During the 1890’s a gentleman named Conrad Hubert founded a company called American Ever Ready and with the assistance of dry-cell batteries and the latest invention of the electric hand- torch lit up the city of New York.
Conrad Hubert was an immigrant from Russian who experimented with an invention created by Joshua Cohen called the electric flower-pot in which he acquired the rights and started to massed produced them so he could sell them to the public.
To his surprise the pubic did not want a light up flower-pot and was left with a large inventory that he could not sell, but even worse a very large debt. Trying to salvage a portion of his investment he removed the tube, battery and bulb from the pot, added a lens and sold it as the electric hand-torch also known as the flashlight.
As it turned out it was a great hit and Hubert went on to form what was known as the Ever-Ready flashlight company which still in production today.
Conrad Hubert’s first carry around flashlights were made by hand from simple fiber and paper tubes, which he attached a brass reflector and bulb. With batteries being so weak and with primitive bulbs you would only get a momentary flash of light as of this came the name.
In 1906 Hubert formed the Ever Ready Battery Co. and eventually sold half of its interest for $200,000 to company named National Carbon Co.
A Little Flashlight History
- 1898 – The first flashlight by EverReady was produced
- 1902 – EverReady’s trademark first showed up on flashlight end caps
- 1906 – The product name was changed from Ever Ready to Eveready
- 1910 – A bulb with a tungsten filament was rolled out by Eveready
- 1926 – The Eveready Company was first to place a hanger ring on their flashlights for storing or hanging where needed.
- 1937 – Eveready came out with the first pre-focused bulb for flashlights. A good deal of ambient light was eliminated with the introduction of pre-assembled reflectors and bulbs and were more efficient.
- 1956 – The acquisition of V.K. Song & Company LTD now known as (Sonca), by Eveready produced aluminum flashlights
- 1966 – Molded thermoplastic flashlights were rolled out by Eveready
- 1967 – Eveready came out with the first rechargeable flashlight
- 1968 – A fluorescent lantern was first introduced by Energizer, these bulbs were more efficient and required less bulb replacements.
- 1970 – The first push button, waterproof flashlight came out which was produced by Energizer and came with a switch that had warranty for life.
- 1975 – Eveready came out with the economy light and is still today a very popular light
- 1983 – Energizer produced its first hand-held flashlight with fluorescent lamps, and required less bulb changes and was more efficient than traditional lamps.
- 1984 – The 2D Halogen light was brought out by Energizer and was much brighter than Krypton, Xenon and the traditional vacuum bulbs.
- 1986 – Eveready Squeeze flashlight was first introduced and had more functionality and compact in size
- 1996 – Energizer’s LED light was first introduced and came out as a squeeze flashlight. The LED allowed for a longer runtime and it never needed to be replaced
- 1997 – The first branded light was first introduced by Energizer which was the BoublBarrel®
- 1998 – This year was EverReady’s 100 years in business and was the leader in portable light products
- 2001 – A partnership between Energizer and Disney came about and Energizer produced branded flashlights for Disney and are still partners today. Energizer Disney Series products features Disney characters like Nemo, Cars, Winne-the-Pooh, and Tinkerbell
- 2005 – Energizer launched Energizer®Quick Switch and the Trailfinder® flashlights which use the (AA, C and D) batteries. The Trailfinder® was manufactured with the outdoor and camping consumer in mind.
- 2006 – Energizer® produced what is known as the Weather Ready® lights for emergency situations and came out with lights that could use different size batteries. They also rolled out their Hard Case® product line which included the ( Hard Case®Professional, Hard Case®Work and the Hard Case®Tactical). These line were produced with the do-it-yourself, hardware, and tactical consumer in mind.
- 2010 – Innovative packaging by Energizer® was re-launched for all household flashlights and batteries which reflected their new design and brand.
Energizer®Inductive Charger and the Qi wireless inductive charger came out.
Energizer® today is still one of the most popular manufactures and leaders in the lighting and flashlight market.
