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“Flashes” are these things, right? I seem to remember in boy scouts (in the 1980s) that they were called flashes, as well as mantles.
(I was half wondering if propane lanterns were still being made, now that between LEDs and a solar charger you could probably have a camp lantern that lasts indefinitely. )
edit – oh duh, ‘one of them flashes’ is a(n electric) flashlight.Report
I thought “they had those?” and Indeed they did.
D batteries and everything.
Huh.Report
Lots depends on relative costs. My mother was born 1927 in rural south-central Iowa. Among her skill set for household chores as a child was trimming the wicks in the kerosene lamps used to light the house. My father, a year younger, worked as a brakeman on the Chicago-to-Kansas City trains (that ran through that part of Iowa because of the coal seam/mines) and talked about using kerosene lanterns with wicks.
To Kolohe’s implied question, if I lived in hurricane country I’d probably have a wick lantern and kerosene tucked away. You can burn other fuels in that lantern if you have to. Mantles and solar panels are relatively fragile.Report
So *NOW* I’m thinking “how much would a flashlight have cost back then?”
Well, the answer seems to be a dollar. Oooh, but that’s probably the cheap version that you’d get for a precocious child. In the bottom left, it says “20 other models up to $5.00” and, I’m guessing, our protagonist above would need the $5 one if he were willing to switch at all.
That’s $82.60 in today’s money.
Which, you know, isn’t *PROHIBITIVE*. But if you have something that works just as well, why spend the dough?Report
Sturdy kerosene lanterns seem to have been on the same order of price, $5 per lantern.
Now consider the batteries. The only price reference I can find for No. 2 batteries in 1925 (the No. 2 would eventually be relabeled as “D” cells) is ten cents each. Zinc-carbon cells, incandescent bulbs… not real long life. Even worse in the cold.
Kerosene was about 20 cents per gallon. Rule of thumb seems to be that with a 1-inch wide wick, a kerosene lamp will burn for 45 hours per quart, so 180 hours per gallon. Big advantage for kerosene.
Convenience and safety no doubt won out eventually. Also narrow beam in single direction, eg, the classic theater usher stereotype.Report
One tangential thought for most of these is that similar to how ‘The 90s were 10 years ago’ I still have to check my instincts that all the roaring 20s era comics were a full one hundred years ago, as opposed to, “long ago, but I still know people who have memories of that time”. Or rather ‘100 years ago’ is not at all ‘the 1800s’
(though in contrast, I’ve used ‘last century’ ironically so often in the past 20 years that ‘last century=20th’ has long fairly well lodged in the my head. Now I just have to un-irony it.
eta this also came to mind because I went to this woman’s memorial service last weekend.Report
I’ve reached the point where the 90’s were 20 years ago. (The early 90’s, anyway.)
And she seems like an awesome lady.Report