Thank you sgt253 for inspiring this.
It seems that after the Eveready Captains and BrightStar 3D lights of the 1950's and 60's were being replaced with a slew of solid objects that doubled as flashlights that had duty officers, firemen and those wanting a Timex good flashlight... take a licking and keep on ticking.
Now for clarity, I'm leaving out SureFire because that is when the game changed again. This thread is about cop lights that SureFires designs made go the way of the dinasaur.
We all know of Maglite and Streamlight. Many know of Kel-Lite, some know of B-Lite, LA Screw, Pro-Light and other California made flashlight companies that produced game changers.
This thread is meant to be a collection of information regarding those lights that now seem pretty irrelevant thanks to CNC, LED, rechargeable cells, portability and the fertile minds of numerous lab coat wearing folks. Hopefully folks will chime in and share their information or stories.
I'll start with the B-Lite.
It was a company that ran from 1975 to 1985 owned and operated by leather accessory maker John Bianchi in Temecula Ca. They were rock solid flashlights designed by Don Keller.
Like cop lights of the time they utilized alluminum bodies, plastic reflectors, slide switches and came in 2D to 7D along with a few C cell models.
I'll add more as I know more.
Another game changer was Pharo-Tech who built charging stations in the 1970's in limited quantities so that Johnny Law could re-use the fabled flashlight without having to carry several pounds of spare batteries. They made chargers for Kel-Lite and LA Screw lights. Possibly others. I'll add as I know more.
Pharoh-Tech was a product produced by Qualtech.
Edit: Info added here as a quote from LA Screw rep Ed Tor who owned a company called Qualtech who built the PharohTech.
Note Ed has given permission to use these words to help us correctly fill in gaps of history.
Note 2 there will likely be other quotes from Ed by myself and others as this thread progresses.
Ed wrote:
I wanted to thank you for correctly noting, when you started that thread, that Qualtech (you called us PharoTech, one of our brands) was a game changer for bringing recharging ability to the young, heavy duty flashlight industry. I DO know that the Qualtech model LT-10 provided the first opportunity for cops to have an equally heavy duty and reliable charger to match their heavy duty lights. Kellite.com states, "rechargeable tail caps were produced to fit the QualTech charger which converted the D cell Kel-lite into a rechargeable flashlight. This was the first aluminum rechargeable flashlight.
End quote
Lastly I'll answer a question many have asked... why did Don Keller leave Kel-Lite at its peak?
He wrote a note to flashlight museum to answer that and other questions.
It seems in the early days he had a partner to help construct flashlights. It also seems that the more they sold the more money was an issue. In time he made Norm Nelson a 50/50 partner. It seems money woes got worse even though sales were getting better. He and Don were philisophically going apart. One day a board meeting ended with Don being fired as the president and Norm promoted from vice president, thereby filling the void. Soon after Don resigned. And Pro-Light was begun while Norm eventually partnered with Streamlight.
I open the floor to member Liftd4 for his epic Maglite info. Hopefully others will add as well (hint hint Magellan etc)
It seems that after the Eveready Captains and BrightStar 3D lights of the 1950's and 60's were being replaced with a slew of solid objects that doubled as flashlights that had duty officers, firemen and those wanting a Timex good flashlight... take a licking and keep on ticking.
Now for clarity, I'm leaving out SureFire because that is when the game changed again. This thread is about cop lights that SureFires designs made go the way of the dinasaur.
We all know of Maglite and Streamlight. Many know of Kel-Lite, some know of B-Lite, LA Screw, Pro-Light and other California made flashlight companies that produced game changers.
This thread is meant to be a collection of information regarding those lights that now seem pretty irrelevant thanks to CNC, LED, rechargeable cells, portability and the fertile minds of numerous lab coat wearing folks. Hopefully folks will chime in and share their information or stories.
I'll start with the B-Lite.
It was a company that ran from 1975 to 1985 owned and operated by leather accessory maker John Bianchi in Temecula Ca. They were rock solid flashlights designed by Don Keller.
Like cop lights of the time they utilized alluminum bodies, plastic reflectors, slide switches and came in 2D to 7D along with a few C cell models.
I'll add more as I know more.
Another game changer was Pharo-Tech who built charging stations in the 1970's in limited quantities so that Johnny Law could re-use the fabled flashlight without having to carry several pounds of spare batteries. They made chargers for Kel-Lite and LA Screw lights. Possibly others. I'll add as I know more.
Pharoh-Tech was a product produced by Qualtech.
Edit: Info added here as a quote from LA Screw rep Ed Tor who owned a company called Qualtech who built the PharohTech.
Note Ed has given permission to use these words to help us correctly fill in gaps of history.
Note 2 there will likely be other quotes from Ed by myself and others as this thread progresses.
Ed wrote:
I wanted to thank you for correctly noting, when you started that thread, that Qualtech (you called us PharoTech, one of our brands) was a game changer for bringing recharging ability to the young, heavy duty flashlight industry. I DO know that the Qualtech model LT-10 provided the first opportunity for cops to have an equally heavy duty and reliable charger to match their heavy duty lights. Kellite.com states, "rechargeable tail caps were produced to fit the QualTech charger which converted the D cell Kel-lite into a rechargeable flashlight. This was the first aluminum rechargeable flashlight.
End quote
Lastly I'll answer a question many have asked... why did Don Keller leave Kel-Lite at its peak?
He wrote a note to flashlight museum to answer that and other questions.
It seems in the early days he had a partner to help construct flashlights. It also seems that the more they sold the more money was an issue. In time he made Norm Nelson a 50/50 partner. It seems money woes got worse even though sales were getting better. He and Don were philisophically going apart. One day a board meeting ended with Don being fired as the president and Norm promoted from vice president, thereby filling the void. Soon after Don resigned. And Pro-Light was begun while Norm eventually partnered with Streamlight.
I open the floor to member Liftd4 for his epic Maglite info. Hopefully others will add as well (hint hint Magellan etc)
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