Vintage hand held lights vs maglites

So I've been curious, I have this fairly old maglite that runs off of what I believe is 1 AAA and then I have an older 2D maglite. The mini maglite (as I believe it's called someone correct me if I'm wrong) is not even bright enough to light up something 10 feet away in my backyard, heck, I can barely see stuff in my room with it. My 2D maglite is much more useable and can effectively light up my backyard, which brings me to my question..

How do old handheld lights (WW1, WW2, Vietnam etc.) Compare to these Maglites in terms of output and performance, I've seen many online but never really much info about the workings of them.

If anyone has some specific lights that they'd like to share the specs of and how they operate and work, I'd love to know!

Also, I am aware many of you are opposed to restoring old lights but I'm all for at least making them work again but in my opinion you can make the light operate while leaving all the scuffs and dents in it

http://maglite.com/shop/flashlights/full-size-flashlights/maglite-2-cell-d-flashlight.html


http://maglite.com/shop/flashlights/compact-flashlights/maglite-solitaire-1-cell-aaa-flashlight.html

http://www.hardscrabblefarm.com/milhist/flashlights.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulton_MX991/U_Flashlight

http://www.ai4fr.com/main/page_militaria__collectibles_germany_misc.html

http://www.bulbtown.com/replacement_flashlight_light_bulbs_s/593.htm

http://www.flashlightmuseum.com/flashlights_list.cfm?method=browse&brand=Bright Star

https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/dawn-of-electronics/the-great-lightbulb-conspiracy

You may want to search these two subforums:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?46-Incandescent-Flashlights

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?5-Flashlight-collecting

Lots of vintage stuff there....very interesting.

Your 2D Maglite is brighter than say... a 2D vulcanite bodied light, simply because the reflector is shinier, the lens is clearer and the current flows more efficient.
Couple that with a brighter burning krypton bulb in the Mag vs an E14 vacuum type bulb (E is for edison screw in, 14 is a 2 cell designation).

Check out the 'restoring vintage lights' thread in the incan section for a tip or two on getting ole bessy burning like new again.

Unbelievable i missed some of the good stuff in those... Better check these out a bit deeper and stop creating new threads before i get reprimanded by Going Supernova

mrsteel said:

Unbelievable i missed some of the good stuff in those... Better check these out a bit deeper and stop creating new threads before i get reprimanded by Going Supernova

Click to expand...

:whoopin::lolsign: :buddies:

I'm a little late to the party but most of these old lights, with the exception of the AAA, run on PR base bulbs or the screw in type bulbs. There's not going to be any significant change in brightness on most stock incans that use those types of bulbs. On Maglites you're talking 15 lumens for a vacuum PR base 2D up to maybe 180 lumens at best for a xenon PB base 6D. I think most older lanterns are going to use the same bulbs so Mr. Fixer is right it's going to depend on the condition and design of the reflector and lens.

There aren't many upgrades for the AAA light but there are tons and tons of upgrades for the D cells Mags. You can really turn them into a beast if you want to. I happen to think an old beat up Maglite with new inner workings is awesome! It's like throwing a Coyote 5.0 into and old Bronco. I did a blog post about my "restomods" here: http://maglitehistory.blogspot.com/2017/05/whats-old-is-new.html

As far as the lanterns I doubt there are many upgrades for them aside from PR base LED conversions which really don't put out a ton of light but do increase run times. Bets of luck! Modding the Mags sure is fun!!

The old 2D Mags are not very bright by today's standards, but they were a big improvement on the typical 2D lights of the 80's-90's and earlier. The Mag bulbs were indeed brighter and the reflectors shinier, but just as important you could focus the Mags and the old 2D cheapies only put a swirl of dim orange light not much good for distance at all. Mags also had a another huge advantage: when you pressed the switch button, light came out....most others you needed to shake them and smack them around to get that swirl of dim orange light after you switched them on. And if you dropped one of them they were likely to fly to pieces.

Gotta' agree with your point,
listed above.


Maglite D-cell lights were the
first flashlights I never had to " SMACK "
to get 'em to switch on ! ! !


Truly a major milestone,
in my Flashaholic career.


_

Always very interesting information coming to here.
Thank you all