Gem-Lites

Gem-Lites were designed as an alternative to Kel-Lites for a very short period of time in the early 70s. Kel-Lite had a supply problem early on and had difficulty meeting orders due to the overwhelming popularity of their lights. As such, imitators started to pop up to take advantage of this situation. Their prime imitator was Gem-Lite. In fact they were even produced by a machine shop near San Dimas that was a supplier for Kel Lite. Their original address listed in old literature is:

GEM Products
623 W. Covina
San Dimas, CA 91773
Tel. (714) 599-1055

Most of the design was produced using identical tooling. The tail cap and threads are identical to a second gen Kel-Lite which was in early development at the time and will swap out. The spring is slightly different. The main difference is in the switch which instead of having the reflector contact move it contains a jumper inside the switch itself to make or break contact with the body and the reflector contact is stationary. This setup was intended to reduce contact problems associated with wear on the reflector but instead caused contact issues inside the switch as the contacts are very thin and were in need of constant adjustment. My 4D Gem-Lite is shown below.

If this were in the present Kel-Lite would have likely sued for patent infringement. However, at the time materials and machine shops were in such short supply Kel-Lite knew they could corner the supply market and run Gem-lite afoul instead. That they did and along with Gem-Lites inferior quality they shuddered by the early 70s.

Gem-Lites other big product was the tear gas dispensing flashlight. I have a prototype Kel-Lite dispenser I've covered here. The machine shop that produced this prototype was the one that turned into Gem-Lite and beat Kel-Lite to the market. However this item was not really popular and never sold well. I don't own one of these but Gem-Lite produced a lot of them early on. Shown below is my Gem-Lite next to a 2nd gen Kel-Lite to show the glaring similarities.

As always I'm looking to buy vintage and rare aluminum flashlights. Please let me know if you have any, top dollar paid.

Sigmalites by LiteTek

Sigmalites by Litetek are an interesting, if not brief, chapter in flashlight history. As is the theme with most posts in this blog Don Keller was the founder of the company. Don was involved with the development and design of most flashlights throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s starting with his invention of the aluminum flashlight in 1968, his self-titled Kel-Lite. Don left Kel-Lite and had a few ventures before starting Maglite with Tony Maglica in 1979. I've covered early Maglite history on my Maglite blog. By 1986 Don was ready to move on, mainly due to creative differences.

The Mini Maglite debuted in 1984 and was a wild success for Maglite as it was the first reliable, durable AA flashlight. However, many consumers wanted more. The most common request was a push button switch for momentary, one handed, and tactical operation. Efforts to add this to the Mini Maglite failed at Maglite so seizing the opportunity to move on after 8 years at Maglite Don ventured out on his own.

In the summer of 1986 Don formed Litetek with a few investors. The idea was to produced a line of AA and AAA mini lights with a rear push button marketed towards both the budding civilian market and legacy law enforcement sales. The idea was to develop a competitor to the Mini Maglite, which was nearly alone in the market. The result was the Sigmalite. Shown below are some of Sigmalite's earliest advertisements showing the different models available. There is an 2 - AA, 2 - AAA, and 2 - AA Flex Light.

Around 100,000 combined models were produced during the first year, a very strong sales number. Each unit was individually serialized. The overall look of the light is remarkably similar to a sized down Bianchi B-Lite or Pro-Light, both of which were designed by Don. Shown below are my 2 Sigmalites. The 2 - AA model is the prototype Sigmalite and is numbered 0000000. The smaller model is a proof of concept 1 - AAA light which was never sold to consumers but was produced to test tooling and and design. It is not numbered.

About midway into 1987 Litetek ran into financial trouble and had to shut production. The partners in the company were over extended on their loans and the money was mismanaged. They unfortunately were not able to get back on their feet and after only one year the Signmalite was no more. Sigmalite made its debut years before Surefires first flashlight and was more or less the same concept. A reliable, hard running, bright mini light that was easily mountable to a weapon and had a push button rear. It is interesting to think that had Sigmalite not run into financial difficulties that most officers and military personal might be carrying Sigmalites today instead of Surefires.

Don moved on to an executive position in Brinkmann where he developed a mini light that's similar to the Sigmalite as well as a full size line of flashlights. I've covered that chapter here.

As always I'm looking to buy vintage and rare aluminum flashlights. Please let me know if you have any, top dollar paid.

1970 2D Kel-Lite with Prototype Mace Holder

Happy 4th everyone!! I'll be busy celebrating a little later but I wanted to add another post here first. I purchased a lot of some pretty rare and one off lights about a month ago and I'm still going through them all to see if everything works and to find out some more info on them. This one is likely one of a kind. It' s 2D very early Kel-Lite with a prototype mace holder. This is a Covina model from around 1970. There is no serial number so it is very early as serial numbers started in 1971.

This is a standard 2D Kel-Lite small head (Model 2D-SKL) except instead of an end cap it has a mace holder. If you'll notice it's stamped Pat. Pend. Gem Lite patented this design as well as a number other of Kel-Lite's designs while they were still being prototyped. Gem Lite and Kel-Lite both shared the same machinist and in the early days of the industry folks were not as crazy about patenting inventions or trademarking designs and logos as they are now. Rather than sue, Kel-Lite waited for Gem Lite to fold after only 2 years in business. The whole setup proved to be cumbersome and wasn't well received so Kel-Lite never produced it and Gem Lite only produced it for a short time.

Kel-Lite produced fewer than a dozen of these for testing purposes. This is the only one I've ever seen and it even included a period correct sample mace canister. The bottom is drilled out so it contains no liquid. It's for demo use only.

It's roughly the same length as a 4D Maglite. Shown below is a picture for comparison purposes.

As always I'm looking to buy vintage and rare aluminum flashlights. Please let me know if you have any, top dollar paid.