Battle of the Flashlight Museums!

November 28, 2007 10:57 AM

There are two-- two-- awesome flashlight museums on the web. One of them is on geocities; the other is not. One of them has a page of art deco purse lights and a page of interesting and unusual lights; the other has bullet flashlights and the Dukes of Hazzard signal flash. I love them both.
posted by dersins (19 comments total)

Also, I had no idea there were flashlight conventions.
posted by dersins at 11:05 AM on November 28, 2007

"Hi, I'm Dave. I'm a thousand times the dork you'll ever be. Count your blessings, nerd."
posted by loquacious at 11:06 AM on November 28, 2007

Thanks for this. I've been looking for inspiration for christmas gifts to craft. Rad.
posted by butterstick at 11:12 AM on November 28, 2007

Obsessive collections like these always leave me in the dark.
posted by stresstwig at 11:20 AM on November 28, 2007

When I was a kid (mid-70s) I had a toy called “Flash Brite” (or Bryt, or Brzzzite, or some variation of Bright) that was basically a flashlight with a hand crank on it. It came with a holster and three different colored lenses. My brother had one as well. The idea was we could crank in morse code and send secret messages to each other from across the hall. Good times, good times.

I’ve been unable to find any evidence of it on the web and these guys don’t seem to have it or I’m not searching for the correct term.

I’m beginning to wonder if I imagined the whole thing, like some old picture of a pterodactyl.
posted by bondcliff at 11:27 AM on November 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

That Dukes of Hazzard one would be ideal to whip out of an inside pocket to help the Utah police officer read your licence and registration.
posted by surfdad at 11:39 AM on November 28, 2007 [2 favorites]

Incredibly, the geocities site was actually more interesting, informative and easy to use. Why is there no link to "really old, cool flashlights" on the other site? Am I just expected to know that Ever Ready made the first one and navigate right to that page?

I like the comment feature on the second one, though.
posted by DU at 11:42 AM on November 28, 2007

You forgot the LED museum, and Candle Power Forums (CPF).

We flashlight geeks are legion.
posted by quin at 11:46 AM on November 28, 2007

Flashlights are so neat. You press the switch and presto chango ya got a light. It doesn't get too much cooler than that.

*Adjusts glasses. Smells armpit.*
posted by Skygazer at 12:13 PM on November 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

Next thing you know there will be a fleshlight museum. (NSFW)
posted by Eekacat at 12:24 PM on November 28, 2007

Is this the theme song for the museum?
posted by inthe80s at 12:35 PM on November 28, 2007

Wow. Talk about carrying a torch.
posted by cerebus19 at 12:43 PM on November 28, 2007

I'm not too impressed by flashlights as "museum pieces", but rather as useful tools. Therefore, I will include a link to my personal favorite flashlight site, flashlightreviews.com. This guy has done some serious work on reviewing flashlights.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan at 12:44 PM on November 28, 2007

Thank you for shining a light on this.
posted by Peter H at 1:29 PM on November 28, 2007

Those purse lights are so cool. Something new to look for on Ebay!
posted by mogget at 1:40 PM on November 28, 2007

This is really enlightening. Definitely a bright spot in my day.
posted by dmd at 3:20 PM on November 28, 2007

I recently bought a 25w Xenide, and it is really bright. You can see the light on my backyard wall in full sun and it was visible on some clouds the other night. But then I came across the 50w XeRay HID searchlight. It is almost 4 times brighter than the 25W Xenide. I can not wait to fire it up.
posted by Mr_Zero at 3:59 PM on November 28, 2007

I too love the HID, I really want a Surefire HellFighter, but I just can't justify the obscene cost.

Really, I don't have a .50 M2 that needs to have a weapon light mounted to it.

...yet.
posted by quin at 4:54 PM on November 28, 2007

Alas, somehow I had the idea that a "flashlight" museum would be a museum that you had to explore by flashlight.

Apparently the idea fascinated me enough that I failed to realize how the poster could not possibly have meant this.
posted by dreamsign at 6:42 PM on November 28, 2007