Wartime Flashlights

And now I want to present to you a really unique flashlight from the Great War. Basically if we are talking about collecting wartime flashlights, everybody thinks about mostly the WW2 flashlights.That’s understandable, because it’s a better known period then the WW1. If I show to somebody a WW1 flashlight, they are often surprised, really? Flashlights in the WW1? With battery?! And the answer, yes, of course, this period was the golden age of flashlights! The most beautiful types were made in this period, and nowadays these are hardest to find. These are not only useful things in war, but also status symbols, signs of a more modern world. We can find a lot of pictures about proud posing soldiers with these early flashlights. This item produced by the Metallum light bulb company in the Austrian Hungarian monarchy, around 1915. The founder of the brand was Johann Kremenezky , one of the most prolific electrical engineer in Europe in this period. Not the flashlight producing was his main ...

Why are the most cool and interesting things usually the rarest and hardest to find? You can collect flashlights for decades, and may you can't get this. Around a few thousand pieces made of that, but by now a few hundred, or less could remain. The first version of the 646 was made around 1934.The piece that I presented here now is a later, but not the latest version. The 646 was the Pertrix brand's most expensive product. All of the parts are non-magnetic, made of copper. Copper was an expensive material in this period, the military industry used a lot of it.   All parts of the flashligh are non-magnetic, because it's had a compass on the top. With iron parts, the compass would not work properly. It’s an unique function among the WW2 german flashlights, as the copper outer casing. The compass is usable at night too, because it receives light from below. It's a nice, spectacular function! Another unique solution: the slidable front panel. If you press the shiny spring, ...