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Article: Let there be light: vintage flashlights have gone from junk to hot collectibles over the past two decades.(COLLECTIBLES)
- Article from:
- Antiques Roadshow Insider
- Article date:
- July 1, 2009
- Author:
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Shortly before the turn of the 20th century, a two-wheeled, self-propelled mode of transportation--the bicycle---captured the fancy of America's urban sophisticates. As a result, bicyclists overran New York City.
"There were so many people on bicycles, it was kind of like China [today]," says collector and writer Billy Utley, author of Flashlights: Early Flashlight Makers & The 1st 100 Years of Eveready. "A law was passed that they had to have lights at night."
The bicycle population in New York begat, in June 1896, the Acme Electric Bicycle Light--a lantern-style light that ran on dry cell batteries--as well as competing carbide lamps and wet-cell ...