Thumper
01-10-2015, 06:54 PM
How 'bout a little touch of nostalgia? I picked up a 5 D-cell Kel-Lite at an estate sale this weekend. I carried one of these in the 70's (no clue whatever happened to it). Any'o youse old geezers remember these or gots one stuck in a drawer someplace? They bring top dollar on "The Bay". Mine has some battle scars, but no real damage, and it works. It still has the spare bulb in the end cap. For those of you who don't know who Kel-Lite is, they are the original "police" flashlight. (they all even had serial numbers) If you were an LEO back in the day, they were the tits! They were developed by Don Keller out in L.A. back in '68 (Sheriff's Deputy) and they were pretty much hand-made and machined. He had guys running around demonstrating them by turning them on and heaving them as far as they could across concrete parking lots, hammering nails with 'em, running over 'em with trucks and droppin' 'em in tanks of water, etc. An LEO wasn't cool unless he had one and they were made to fit into the belt holders to replace batons. If you ever got smacked up-side the haid with one'a these puppies, I'll guarandamnteeyou, you'd know you'd been hit!
Maglite and Brinkman pretty much took over the market with their copycat versions in the later years with their mass-produced jobbies ... but these were the FIRST!
Anyway, I thought it was cool to stumble across one'o these old work horses. It works like a charm and I'm getting ready to list it to help support my retirement. Just thought I'd give some'o youse dufes a history lesson. ;)
Here's serial #292351:
4183 4184
4185 4186
Maglite and Brinkman pretty much took over the market with their copycat versions in the later years with their mass-produced jobbies ... but these were the FIRST!
Anyway, I thought it was cool to stumble across one'o these old work horses. It works like a charm and I'm getting ready to list it to help support my retirement. Just thought I'd give some'o youse dufes a history lesson. ;)
Here's serial #292351:
4183 4184
4185 4186