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.

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.

G.T. Price and L.A. Screw Code 4 Lights

Code 4s are a really interesting, and often overlooked, professional flashlight. Everyone knows about Kel-Lites and Mag-Lites but Code 4s were marketed to a far greater audience than just law enforcement. They were also light years ahead of their time in terms of technology.

Originally produced by L.A. Screw starting in 1976 and from 1985 on by famed flashlight manufacturer George T. Price these were really a do it all light. The light had many variants. The Code 4 is by far the most popular. Code 4 in cop speak is the code for "everything ok", "situation normal", or "no further assistance required". L.A. Screw chose the latter, "no further assistance required" as their marketing tag line for the light. However, these lights were also produced is several configurations that included the following models:

Code 4 - Black anodized with a smooth reflector for Police use
Medical - Silver anodized with a 2 stage reflector and a re-reflector attached to the lens that cut down on glare for EMS use
Smoke Cutter - Red anodized with a re-reflector attached to the lens that cut down on glare in smoke filled buildings for Firefighter use
Power Probe - Blue or silver anodized with a smooth reflector for Civilian use
Sea Probe - Gold anodized with a 2 stage reflector and a re-reflector attached to the lens that cut down on glare for Diving use
Executive - Silver anodized with a smooth reflector for Civilian use

Shown below are some vintage advertisements for these models that came from an old L.A. Screw authorized dealer.

As can be seen in the spec sheet below the flashlights were actually a modular system that could be configured in a number of ways. The entire flashlight could be broken down into pieces, even the switch and the head unlike other flashlights of the time. A light could go from a 3 cell to a 5 cell or the switch could be moved around in the light assembly. The idea was that the user benefited from the switch being in the middle of the light because it was a better balance point. This proves true with the lights I've held. They have a much different feel than a Maglite or Kel-Lite.

I have a couple L.A. Screw lights in my collection. The first is one of their very early 2 cell lights. The tail cap is stamped "Pats. Pend." and was likely from 1976 to 1979 before the patent was approved. The grip is bare aluminum and doesn't ever appear to have been anodized. Opposite the serial number the switch is stamped "Police Equipment For Police Use Only". This predates the Code 4 branding. This light was carried very briefly by a police officer in Kentucky before he acquired a Maglite.

Below is a very rare New In Box (NIB) L.A. Screw Code 4. This is one of their models from 1979 to 1985 which had "Pat." stamped on the tail cap and Patent # 4,185,583 stamped below the Code 4 logo on the switch. What's interesting abut this patent and the switch design is that the switch is not a "clicky" switch like found on the Maglites even though it looks that way. It goes through the flashlight and protrudes out either side depending on whether the light is on or off. It does not click back automatically into its original position. It is more similar to a slide switch. You'll notice one switch seal is red and one is black so user could orient the light correctly.

Starting in 1985 G.T. Price, a long time maker of right angle, military, and scouting flashlights bought out L.A. Screw and re-branded the lights to a G.T. Price Code 4. Around this time or before most models were dropped. The Executive, Power Probe and Sea Probe were dropped form the lineup. The Executive and Power Probe were dropped because they were slow sellers and the Sea Probe because it proved to not be as water proof as hoped. L.A. Screw also did a special light for Monadnock, a New Hampshire police equipment supply company. Monadnock was later bought out by Safariland and Safariland still markets Monadnock batons to this day. These lights do not have the Code 4 branding.

Shown below is my GT Price Code 4. These lights are rare today but not expensive and not well sought after by collectors. One of the reasons that I'll detail in a future post is the switch module can be finnicky. I've done a lot of repair and restoration on these lights so I think I have some advice on getting them into working order again. These lights switched to a "clicky" style switch over the older style "dual" switch where there was only one protrusion from the barrel and the switch returned to position automatically just like a Maglite.

This light has an optional Vari-Probe attachment. The Vari-Probe was an optional filter and attachment system for the light. This one included a red filter which was popular for aviators and cops on the night beat. Red light does not deteriorate night vision as does white light. This particular light was owned by a professional test pilot and M.I.T. professor who used it to work in a cockpit late at night. The soft, red light did not deteriorate his night vision and was perfect. He carried it for many years up until his untimely death. His obituary and the wonderful story of his life can be found here. Shown below is how the light looks when turned on.

Shown below is an ad explaining the Vari-Probe system.

And here's one more ad from after the acquisition of Code 4 by G.T. Price along with the different configurations it could be ordered in.

These lights were produced into the late 1980s with the Code 4 being the most popular model by far. Executives and Sea Probes are extremely rare as they were discontinued early on and even the distributor I talked to had never seen either in the flesh. Brinkmann eventually bought out G.T. Price and they produced an almost identical model, albeit in LED, to this day. Shown below is the light Brinkmann currently produces.

I do not know anywhere near as much as I'd like to about the history of L.A. Screw or G.T. Price. I've only ever talked to distributors of these lights and not anyone that worked for the companies directly. If you have any info please feel free to give me a shout. My contact info is at the right.

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