Flame & Shine Collectibles Brought To You By GotaLight.net

Vintage Flashlights


GotaLight.net now has over 500, antique and vintage flashlights, vintage lanterns and vintage vest pocket lights, vintage candles and vintage battery operated lights to share with you! We also want to have some good information, some reliable resources and a few tips & tricks that might help you with any issues or questions, you come across while collecting flashlights or lanterns.

eveready

Also for your viewing pleasure, we have some old flashlight and battery ads here and there, from back in the day in some of the flashlight galleries. Plus four galleries of old flashlight catalogs with photos and information, (two by Eveready, one by Bond and one by Ray-O-Vac) and one gallery of paper ads for USALite flashlights, showing some nice displays. Hope you enjoy your visit and learn something new, find a new tip or see a flashlight you've never seen before.

I never thought we would have this many galleries of flashlights, lighters and pages on the website. It just keeps growing and growing each year! What started out with a few galleries and pages, (just for fun) has grown to over 40 pages, including over 30 galleries, (including the lighter section) on Gotalight.net. One last thing. If anyone has any information, on any flashlights, feel free to share it not only with us, but for other collectors as well. As always, you will get the credit.

NOTE >>> I check with some flashlight experts now and then, to help with the value, on some of my vintage flashlights shown here. I also watch for what they sell for from different sources.

I have a value price listed with most of my vintage flashlights in the galleries. I came up with some of these prices from the *Flashlight Museum website, *Stuart Schneider's Collecting Vintage Flashlights book, the *Eveready Flashlight book by Bill Utley, (*prices are for excellent condition) eBay, Etsy and online auctions, (what they sold for) and long time collector, Steve Giterman, then I add my 2 cents. We always need to remember, worth over value. Because the experts are not always right.

flashlight ad

The dates on my flashlights and lanterns come from other sources and may not be correct. Having a patent number, (the pat. number on the switch, could be only for the switch, same with the end cap, and maybe even the body) a serial number is always helpful, as is a dealer's catalog as for what year they came out. The rest is just guess work. Sometimes, that's all we have.

Now that I'm caught up on adding some more flashlights, I will keep adding to the Show & Tell section month in and month out with new old flashlights. I keep asking myself... will this madness ever stop? Talk about the madness. I also have a collection of 45 or so LED flashlights! I like very bright lights up here in the mountains. I want to see what's looking at me from 100 yards away or more. NOT 30-50 feet! So I use my Acebeam T-28 with a lot of throw. If I want to light things up outside, I use my FireFlies E-12. No more fear of the dark! Over 6500 lumens. My EDC is my FireFlies EO7. Some place in Ohio, there's a vintage flashlight collector shaking his head, as in... shame on me! But... I found out he carries one in his brief case.

Besides the flashlight galleries I also have some interesting flashlights in our Show & Tell Section you might want to check out. I share some of my better finds with some information on the flashlights you won't read in the galleries. So step right in and see the longest flashlight in the world.... well maybe not the world, but, in my collection. Not a 5 cell, not a 7 cell, but a WOW factor cell.

In the Collectors Corner I have an on going list on what some of these vintage flashlights sell for and most sell for over the value price and some may surprise you?

If you have a special flashlight or lantern that does NOT work or looking for that battery pack that's no longer made. We have a resource for that in our Flashlight Repairs section. The flashlight 'Doctor' can help!

3 in 1 flashlights

Another interesting gallery is the 3 in 1 Flashlights. Some folks call these Search Lights, Railroad Signal Lights or 3 Way Lights. Steve Giterman put together a nice article on these interesting vintage collectibles. I just found another one, that just might be the rarest one of all? That brings the total up to 9 different... 3 in 1 flashlights! NOTE: Anyone with any information on these lights, please send me an email or if you have one that is made by another company, let me know! If we use your information, you get the credit.

Donations gladly accepted. "Thank You to the good folks that have all ready donated a few flashlights".

The First Flashlight

With the major components in place, a company founded by Conrad Hubert, that would eventually become Eveready, produced the first commercial flashlights. These were handmade, constructed of simple paper and fiber tubes and used rough brass as a reflector. To introduce them to the public, they were first given to New York City police officers. After receiving a favorable impression from them, they gradually became better known and more widely used.

Yale Printers Plate

vintage flashlights

1920's Yale Flashlight printers plate, with advertising print. 5 x 2 inches. This is just the plate, no wooden block on the back. Which is called - a printers block.