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What is It? |
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Hand-Powered Flashlight
Dutch electronics giant, Philips & Co., produced this
flashlight in, it is assumed, the 1930s to 1940s. It
works based on the 'dynamo principle', discovered by renowned
British chemist and physicist, Michael Faraday (1791 to 1867).
In 1831, he ascertained that electricity could be produced from
a conductor moving in a magnetic field.
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The flashlight requires no batteries. It is hand-powered using
the press-lever, which runs the generator and produces an
electric current to light the bulb. An integral lock ensures the
lever will stay flat to the body of the flashlight, which reduces
wear from inadvertent lever depression.
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There is no internal power storage in this model and, as such,
the bulb will stay lit only as long as the lever is being pumped.
Patents issued in the 1920s eased this laborious process through strategically-placed gear wheels, which magnified the power provided by the
lever. This particular model does not incorporate this innovation.
To prove the theory that good technology is, quite simply, good technology, hand-powered flashlights are still manufactured and
sold today. The only differences are that the newer model (shown below) is larger and has a plastic casing.
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