Pharo-Tech Rechargeable Light and Early Rechargeable Flashlight History

I'll warn those that are faint of heart that this is a long post with few pictures. So without further fanfare here is the brief, early history of rechargeable flashlights..

NiCad rechargeable batteries have been around for a long time but it was only in the 1960s and 70s that their production became standardized and their popularity increased. At the same time professional aluminum flashlights were becoming more and more popular. Many police departments would go through a set of 3D alkaline batteries per officer per shift. The cost of replacing all of these batteries was a large one. At that time folks weren't as concerned about the environment as they are today but the environmental impacts were also huge as no one recycled these batteries. They were simply placed in landfills.

Realizing the large expenditure associated with alkaline batteries a couple of inventors stepped forward to develop a NiCad charging system for existing flashlights. in 1973 Norm Nelson at Kel-Lite patented an early recharging system. Patent # 3829676 . As far as I know this was experimented with but never produced or sold. Then in 1976 Onno Prinsze of Qual Tech patented another recharging system. Patent # 4092580. All of these early recharging systems replaced the tail cap and introduced an inlet port when the batteries could be re-energized. Nelson's invention utilized a simply jack whereas Prinsze's utilized a charging cradle. The charging cradle was much more secure and had lights to let the user know if the light was charging and when the charge was complete.

Prinsze's charging cradle went into production shortly thereafter and and the rechargeable flashlight was born. These were distributed by Qual-Tech under their Luma-Tech and Pharo-Tech brands. Early on they were produced as conversions for L.A. Screw and Kel-Lite flashlights. Later on they would be produced for Maglite conversions as well. Please find an early advertisement for Luma-Tech Chargers and L.A. Screw conversions below. Shown below is a very early advertisement for the Luma-Tech charger with a L.A. Screw Code 4 conversion.

Shown below is a prototype of the first dedicated rechargeable flashlight sold. It is the Gold annodized light with the black bezel and end cap. It is shown next to my early black Kel-Lite CPL-2C It is a CPL-3C Kel-Lite cut down to a 4 cell NiCad. Only 35 such prototypes were produced and only very few. It was manufactured by Onno Prinsze in conjunction with Kel-Lite but unfortunately only 35 protoypes and a handful more as retail boxed units were produced to gauge interest in the market. This is one of those original 35 produced. Kel-Lite and Prinsze stopped production shortly after Kel-Lite was sold to Streamlight.

Mine is missing the cradle charger but a pic of it can be seen below in early sales literature for the unit. The final retail version was a converted CPL-2C Kel-Lite with a modified battery pack as is shown by the shortened grip in the pic below.

In 1978 Kel-Lite was bought by Streamlight and I've picked up the history of rechargeables with a post about that can be found here.

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

Pro-Lights

Don Keller of Kel-Lite fame left Kel-Lite in 1972 after being bought out by Norm Nelson. Immediately afterwards Don wanted to get back into the flash light industry as this was his passion. A company called VSI wound up backing Don Keller to create Pro-Light. The Kel-Lite was often marketed as "The Professional Light" which is where the name came from. VSI was similar to Brinkmann, they were a consumer products conglomerate mostly specializing in outdoor products. Shown below is a VSI ad from 1976 showing a large head Pro-Light as well as their mini light. They had several models with the most popular being their aluminum D cell small head.

VSI sold in 1976 to another company called ITT. ITT insisted upon using a union shop as part of their marketing for Pro-Lights. After the cost analysis came back the lights were astronomically more expensive using union labor. As such ITT decided to produce them only in plastic to make up for the cost difference. Don Keller then went to John Bianchi, a gun leather manufacturer, and continued to produce the aluminum style Pro-Light as a Bianchi B-Lite. ITT went out of business shortly thereafter and Pro-Light ceased to exist after only 5 or 6 years in business total around 1979. Shown below is my early ITT Pro-Light. It's a 5D and was well used. I had to make a couple parts for it to get it back into working order but it lights and works now.

Also, inside the head is a nice touch from Pro-Light. It is a bulb chart. These are the flange base PR bulbs. I've done a post on them in my Maglite blog here.

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