US2215829A - Flashlight attachment - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 24, 1940.' o. G. EVANS 7 2,215,829

- FLASHLIGHT ATTACHMENT Filed March so, 1940 grwcmm USCAR E.EVAN5' Watershed Sept. 24, 194% STATES 2 Claims.

This invention is directed to a safety or warning signal attachment for portable flashlights such as the well known generally cylindrical type, and deals, more particularly, with an improved safety reflector device of this character which is readily applied to the closed or butt end of practically any conventional form of such portable flashlight already in use without dispensing with any part thereof or otherwise disturbing the usual operation of the flashlight. I

In rural districts, especially, it is well known that a portable flashlight is indispensable for safety in lighting ones path while walking along an unlighted roadway at night. However, while a suitable light may be projected in the direction the person is walking, such light often fails to show up from behind the person and seldom is discernible any great distance in a manner to give positive and qunmistakable notice to the driver of an oncoming vehicle of the presence of the pedestrian in the roadway. Under such circumstances, accidents which easily could be. avoided nevertheless frequently occur due to the fact the ordinary light projected by a flashlight carried by the pedestrian usually is not adequate and capable of giving a clear and pronounced warning signal to the driver of a vehicle approaching from behind the pedestrian,

while in the case of a speeding vehicle, such light is seldom plainly visible a sufficient dis: tance to enable the driver of the speeding vehicle to slow down far enough ahead of time and proceed with genuine caution in avoiding any possibility of striking the pedestrian.

Another dangerous situation often develops whenever an automobile must be stopped along a dark road for repairs as in the event a tire must be replaced and the person making the repairs must stand in the adjacent roadway. Most motorists carry a flashlight for just such an emergency and while suitable light for the repair work may be obtained from the forward end of the flashlight, there is no other light available therefrom at the same time for giving a clear and unmistakable warning signal to an approaching vehicle to make the driver thereof aware of the parked car and otherwise make known the advisability of proceeding with caution in passing the same, and especially, to avoid fill are now well known, the present invention embodies a number of new teachings and'advantages in that it is directed, more particularly, to an improved form of safety reflector attachment which may be produced at very low cost and which is'readily applied and fixed to the closed or butt end of any usual form of portable flashlight already in use to adapt the same for service as a combined flashlight and warning signal, as and for the purposes described. It will be understood that the reflector element embodied in the flashlight attachment may be providedin any suitable form as in the nature of a metallic reflector" or reflector jewel while from the standpoint of economy in cost, the same is satisfactorily provided from an inexpensive section of orange, yellow or preferably red glass adapted to reflect the lights of an approaching vehicle in a manner to provide a distinct and pronounced warning signal to the driver of the vehicle.

The safety reflector attachment of the present invention thereby serves to adapt any ordinary flashlight with means providing a Warning signal, and therefore, is particularly useful and advantageous from a safety standpoint for persons walking along a dark roadway inasmuch as the flashlight may be used to illuminate ones path in the usual manner, while an unmistakable, clear warning signal is given to the driver of a vehicle approaching from,- behind the pedestrian by the pronounced light obtained from the reflector element when shined upon by the vehicle headlights. In this relation, a warning signal may, of course, be obtained from the reflector even though the flashlight is not being used to project a light or otherwise is inoperative and accordingly, many further uses in this way are possible as, for example, when it is desired to designate and make known the presence of a parked vehicle, wreck or other obstruction on a dark roadway.

Another object of the invention is to provide adia'shlight attachment of the type described which is capable of practically universal application for the purposes intended in that it may be attached to various sizes and unusual shapes of flashlights already in use without dispensing with any member thereof or otherwise disturbing any of the component operating parts of the flashlight. In this respect, little or no effort is required by any owner of a flashlight to at tach the safety signal device of the present invention to his flashlight and this, of course, is

conducive to many sales and a wide and ext tended use thereof by many persons who otherwise would perhaps not be interested if any bother or inconvenience were involved either in obtaining an exact size safety reflector attachment to fit a specific size flashlight or otherwise, in attaching the same for use.

With the foregoing in view, the present invention contemplates further, the provision of a safety reflector attachment device for flashlights in general comprising a simple and reliable form of yieldable gripping member which may be constructed from ordinary, cheap rubber materials, if desired, and which together with a suitable inexpensive form of reflector glass, may be produced at a very low cost and offered for sale at such a low price as to be within the means of all persons. This, of course, is a most desirable incentive making possible a wide and extended use of the safety reflector device of the present invention in providing, at least, even a small measure of added safety for pedestrians on dark roadways in addition to the various other uses thereof to which reference has been made. To this end, the instant safety reflector attachment device can be produced in quantities so cheaply as to be readily available .as a practical form of advertising novelty by business firms or otherwise distributed free in certain communities undertaking a safety campaign, for example.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide such a safety reflector attachment embodying a rubber gripping sleeve member or the like, which when in completed vulcanized form, for example, is sufliciently flexible and otherwise readily adapted for application and attachment to any of a number of flashlight bodies of different sizes and shapes.

Further objects and advantages of the invention and other new and useful features of the construction and arrangement thereof will be apparent as the description proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawing in which like reference characters designate like parts throughout, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a perspective of a flashlight provided with an improved safety reflector attachment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of the butt end portion of the flashlight illustrated in Fig. 1 with the safety reflector attachment shown in section;

Fig. 3 is a similar sectional view of the safety I reflector attachment per se illustrating the same in a preferred construction adapted for attachment to any of several sizes and shapes of flashlights; and,

Fig. 4 is a side elevational view of a flashlight provided with the improved safety reflector attachment of the invention and illustrating a further use thereof.

Referring now, more particularly, to the drawing, Fig. 1 represents a conventional form of flashlight comprising the casing or body I, hav-' ing a switch 2, controlling the flashlight lamp within the head cap or housing 3, screw threaded onto the adjacent forward end of the casing body and carrying a lens for the flashlight in any suitable manner. The rear or butt end of the casing or body I, includes a generally cup-shaped end cap 5, Fig. 2, which is screw threaded onto the flashlight casing to close the same and other- Fig. 1, is applied to such rear end of the flashlight casing and, as best seen in Fig. 2, in a manner to flt over the end cap 5, usually concealing the same. The complete attachment device requires merely two simple inexpensive parts, namely, a rubber gripping sleeve member II and a reflector element 20 of orange, yellow or preferably red glass. A similar reflector of metal or other suitable material may be employed, of course, but a cheap and reliable form is best provided by a simple disc of red glass including a peripheral flange 2| and having serrations 22, or the like, on the rear face thereof causing a diffusion of light rays shining thereupon and thereby providing a reflection in the manner of a glowing warning signal. Generally speaking, the gripping sleeve II is best constructed of flexible rubber material in the manner of a generally tubular member adapted to be easily expanded and quickly slipped over the end cap 5 ofthe flashlight casing and frictionally and grippingly retained thereon, substantially as shown in Fig. 2. The outer end of the rubber sleeve member preferably includes on its periphery an inwardly extending protecting edge portion I2 while a circumferential groove I3 adjacent said outer end is provided to extend around the inner wall of the sleeve member, said groove being of a suitable depth and width to receive snugly the peripheral flange 2| of said reflector element 20.

By this relatively simple construction, it will be readily understood that the reflector disc 20 is easily and quickly assembled and secured to the outer end of the rubber sleeve II simply by stretching the peripheral edge portion I2 as necessary to admit said reflector disc 20 and seat the peripheral flange 2I thereof in said circumferential groove I3; and when said expanded edge portion I2 of the rubber sleeve is permitted to assume its normal condition, the reflector disc with its peripheral flange 2| seated in said groove I3, is thereby fixedly and rigidly retained in desired assembled relation with said sleeve to close the outer end thereof and provide the completed safety reflector attachment device. Thus the device of the present invention requires only a minimum of simple, inexpensive parts and involves only the simplest form of assembling operation making for speed and economy from the standpoint of mass production.

Referring to Fig. 3, it will be understood that in a preferred form, the flexible rubber gripping sleeve II of the flashlight attachment may be provided in a special construction by which the same is adapted for attachment to various sizes and shapes of flashlights. To this end, said sleeve member II and particularly the inner wall portion I4 thereof is provided in a generally inwardly tapering configuration from adjacent the circumferential groove I3 toward a centrally disposed constricted opening bordered by an inner peripheral lip bearing surface I5. Adjacent said lip surface I5, the sleeve member II may be reduced in'thickness somewhat, if desired, as indicated at I6, such that said constricted opening of the rubber sleeve may be easily and quickly enlarged as necessary to snap over the end of a flashlight in attaching the safety reflector device in a manner which will be quite obvious and require only a minimum of effort.

Accordingly, in thus providing the flexible rubber gripping sleeve II with a gradually inwardly tapering inner wall I4, the same is adapted for attachment to a number of different sizes of flashlights ranging from a small size slightly Still larger in cross-section than the constricted open end of the sleeve to the largest size flashlight in common use having a cross-section approximating the greatest size opening presented by said sleeve, substantially as illustrated in Fig. 2. In this relation, the peripheral lip surface I5 of the centrally disposed opening will bear evenly and uniformly upon the flashlight casing to grip the same firmly and rigidly and maintain a more or less concentric relation of the sleeve member.

which no other type of attaching means could beexpediently employed. Thus, as illustrated in Fig. i by the broken line showing, even in the case-of a bullet-shaped flashlight body having an imperforate endwall A, or other integral butt end, as in the case of molded plastic flashlight casing, the safety reflector attachment device of the present invention may be employed with equal eflectiveness through the provision of the flexible rubber sleeve member adapted to frictlonally and grippingly embrace the rear end portion of any such flashlight body with noother ,dii

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securing means being required.

Fig. i also illustrates the manner in which the safety reflector attachment device normally carried by the butt end of any form of flashlighit may be removed therefrom and put to a further use in flashing, a pronounced der signal or warning light, as when it would be a desirable precaution to designate a wreck or other obstruc tion in a dark roadway. In many cases this, of course, is readily accomplished simply by applying the flexible rubber sleeve ll of" the attaeent over the lens of the flashlight so that the same will project a red or other colored light. in the-event the lens is of a relatively large size and the rubber sleeve cannot be readily slipped thereover, a similar arrangement for a danger light may be provided as shown in Fig. l, by removing the lens in unscrewing the housing therefor and snapping the rubber sleeve ll of the attachment device III onto the adjacent end of the flashlight body. Thus they glass reflector it in such relation serves as a lens by which a red or other danger or signalling light will be projected by the flashlight incontrast to the usual white or colorless light provided thereby.

While the invention has been described in de tail with an example of a specific form and construction of the safety reflector attachment tie-=- vice embodying a flexible rubber gripping sleeve member, such example is intended as illustrative and not restrictive with the scope of the invention being defined by the appended claims in which the intent is to set forth all the novelty over the prior art.

What is claimed as new and desired to be so cured by Letters Patent is i. As an article of manufacture, a safety reflector device adapted for attachment to any of several sizes of flashlight bodies, said device com-'- prising a one-piece, flexible rubber gripping memberhaving a generally tubular formation and open at both ends, a reflector element extending transversely of the gripping member and closing the outer end thereof, said flexible rubber gripping member having a circumferential groove provided on the inner wall thereof adjacent said outer end, said groove receiving a peripheral flange portion of the reflector element to secure the same in assembled relation with said gripping member, said inner wall of the flexible rubber gripping member tapering gradually inwardly from said groove toward a constricted opening at the open end of said gripping member. said constricted opening being of a size normally smaller than the cross-section of a flashlight body with which the flexible rubber gripping member is employed but capable of being readily enlarged as necessary for application of said gripping member to attached position on the flashlight body.

2. as an article of manufacture, a safety reflector device adapted for attachment to any of several sizes of flashlight bodies, said device comprising a generally tubular attaching member of flexible and elastic material and open at both ends, a reflector element and means for securing said reflector element adjacent the outer end of said attaching member, said generally tubular attaching member having the inner wall thereof extending inwardly with respect to said outer end to dee a constricted opening of a sine normally smaller than the cross-section of a. flashlight body with which the generally tubular attaching member is employed, said constricted opening being capable of being enlarged to receive the flashlight body in the application of said generally tubular attaching member to attached position on the flashlight body in gripping relation therewith.

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