Children's books - Flashlights

[Steve]

---  "Lee Storm(God Is The Healing Force)" <n2fgc at ...> wrote:
>
> | Goddlefrood:
> | 
> | A torch makes perfect sense to me. Flashlights don't flash,
> | now do they?
> 
> [Lee]:
> Uh--some do. :-) Some have dual settings which allow a 
> flashing red or white light as well as the standard constant
>  light.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Lee :-)

bboyminn:

Actually, back in the good old days, back in the heyday of
'flashlights', nearly all flashlights has dual controls. In
the switch area were two switches. One was a push button to
make the light flash, so boy scouts could send Morse code, and
the other, a standard slide on-off switch. 

Apparently the 'flash' aspect fell from grace or became too 
expensive in the modern days of Walmart-cheap. But 'back in the 
day' no self-respecting person would have bought a Flashlight
that didn't flash. 

In the UK, I suspect the term 'Torch' was carried over from
coal miners who wore flame or arch lights on their helmets.
So, they were using 'torch' lights in the sense that there
really was a flame burning. As those lights were converted to
electricity, the 'torch' terminology just carried through.

Further, I suspect before the implementation of electricity
as common, even small hand-held lights has some type of flame
burning in them, so the concept of torch again carried 
through. 

Still, to my knowledge, in the USA, a 'torch' has never been
more than a flaming stick. Any other type of light was likely
to be called a lantern, lamp, or something similar. So, I 
suspect 'torch' in a broader context was never common in the 
USA.

Blah...blah..blah...etc...

steve/bboyminn