Quote:
Originally Posted by Quoth
They were called flashlights in 1890s (esp NY police) when they used carbon filaments and the zinc cells had no depolarising agent. They would come on bright and then quickly dim. After a minute or two off the cell would recover. Hence nicknamed flashlights. They have not been actually flashlights for maybe 120 years. It was I believe a nickname in NY, that didn't catch on in UK or rest of Europe.
Though A, B, C, D. F & G cells along with AA were designated in about 1947, the AA size was used in WWI (1914 the world, 1917 USA) as the cell in the torch for troops in the trenches. It was about the size of a fountain pen, hence penlight.
Later there were smaller cells than AA, such as Lady/N (very old), AAA and AAAA.
The A and G are gone. The F is sometimes inside the UK 996 6V pack. The B are still in the rare European 4.5V flat batteries (two in a radio), that was the 1289 rear cycle lamp in the UK.
Flashlight is thus an obsolete USA nickname for the electric torch.
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Flashlight is the correct term. Torch is the thing with the flame that's not battery powered.
It's a flashlight even though the UK decided to use a different term.
https://uk.stkrconcepts.com/blogs/ne...7-caf3cf3024c5