Tonight, being Saturday…and being the serious party animal that I am… I decided to get around to working on one of my vintage automotive items…one of the numerous little evening projects that abound here. In this case, just a little something to place in my old car….maybe it will be used, but likely just displayed at a show or explained to the curious. If nothing else, its presence in my car’s boot adds some authenticity to the situation. It is a “trouble light.” Most of the time, these are simply a form of flashlight, often with a hook or magnet to attach to various places where the light is needed. Some have the AC cords and take 60w bulbs, some use batteries. They are a common enough device and you’ve likely seen them many times. This one, made by Atlas Motor Products Company of St Louis and housed in a nifty little tin with a hinged lid, was designed to be powered from the car’s battery via a cord with clips on the end. (an excellent plan, unless your specific car trouble is a dead battery) While I was unable to determine an exact date on this one, the overall construction methods and materials used suggests 1930’s-40 production, give or take…..PERFECT!…it is the right era for me.
My example had a broken bulb and some frayed spots in part of the cord. The rest appeared in acceptable shape and it presents well. Given this, rather than replacing the wire, I opted to remove the damaged portion as it was confined primarily to one end….it is now about 18″ shorter, but for my purposes that is no problem. Next I located a new lamp for it….not quite the correct one, but the bulb fits and will light up. I had noted that this was supposed to attach to metal surfaces magnetically but it appeared to have no strength as it did not even put up a fight when pulled from its metal container. Magnets, especially the old types, do lose strength over time and I expected to open this one up and see what I could do about fitting a replacement inside the base. A strong little neodymium one from a hard drive would easily fit and be more than sufficient to do the job, it would likely even fit without removal of the original, which would be nice from a preservation standpoint. When I opened the top of the housing, however, I discovered a thin little bit of magnet wire attached to the socket—this actually has an electromagnet in the base!! Magnetized when turned on. Released when off. Nifty! What a great idea! Or so I thought.
So I closed it back up and fitted the new lamp I had. Then connected it to a small battery. The light illuminated. I still did not yet know if the magnet coil was good or not….but soon found out in an unpleasant way. I was holding the two battery clips and accidently disconnected one of them while still holding the other. Six volts will not shock you. But. Six volts running through a coil of wire on an iron core, when the circuit is broken….well….THAT is another story entirely. This is the principle by which early make-and-break ignition systems functioned. The breaking of the circuit causes the magnetic field to collapse and in so doing it converts the magnetism in the iron core into voltage. In this way, that 6 volt battery can produce an arc between the ignitor contacts of an antique engine that if measured with the proper equipment would show a spike on the order of 300-400 volts…..and THAT….while not at a deadly current level…most definitely WILL get your attention and possibly allow you to invent a new word or two. So in this manner, before getting around to attaching the thing to any surface, I found out that the electromagnet coil in it is working. This is actually good news, as it meant I did not need to hand wind a new coil for it.
So, being more careful next time….I ran the little light and let it hold on to the side of my metal bench, which it did admirably just as it should. When the power was cut, the light went out and it of course let itself loose of the bench.
This caused me to envision the real reason this could be called a “Trouble Light.” So let’s suppose that “It was a dark and stormy night…” (As Snoopy would begin any great novel.) Anyway….you are driving and experience some sort of car trouble….hey…it’s 1940, lets make it realistic: You splashed through a deep puddle and got water splashed up on the distributor and now the engine won’t run…..you….being smart and wise to the ways of such things, pull out your tools and this light and open the hood. You then attach the battery clips, the light comes on…and you let the light magnetically attach to the underside of the hood so it shines down where the distributor is. You then remove the distributor cap and dry out stuff….then put it all back, unhook the light and close the hood and drive away. OK……it can (and should) happen much like that. BUT. This is no story banged out on a typewriter by an enthusiastic beagle, this is YOUR life….
In YOUR life, you are struggling around under the hood in the dim light trying to get the distributor cap off and wipe down the rotor and points, etc and about this time your wet arm (remember it was water from the rain that created this headache in the first place) bumps the battery clips and pops one off….and….naturally, it continues to touch you as it comes undone and so as the light goes off and the magnetic field collapses that voltage spike uses you to complete the circuit from the wire clip on your arm through you and back to the body work (ground) of the car you are leaning on. “Yiiisssshhhhttttt!!!” (one of your newly minted words for just such an occasion) …..and then……..just to add some insult… As you are now in the dark and shocked…..the collapsed magnetic field from the disconnected light offers one more little reminder of your carelessness as it lets go from the underside of the hood and the light falls the foot or so distance to bonk your head prior to bouncing down through the engine compartment to the ground below……. oh…and in so doing, it also breaks the bulb. Just because.
Now THAT, my friends…..is a TROUBLE LIGHT.
That was awesome!