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.
I just purchased an SL-20LP last week. Very nice flashlight, not full of fancy features, but throws a ton of light a long way. I like the polymer body, it's lightweight and balanced nicely, without feeling cheap. After lugging around aluminum Maglites for years, I've decided to give my arm a rest. I was lucky to have gotten a fantastic deal through Amazon, only paying $40 for a brand new one in orange with the AC charger; that model normally costs at least $110, so it was a no-brainer to pick one up at that price.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the SL-20LP series is not very popular, especially if the serial #'s are sequential regardless of color. I believe the series was introduced in 2011, yet my light's serial # is only in the mid 39,000 range. It would be interesting to know if that is for all color LP's, or per-color, and if the SL-20L aluminum model uses different serial #'s.
I've been a long time user of Streamlight products in the fire service, including the LiteBox/FireBox, Vulcan, and of course the ubiquitous Survivor in both incan and LED form. In addition to the new SL-20LP, I also personally own a 2011 era Survivor LED (tremendously bright, tight spot beam) as well as a 1994 era LiteBox that still has a sealed beam PAR 36 8w halogen spot. I don't need that for spot duty anymore, so my plan is to replace the bulb with a 20w flood assembly to use as a power outage light. The E-Flood conversion is a bit pricey, but I may do that down the road. For now I'll be fine with a $10 halogen flood replacement.
What kind of batteries can I use? How long does the charge last? Just wondering whether it will be possible to use rechargeable batteries, and is there a charging kit for them?
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