Battery hand lamp

• US 3,978,330 A
• Filed: 09/11/1974
• Issued: 08/31/1976
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/1973
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Paul Peter Maurer
• Original Assignee: Paul Peter Maurer
• Inventors: Maurer, Paul Peter
• Primary Examiner(s): Adams, Jr., Russell E.
• Application Number:
  US05/504,895
• Time in Patent Office: 720 Days
• Field of Search: 240/10.6 R, 240/10.6 CH, 240/10.61, 240/10.63, 240/10.65, 240/10.66, 240/11.4 R, 240/26, 240/51.11, 240/51.12, 240/10.64
• US Class Current: 362/158
• CPC Class Codes: F21L 4/00 Electric lighting devices with self-contained electric batteries or cells
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 23/06 the elements being coupling devices , e.g. connectors
• CPC Class Codes: F21V 31/00 Gas-tight or water-tight arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: F21W 2111/00 Use or application of lighting devices or systems for signalling, marking or indicating, not provided for in codes F21W2102/00 – F21W2107/00

Abstract

A battery hand lamp for use where high luminosity is desirable and where a damp or wet environment or water is encountered, as is the case on boats, in fighting fires or in speleology or the like. The battery hand lamp consists of two units, namely a supply unit and a lamp unit. A fluorescent tube is housed in a protection tube provided with a socket fitting into a corresponding opening of the supply unit. A seal is provided at the socket to prevent the entry of water to the electric connectors connecting the lamp unit with the supply unit. One connector has the form of slide contact springs and the other connector has the form of slide contact rings cooperating with said slide contact springs. This permits one to insert the lamp unit into the supply unit by pushing the lamp unit in and at the same time turning it. In a similar way the lamp unit may be detached from the supply unit by pulling and turning the lamp unit out of the supply unit. In this way the friction force excerted by the seal at the socket is easily surmounted and the lamp unit may be positioned in any desired angular position with respect to the supply unit. To permit the lamp to float on water hollow spaces in the lamp unit and in the supply unit may be so dimensioned that the specific weight of the lamp is less than one.

Claims

1. A battery hand lamp comprising:

a supply unit defining an opening therein with an opening wall;

a lamp unit including a plug for force fitting into said opening in the supply unit, but having an unlimited freedom of angular movement within said opening; and

a seal means for forming a watertight seal between said plug and said opening wall when said plug is in said opening to thereby prevent leakage therebetween;

said supply unit including electrical connectors inside said opening and said lamp unit including electrical connectors on said plug for contacting said supply-unit electrical connectors, to conduct electrical energy from said supply unit to said lamp unit, ones of said electrical connectors having the form of rings and the other being slide contacts for contacting said rings and permitting the mounting of the lamp unit in the supply unit in different angular positions, while providing electrical contact between said electrical connectors in any of said angular positions;

said lamp unit further comprising a fluorescent tube in electrical contact with said connectors and a transparent protection tube for containing said fluorescent tube and a metallic reflector located in the protection tube, said reflector serving as an electric conductor between one contact and the fluorescent tube.

2. A battery hand lamp as claimed in claim 1, wherein said reflector has openings permitting a part of the light to radiate to the back.

3. A battery hand lamp as claimed in claim 2, comprising a colored foil between the reflector and the protection tube.

4. A battery hand lamp as claimed in claim 2, wherein in the region behind the reflector the protection tube is colored.