Old Winchester

fmc1

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Mar 16, 2017
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Long Island NY
I picked this up yesterday. It just needed a lot of contact cleaner a bulb and of course batteries. It works fine even the zoom. It's very safe to say that this is the oldest flashlight that I own.


If anyone can give me a little info on it I would be very interested.


Thanks


Frank








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Last edited:

snakebite

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Mar 17, 2001
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dayton oh
nice find!
looks like it once had black lacquer over the brass.
was a user all its life.
 

bigburly912

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Aug 12, 2015
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Virginia
ive owned a few of these in different iterations. nice find! definitely worth the time to clean it up and use it.
 

bykfixer

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Dust in the Wind
Looks to be late 1920's to mid 30's era before they joined up with Olin.

Art deco was becoming all the rage so many lights were "painted" metal instead of rubber. The ribs resembled a vulcanized rubber light but metal stamping allowed faster, less expensive production costs and a more durable product.

The focus feature was pretty common back then. Some lights had a sort of bifocal lens where convex was rounder at the edges and flatter in the center. That provided a much better combo beam of flood and throw versus the super floody fisheye lens of the years previous. Couldn't tell from the photo if this one is a bifocal. But Winchester made some of the more durable lights of that era.
 

xxo

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Apr 30, 2015
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Winchester ran up a lot of debt when they expanded to make ammunition, rifles and machine guns for the military during WWI. But the war ended before they could pay it off, so they merged with a hardware store chain and started making all sorts of sporting goods, tools and consumer items in a bid to pay off the debt - this ultimately failed around the time the great depression hit and Winchester went bankrupt. In 1931 Winchester was bought by Olin who resurrected the firearms line, while most of the other stuff was dropped.

Winchester items from this era have a reputation for being well made and the Winchester name adds to their value today.
 

bykfixer

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Link no worky for me KB.

Reading the Winchester story had me humming "the knee bone is connected to the... leg bone"....

All kinds of companies intertwined in there over the years.

I found myself avoiding Winchester lights simply because the same light, made in the same factory using the same stuff but labeled Olin was 1/3 of the price.
 

KITROBASKIN

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Mar 28, 2013
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New Mexico, USA
Thanks for letting me know. Hopefully this one will work.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/6BohZaJ9iDnMNBWP8

My mother had a consignment shop in the 70's and this bat was there. I've kept it all these years, because the name Winchester is so iconic for the spirit of adventure and capability to handle adversity/survival. It was a treat to see the image of the old Winchester flashlight.
 
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