It Is Not Easy To Find Snipe Even With A Flashlight

When I was in college I lived in a fraternity my freshman year.

One night all of the freshman pledges were taken to a farm along with some of the more

senior fraternity members.

After a good amount of beer was consumed, the pledges were each given a brown paper bag and we were taken out into a forested

area on the property.

We were told that we were going snipe hunting.

I had never heard of a snipe before, but was told that it was a small sized lizard.

The premise, as it was explained to me and the other pledges, was that the older

fraternity members were going to go to the other side of the trees, make noise and drive the snipes in our direction so that we could

trap them in our paper bags.

To make a long story short, this was all a prank.

There is no such thing as a snipe.

I wish that I had had two things with me that night, common sense and a flashlight.

It turns out that a man by the name of Conrad Hubert felt that having something like what we now know as a flashlight would be a good

idea, so in 1890 he developed the first hand

held torch.

It was Conrad Hubert who went on to become the founder of the Eveready

company, which is well known today not only for its flashlights but also for its batteries.

Not to mention its Eveready Bunny.

The first version of the portable torch or flashlight made by Hubert were fashioned from crude paper and fiber tubes that had connected to them both a bulb and a brass

reflector.

The bulbs were made of a carbon filament, which when used were only able to create a brief flash of light, thus the name flashlight

was born.

In 1898, The National Carbon Company introduced the first D cell battery.

After its introduction, the first working flashlights, tubes made with thin aluminum

and housing two D cell batteries were manufactured.

These units had an incandescent bulb and a plastic reflector.

There level of light was quite dim in comparison to today's flashlights and there

available time of use was very limited.

And so it was that in 1898, Conrad Hubert, a Russian immigrant, acquired a patent for his

first Eveready flashlight.

Hubert continued to build his company and in 1906 he sold one half of the interest in his company to the National Carbon Company for

the sum of two hundred thousand dollars.

Hubert's invention was well received by a public that from the beginning of time had a need and a desire for some sort of hand held

light source.

Up to that point in time, oil lamps, candles, torches and kerosene lamps had all been

invented and designed to be carried around but they were all dangerous as a source of

light due to their flame.

Although there have been many

improvements over the years in flashlight

design, today's modern flashlights generally still

work the same as Hubert's invention and

consist of the same basic parts.

The most commonly used light sources in today's flashlights are either incandescent

light bulbs or LEDS.

The incandescent light bulbs have a tungsten filament that is housed in a glass

bulb.

LEDS or Light Emitting Diodes are electronic elements, or essentially semiconductors that

emit light.

LEDS are much more efficient than incandescent light bulbs and are able to last

a lot longer for the user.

Today's LED flashlights come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Some come made as key rings or pens.

Others are made to be mounted onto helmets or to are made to be used as

headlights.

Many individuals now find it convenient to use the LED light that comes installed on

their smart phones.

With his flashlight, Conrad Hubert invented something that has more uses today than he

could have possibly ever imagined.