Metallum

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 activity of course, but his company could show couple of new ideas on this simple use object.

Metallum poster around 1910

It's a gem in a flashlight collection. Literally.

The first unique thing is the serrated chuck of the convex glass. I never seen this solution on any other flashlight. It's really beautiful, and I think this easier to produce, than the "pressed in" solution.

EIN, AUS - On, Off -not surprising information, but this kind of marking is rare.

The glass is not a perfect convex, little bit sharper, heighter. The on-off switch is a round bakelite, rotatable up and down.

Somebody tried to remove the rust with rough sandpaper. Please never do that.

Another unique thing, the spring belt hanger. If you squeeze it, you can hang it out to applicate on a belt.

Made with deep drawing, without any spot welding. Later, the spot welding accelerated the manufacturing of the newer flashlights.

A true secession item.

The "T" shape on the opener discoverable on other hungarian flashlights in between the two world wars.

The dent of the opener made after the "Metallum" title, that is why flattened out the end of the text curve.

Openable glass part, for the bulb replacing.

Patente Angemeldet -readable on the bottom.
It's mean "Patent pending" or "patent applied for". Legal designations or expressions that can be used in relation to a product or process once a patent application for the product or process has been filed, but prior to the patent being issued or the application abandoned.

I don't found the patent of this this type of Metallum, but I found something interesting from 1915:

It's an another type in the patent, but with very similar solutions. The switch, the hanger is the same!

I think this type never was produced, but his parts realized in the type which I present in this post.

The outer surface nickel plated, but inside it's painted. On the left side it's have a simple user guide to the battery replace. Fun fact, the producer name readable on the picture of the battery:

Jon. Kremenezky, and the addresses below that, Wien, Budapest.

A cut out on the bottom, to the easier battery replace. It's a really usable solution. I don't understand why they didn't use this solution on a wider range of flashlights.

Little bit over complicated switch mechanism.. But who care.. It's looks good!

Produced over hundred years, but of course, still working!

Blurry, but recognizable. 

The war ended, the central powers lost the war, the monarchy take apart, but this flashlight survived for us.

Wartime Flashlights
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