Fascinating facts about the invention of the
flashlight by Conrad Hubert in 1902

Conrad Hubert became aware of the novelty item side of the electric industry and the tremendous profits to be gained and decided to start his own company. Hubert, came up with portable fans, a novelty pocket light, lighted stick pins, and even an illuminated flowerpot. Hubert named his company American Electrical Novelty & Manufacturing Company...In 1897, Hubert, seeing the potential of the flashlight, hired David Misell, an inventor who had patented a portable electric lamp in 1895 and a early bicycle head lamp in 1896. As an employee of Hubert's David Misell continued inventing improvements to lighting devices and together and separately they patented several flashlights..

Hubert's first flashlights were hand-made from crude paper and fiber tubes, with a bulb and a rough brass reflector. Misell and Hubert assembled a number of tubular flashlights and gave them to New York City policemen in different precincts. They began receiving favorable testimonials from the policemen. In 1905 Hubert received a US patent in 1903 , number 737107 issued August 26, for a flashlight with an on/off switch in the now familiar cylindrical casing containing lamp and batteries.

In 1906, National Carbon Company which had supplied Eveready with materials for their flashlights, bought a half interest in the company for $200,000. Hubert remained president and there was little change in the general policies of the company. The name was changed to "The American Ever Ready Company" and the trade name was shortened to one word - Eveready.

Flashlight technology took a great leap forward around 1910, with the introduction of nickel-plated tubes to complement vulcanized fiber and the invention of the tungsten filament bulb. Vest pocket tungsten flashlights became popular, as did search lanterns, house lamps and intricate art deco candle lamps.

In 1914, American Ever Ready became part of Nation Carbon Company now forming a manufacturer specializing in both batteries and lighting products.

According to an Eveready brochure called "101 Uses For An Eveready," by 1916 the flashlight was an essential personal item—"the light that does not flicker in a draught, extinguish in the wind, and is controlled instantly by finger pressure. It's the light everyone needs." Some of the flashlight's 101 suggested uses included reading fruit labels, filling the tank of a gasoline stove, examining a refrigerator's interior and signaling with Morse Code.

In 1917 National Carbon Company merged with Union Carbide to form The Union Carbide and Carbon Co. and Eveready began using the name "DAYLO". The logo on the battery cap was changed to read "EVEREADY DAYLO". Daylo was never well accepted. The main reason for the non-acceptance was that only Eveready could use Daylo. The public still used the word "flashlight" and all other flashlight making companies called their products "flashlights". The advertising campaign was a success but the name was a dud. The Daylo name was dropped in 1921.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Eveready commissioned timeless pieces of art advertising flashlights and batteries that appeared in periodicals, Eveready catalogs, trade magazines, calendars and posters.

Artists like the late Frances Tipton Hunter, who produced covers for the Saturday Evening Post, captured Americana's essence. In her works for Eveready Hunter typically included a child, a pet and an Eveready flashlight, all executed in a Norman Rockwell-like fashion.

One Hunter classic features a little girl watching over a litter of kittens—with the aid of an Eveready flashlight, of course. This print proved so popular that reproductions suitable for framing were offered to readers for 10 cents. Readers responded by sending in 70,000 dimes—in the midst of the Depression. The poster has additional history, as well—the nine kittens were the genesis of the Eveready "Cat With Nine Lives" symbol.

An often repeated story in both book form and on the Web credits Joshua Lionel Cowan with inventing the flashlight. We have been told the story stems from an interview printed in The New Yorker magazine in 1947. Cowen stated he accidentally invented the flashlight in 1898, attaching small canisters containing batteries and light bulbs to a flower pot for the purpose of illuminating the plant. The invention was a flop, and Cowen sold the rights to the invention to Conrad Hubert, who decided to try selling the lights without the flower pot, the flashlight. Although the story could be true, they were both living in New York at the same time, Cowan had worked for both a battery and a lamp manufacture, Hubert (having newly arrived in America from Russia) was looking for work and at the time of the article Cowan was already rich and famous, Lionel Trains,  and therefore did not need to remake history. But the only solid evidence is the New Yorker article. You can decide if the story is true.

Conrad Hubert invented the electric flashlight in 1898 and founded American Eveready (now Energizer) to market his many inventions. When he died in 1928, Hubert willed one-quarter of his estate to relatives and the remaining three-quarters to charity, leaving it to his executor to appoint three prominent Americans to oversee the disposition of the $6 million estate.

TO LEARN MORE

RELATED INFORMATION:
Invention of the Electric Battery    from The Great Idea Finder
Invention of the Light Bulb    from The Great Idea Finder
History of Electricity   from The Great Idea Finder
History of Household Items    from The Great Idea Finder

ON THE BOOKSHELF:
Panati’s Extraordinary Origins of Everyday Things
by Charles Panati / Paperback - 480 pages Reissue edition (September 1989) / HarperCollins
Discover the fascinating stories behind the origins of over 500 everyday items, expressions and customs.
Why Didn't I Think of That?: Bizarre Origins of Ingenious Inventions We Couldn't Live Without
by Allyn Freeman, Bob Golden / Paperback - 260 pages / John Wiley & Sons; (September 1997)
Filled with wacky and fascinating facts, awe-inspiring success statistics, and rags-to-riches stories, Chronicles the odd origins behind 50 famous inventions and reveals the business side of each product's actual production, marketing, and distribution.
Collecting Flashlights: With Value Guide
by Stuart Schneider / Paperback (October 1996) / Schiffer Publishing, Ltd
Never before has there been an extensive treatment of the flashlight from an historical and collectible point of view, until this beautifully illustrated full color volume.

ON THE WEB:
Eveready Flashlight History
Hubert acquired the patent for the first Eveready flashlight, called an electric hand torch, in 1898.
URL: www.energizer.com/learning/historyofflashlights.asp)
Flashlight Museum
Everything you needed to know about flashlights including its history. Operated by Stuart Schneider author of Collecting Flashlights: With Value Guide.
(URL: www.geocities.com/~stuarts1031/flashlight.html)
Eveready Batteries
He gave the company away to work on model trains. From the Useless Information site.
(URL: home.nycap.rr.com/useless/lionel/index.html)
Battery + Light = Flashlight
Although a relatively simple device, its invention did not occur until the late 19th century because it depended upon the earlier invention of the electric battery and electric light.
(URL: www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/flashlight)
National Carbon Company
In 1906, National Carbon Company which had supplied Eveready with materials for their batteries, bought a half interest in the company for $200,000.
(URL: www.scripophily.net/nacaconewje1.html)
Portable Power
Much twenty-first-century technology runs on nineteenth-century chemistry. Artical by Curt Wohleber for Invention & Technology magazine.
(URL: www.inventionandtechnology.com/xml/2002/4/it_2002_4_dept_objlessons.xml)
Conrad Hubert Philanthropist
When he died in 1928, Hubert willed one-quarter of his estate to relatives and the remaining three-quarters to charity. Article by Martin Morse Wooster for Philanthropy Roundtable.
(URL: www.philanthropyroundtable.org/magazines/1998/july/wooster.html)
Flashlight
Now a common household item, the lowly flashlight was once considered a novel toy.
(URL: www.bookrags.com/sciences/sciencehistory/flashlight-woi.html)
First Tubular Flashlight
At about 1897, Hubert, seeing the potential of the flashlight, joined forces with David Misell, the inventor of the first tubular flashlight, and they patented several flashlights together.
(URL:www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/Engineering_Graphics/_EG2001/the_flashlight_project/history.html)
Flashlight Museum
Everything you needed to know about flashlights including its history.
(URL:www.geocities.com/~stuarts1031/flashlight.html)
Coal Miner's Safety Lamp
Early in the 20th century, many attempts to devise a portable electric lamp had been made, but the early ones were unsuccessful. Article by Bill Johnst.
(URL: www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/mh_papers/lettherebelight.html)
Duracell History
The story of Duracell begins in the early 1920's with an inventive scientist named Samuel Ruben and an eager manufacturer of tungsten filament wire named Philip Rogers Mallory.
(URL: www.duracell.com/company/history.asp?id=50&)
Energizer Bunny History
Official Home of Eveready Battery Company and the Energizer Bunny who was born in 1989.
(URL: www.energizer.com/bunny/historyofbunny.aspwww.EnergizerFlashlights.com)
The History of the Flashlight
Every home has one — sometimes one in each room — on hand for emergencies. Most toolboxes have one; for plumbers and electricians, it is an indispensable tool for peering into small, dark areas. Every fire truck or emergency services vehicle stocks rechargeable ones. Article by Laura Jean Whitcomb.
(URL: www.t-n.com/Newsletter/Spring04/Spring04flashlight.htm)
Maglite History
A champion of free enterprise and “Made in the U.S.A.” manufacturing, Anthony Maglica founded Mag Instrument in Los Angeles in 1955 and designed the Maglite® flashlight.
(URL: www.maglite.com/mag/history.asp)

WHERE TO FIND:
White LED Pen Light
Electronics / by Streamlight / ASIN: B00008BFS5 / Model number: 65018 / Less than $11.00
Ultra slim, waterproof, LED pen light. 100,000 hour white LED is visible from over a mile away. Features momentary blink or constant "on" switching. Aluminum body with ridged grip and pocket clip. three AAAA alkaline batteries included in purchase.
Nightstar Magnetic Force Flashlight Hi-Tech Clear
Electronics / by Applied Innovative Technologies / ASIN: B00016WMYU / Less than $34.00
The NightStar flashlight is an excellent emergency resource in all situations from home to office to vehicle. For anyone that has been without light in a difficult situation, for any reason, NightStar is the answer. This is a brand new model with even more power, light intensity and ability to float in water with LED in upright position.

WORDS OF WISDOM:
"In the beginning there was nothing. God said, 'Let there be light!' And there was light. There was still nothing, but you could see it a whole lot better." -- Ellen DeGeneres

"Let your light shine. Shine within you so that it can shine on someone else. Let your light shine." -- Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, January 2004

HOW IT WORKS:
How does a flashlight work?
There are seven main components to the flashlight that make it work.

DID YOU KNOW?:

• Because early batteries were weak and bulbs primitive, flashlights of the era produced only a brief flash of light—thus the name.