Mar asked if I might enjoy Chinese tonight. That's femglish for "I don't feel like cooking". Roger that. We went to the pretty-good Chinese place, ordered some takeout. While they were getting that ready we went down a few doors to bum around in the Goodwill. I spied a hishlight, ohmygosh. I almost resisted it, but Mar said I
*must* buy that hishlight for $4.99. This is an instance of the orignal "hishlight" my Dad brought home from Camp Perry for me before he deployed to Guam in WWII. I was a very little boy, too little to say "flashlight" (hence the term hishlight) but apparently not too little to love it instantly and once clock a matron in the forehead with it who'd tried to relieve me of it as being too heavy for a tyke. MY hishlight -- bonk! I barely remember that event other than that I was being held aloft by someone else at the time , probably Ma. Ma laughed about that for the rest of her life whenever the subject of flashlights came up. It ain't a replica, it's the real thing: the L-shaped MX-991\U with O-ring seals. I'm quite sure it's not a Chinese knockoff because it says "made in USA" and the threads on it are inch (12 TPI) not metric. How could I not have a real "hishlight" at Donnie's house, 60+ years later? There is a threaded ring missing from the front. I can easly make a replacement, though it won't be olive-drab. There are some filters stored in the endcap: a faceted clear diffuser (flood), a white diffuser (tactical) and a bluish-purple filter (signalling?) The switch has a mid-position where a little adjacent pushbutton can be used for signalling in morse code. It works. There probably was also a red filter in there originally. The belt/webbing clip is not sprung and the metal slide-switch works fine. Both are brass, or maybe phos-bronze since they're springy. Some of the black is worn off of the metal. I don't think I'll try to restore that, just leave it as "experience". The rest of the light is in excellent condition. The reflector is metal. Other than Pelikan, what's the last flashlight you've seen with a metal (not metallized plastic) reflector? Maglite reflectors are metallized plastic. This flashlight model was in military use during WWII and 'Nam, presumably Korea as well. Don't know how long after that. It's probably not quite as robust as a Maglite, but it's not far behind it and it's a hell of a lot lighter in weight with batteries. It's flat base and L-shape enables it to stand on a flat surface and point at something you need to work on with both hands. There's a flip-out ring recessed in the base for hanging the light on a caribiner or whatever when the belt/webbing clip might not suffice.Good functional design is almost timeless. A google search got zero hits for actual units or even knockoffs, but there are plenty of models and action figures that include a model MX-991\U as part of their kit. It is unremarkable as a source of illumination: it's a plain-vanilla
2D flashlight in that regard, not as bright as a Maglite 2D. As you might guess, I think I'd like to fix that.... I'd like to fit it with a Carley #1908 or #1937 deep paraboloid reflector and a 3-watt Luxeon. The reflector in it is in mint condition but a deeper short-focal-length paraboloid would work better with a Luxeon.
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(I recently learned about Carley from a poster on RCM. Thanks!) I think there's ample room for drive elex in the head. A pair of D cells will run a 3-watt Luxeon for quite a while. I tried a 3-watt Lux tonight in a slightly smaller reflector I had at hand (from a Pelikan flashlight), compared spots on the wall side by side with this light with new batteries. Very similar spot size, HUGE difference in whiteness and brightness. The Luxeon-ized MX-991\U would put a 2D Maglite to shame and would meet or beat 3D Maglites with krypton bulbs -- with less than half the weight. The elex will also keep it running bright throughout battery life, quite unlike any incandescant flashlight including Maglites. And, like most Luxeon lights, the spot will be absolutely free of mottling and filament image artifacts. The more I think about this the more eager I get to do it. Given my "hishlight" history, I gotta do it. I can just imagine Olga (Ma) and Big Don chuckling. I'll be on the lookout at "old stuff" stores, in case I see an original threaded nose ring, but I'll make one of black delryn for the interim. I suppose I could also make it of aluminum and anodize it OD... Fun, huh?