Last week, in my brief look at the Motorola 41-s, I touched upon one of the things that can happen when an otherwise simple item like batteries become rationed or completely unavailable. This week’s artifact gives a look at something else that can happen under such a condition: An opportunity to adapt and evolve.
This is a simple hand-powered “flywheel flashlight.” The concept is not new, certainly variants had been made in several countries both prior to the war and in the years that followed. During the war, however, the value of a flashlight that needed no batteries really came into its own. Batteries, even common types like the D cell found in most flashlights, were rationed and in short supply. They had to be conserved. In those days, if you had any extra batteries you froze them…it was known that the standard carbon-zinc (LeClanche cell) would last a bit longer in storage if kept cold because cooling slowed the chemical reaction between the acidic electrolyte and the plate materials. I still remember my mother keeping some batteries in the refrigerator when I was a kid, somewhere between the leftovers and the ice cream.
The flywheel flashlight operates much like a full sized electric power station but in miniature, and with no pollution or electric bill to pay each month. A revolving magnetic field (in this case a permanent magnet on the rotor) spinning in close proximity to a stationary coil of wire induces an alternating electric current in that wire. The voltage and frequency are directly related to the rotation speed. (in large power plants the frequency is held constant by regulating the RPM and the voltage is held constant by using an electromagnet, whose field strength is controllable and can be regulated under varying loads to maintain output….in a tiny flashlight, the effects of variation in output are of little consequence so simplicity is the rule even though the underlying operation is the same as in a full sized plant.)
This specific example is the “Daco-Lite” made by the Dayton-Acme company of Cincinnati, Ohio. This light was made in a variety of colors, I am uncertain how many there were but I have seen the yellow-orange, a blue, a black, the special translucent one shown in detail here (likely one of the rarest versions), and of course the olive drab military version. These were very rugged and smooth operating lights. The military adopted them in olive drab as the type A-9 and put them in flyer’s survival gear. In addition to the overall heft and robustness of the design, there is a spare bulb contained under the little cap. Convenient. When the handle is squeezed it works through a ratchet type mechanism to spin the gear train and step up the speed to the rotor, thus generating the power for the bulb. The translucent version has the added benefit of allowing one to see how the workings operate. I do not know how many of them were made in this variant, but again…I’ve seen multiple examples of the others–but only this one example with the translucent case.
The lack of batteries in this country as well as in Europe resulted in these and other similar lights being made in most industrialized countries of the time. Some newer versions are still found today. While they lack the overall build quality and quietness of the Daco-Lite they are functional and are a good item to stash in a drawer or glove box for those just in case you need it sort of moments.
Over the last 15 or so years we have seen other self powered types of products rise in popularity to one degree or another. The Bay-Gen clockwork powered radios and lights and the multitude of cheap knock-off wind-up style items. While not totally mainstream, such devices do offer a good solution for emergency supplies and are more environmentally friendly than devices that require frequent battery replacement. Scarcity, or threat thereof, is partly a driver of this. During the war, rationing made this a reality. Today, we think nothing of popping down to the store for any little thing. We almost can’t comprehend the store being out of anything. The reality, however, is that our supplies are more scarce than we realize and as we are periodically reminded it only takes a good storm or dock workers strike to delay a shipment to result in shortages of everyday items. Stocking up at home is good and wise. Selection of things that you don’t have to constantly replenish is even better.