb is very shock resistant and incredibly bright. In fact, the 3000 lumens generated by the Hellfire Weaponlight can illuminate targets several football fields away. However, HID lighting has yet to make a big impact on consumer lanterns because they are expensive and require large power sources, making them less portable than standard hand-held lanterns.
In addition to standard commercial flashlights like Maglite, there is also an entire market dedicated to high-end flashlights. These manufacturers provide specialty lights that are made from special materials, are waterproof, and provide a brightness that far exceeds that of standard flashlights. These products are designed with specific uses or collectibles in mind, and can range in price from just over a hundred dollars to several hundred dollars! Some examples of high-end lights include Streamline’s HID Litebox, which is a search light with a million candle power, and Surefire’s M6 Guardian, which is often used as a tactical light by the police. These types of lights are often collected and marketed by lantern enthusiasts around the world. In fact, there is even an Annual Lantern Convention and several museums devoted entirely to lanterns.
As flashlight technology developed over the years, ingenious people came up with more and more ways to use this product, which means that more and more types of flashlights were created. For example, years ago, someone came up with the idea to put lights on helmets for use in mining, and more recently, tool companies began to design smaller lights that could be attached to the head to work with the helmets. free hands. In the last century, artisans have seen hanging lights, lights that can be placed on the wall or in the workspace, and lights with flexible cylinders that can be wrapped around bars or other things. At the beginning of the lantern development, the lights reflected the times, and some of them even looked like lanterns. Seeing how lanterns have changed over the years with culture and technology, you can only wonder what the next generation of lights will look like!