The possibility of “turning night into day” and penetrating the darkness has been one of the mankind's main concerns throughout its entire history, although the methods used in order to achieve this goal have changed dramatically. First, there were fire and torches (which stuck along for a very long period of time), then candles and all of the products derived from them.

However, the evolution of technology, as well as the development of batteries and light bulbs in the second half of the 19'th century led to the appearance of a product that combines these two revolutionary products into a single device, that could deliver light without using any fire, but instead relying on the power of electricity: the flashlight.

Quite obviously, the technology of the flashlight has evolved a lot over time, especially as far as the body construction and optics features are concerned. However, the basic principle has remained pretty much the same one invented by a Russian immigrant, who left his home country and went to America to search his fortune, back in the second half of the 1800's.

Flashlight – early history  

The early history of flashlights is closely related to one of the world's most important battery manufacturers, the American Eveready Battery Company (nowadays known under the name Energizer), and its founding member, Conrad Hubert, a Russian immigrant previously known as Akiba Horowitz.

Hubert had left Russia because of the very poor economic conditions and went through several jobs before becoming interested in all things related to electricity. So, he came up with all sorts of electricity-driven products, as for example portable fans, a novelty pocket light, lighted stick pins, and even an illuminated flowerpot.

He even founded his own company, dubbed American Electrical Novelty & Manufacturing Company. Soon after, he paired with a very talented and innovation-driven engineer, David Missel, and they both started working hard on improving the design of the electric torch. Misell had patended a portable electric lamp in 1895 and a early bicycle head lamp in 1896, but, as an employee of Hubert's, he continued inventing improvements to lighting devices and together and separately they patented several flashlights.

The first models developed by the two were actually hand-made from paper and fiber tubes. In an attempt to promote these devices, Hubert offered some sample models to the policemen from New York City, receiving quite a good feedback.

Unfortunately, though, these early flashlight models, which ran on zinc-carbon batteries, were rather poor at providing sustained currents, running out of power after a relatively short period of time, especially since they employed carbon filament bulbs, which were quite energy-inefficient. Hence, they rarely provided continuous beams, which led to them being named “flashlights”.

Another important milestone in the development of flashlights occurred in 1910, when nickel-plated tubes were introduced in order to compliment the development of the tungsten filament bulb.

In 1906, the National Carbon Company, which had previously supplied Eveready with materials for their flashlights, bought a half interest in the company for $200,000. However, 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. Later on, in 1914, American Ever Ready was completely absorbed by the National Carbon Company.

Flashlight – evolution throughout the 20'th century

The evolution of the flashlight through the first half of the 20'th century is closely related to the Eveready company, although some other manufacturers have started producing flashlights as well. For example, back in 1926, the company improved the overall design of flashlights by adding a ring hanger at one of the ends, thus offering consumers the ability to store their products just about everywhere they wanted to.

Then, in 1937, the company introduced its first pre-focused flashlight bulb. This assembly, between a pre-assembled bulb and reflector, offered a higher level of efficiency by eliminating as much as possible the ambient light.

The evolution in the field of batteries also led to several leaps forward in the area of flashlights. For example, in 1967, Eveready introduced its first rechargeable flashlight, followed by the first fluorescent lantern, in 1968, then, over the years, improved the design of the bulb by changing the gases used or the materials that made up the filament.

In 1996, the company, now known as Energizer, introduced its first LED powered flashlight. It was followed in 1999 by Lumileds Corporation of San Jose, CA, who launched the Luxeon LED, a high-power white-light emitter, which made it possible, for the first time, to provide a running time better than some incandescent lights.

Current trends in flashlights

Despite of the fact that the main concept behind flashlights has remained pretty much unchanged over the years, during the recent years we've seen quite a few important changes in this area, probably the most important one being related to the development of flashlights that don't require batteries in order to function properly. Most of them are powered either by the sun (via a built-in photovoltaic cell), by a crank-based mechanical system or by simply shaking them.

Nowadays, flashlights or torches can be divided into two major categories: one designed for normal users, which generate a more or less OK amount of light and are quite battery-efficient, and a second one designed mostly for professionals (law-enforcement agents, the military, etc.), whose features are way above those provided by normal batteries, especially in terms of power. Furthermore, these special-purpose flashlights are a lot tougher than your average flashlight, their metallic (usual airplane-grade aluminum) body supporting quite a fair share of shocks.

These advanced flashlights use either LEDs (for high brightness/low power consumption) or High Intensity Discharge (HID) light source. This type of light source works by passing an electric current through a ball of ionized gas, which glows very brightly. Indeed, it typically generates a much brighter beam than usual flashlights, but in the same time it requires more power during normal functioning, which means that the batteries will be depleted a lot faster.

The future of flashlights

Of course, the future of flashlights is still to be decided, but judging by what we can see today, we're heading towards an age where flashlights won't ever require any additional batteries, being charged by all sorts of external elements, such as the sun, the wind, the movement of one's hand, etc. Of course, lighting technology and optics are also quite probably going to change, so all we can do right now is wait and see.