Mini Maglite

The Mini Maglite is a small torch machined from aluminium and anodised in a single colour. It is 146 millimetres long and takes two AA batteries end to end in its barrel, which is knurled in a fine diamond pattern for grip. A tapered head carries the reflector and bulb. Twisting the head switches the light on and moves the reflector, widening the beam from a spot to a flood. A spare bulb is kept in the tail cap, and the head comes off and serves as a stand, so that the torch can be set upright as a small table lamp.

Its maker, Anthony Maglica, was a machinist who had set up a one-man shop in a Los Angeles garage in 1955, making precision parts. Mag Instrument introduced its first Maglite in 1979, a heavy torch of anodised aluminium for police officers and firefighters, and moved to Ontario, California, in 1982. In September 1984 Maglica applied for a patent on a miniature torch running on penlight batteries, with the twisting variable-focus head and the stand that the patent calls a table lamp. Mag Instrument dates the launch of the Mini Maglite to the same year.

Advertisements followed. One that its seller dates to 1985 offered the new Mini Mag Lite to hunters as sixty times more powerful than any other light its size. In 1986 the company advertised it in six colours, and in 1987 as an ideal travel companion, noting its patented beam and the candle-like light it gave when stood on its head. A version for AAA batteries followed in 1987, and the keyring Solitaire in 1988.

LED versions have been sold since 2006, but Mag Instrument still makes the incandescent torch, now with a xenon bulb, as the Mini Maglite Classic AA. It is assembled at the company's factory in Ontario, California, and sold for under ten dollars.