Vintage USALite Flashlights
The flashlight at the bottom of this page is 21 inches long and works off 8 D cell batteries. The longest flashlight made by USALite.
Featuring the rare and hard to find... 1936 3 D cell USALite Zep-O-Lite flashlight. They also came in a 2 & 5 cell model. This flashlight was inspired by the famous Zeppelin flying machines. A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin. These may be one of the rarest and hardest to find of all the USALite flashlights. The photo on the right is the end cap on the flashlight.
The photo of the Zep-O-Lite which was in a catalog, was taken from Stuart Schneider's book, "Collecting Flashlights" with his permission. Thank You Stuart! You can find his website on our Resource page.
Side Note... The Zep-O-Lite only lasted a couple of years. A certain company claimed... Infringed rights. Can you guess the company? They had the other trademark involved, and was certainly infringed by the defendant's sale of flashlights marked "Zep-O-Lite" (U.S. Electric Mfg, Corp). Look for the link in the ride side menu for the story. USALite Zep-O-Lite.
ATTENTION USALite collectors! Here's some interesting history about USA Electric MGF. CORP. I asked a couple of collectors what they thought and came up with the following.
They either made flashlights under a different brand name or made flashlights for another company. The BEST and the two Marathon flashlights, (on the right) are from the 1920's. They could be a spin-off, Eveready was only sold by authorized dealers, they made American which were for sale other than authorized retailers. Maybe Best and Marathon was the USALite version of the American flashlight. On the other hand, the name Eveready does not appear on an American light, so why put USALite on a Best or a Marathone. Maybe this was a line made for a retailer, like Blake made Homart only sold by Sears, but, Blank's name is not on the flashlight. To Be Continued... Final thought - One of the Marathone flashlights has - under license by USALite, the other one does not. Marathon did produce some flashlights, but not many.
Did you know that Gamble's Auto Stores sold a line of USALite flashlights back in the day? Gas stations and auto stores also sold Atlas flashlights, kinda. Guess what was in the box, USALite flashlights. Means, Atlas also sold a line of USALite flashlights. Remember the USALite redhead with the name plates on'em, had Atlas instead of USALite. Check the link for Atlas Flashlights on the right.
Another flashlight with the Best trade mark above. That makes two of each - and looking for more!
Fun Facts - This just might be the first flashlight produced by USALite in 1920. Let's start with the switch plate. Has pat. date Dec. 10, 1918. This is the earliest pat. date I have found on any of their flashlights. The next pat. date seen is from Dec. 20 1921, also located on the switch plate. Next comes the end cap. This one has patent applied for. Also on the end cap, this is hard to see, (from wear over time) but it's there. If you look close, at the print on USA, the A goes to the left under US, it has - Trade - printed on it. Then on the Lite, it has - Mark - printed on the L that goes to the right, under ite. Stands for Trade Mark. You won't find the Trade Mark printed this way on any other flashlight. The Trade Mark is still located on the end caps.
The next set of end caps has pat. pending and the patented. I would think these came out in the following years. This style of switch was used for a few more years, only the end caps changed. This is just my take on this. Again, without the catalogs, this is all just guess work. Sounds pretty sound to me.
I have eleven USALite flashlights with the 1918 pat date, with six different end caps. The Marathon and the Best flashlights also have the same pat. dates on the switch. Which is the same switch.
Notice the penlites on the right? All the boxes show a red penlite, but, different colored lights came in the same box. Someone at the factory forgot to have USALite printed on the clips. Opps. But, they do have - USALite - in small print above the clip. Special "Thanks" to Bill T. from somewhere in the land of Kansas, for pointing this out. These were nos found in a building that had been closed for many years. The purse-spotlights also has the same light on thoses boxes with different colored lights inside the boxes. The same goes for the swivel head boxes, same flashlight on the boxes and different colored box, but different lights inside the box. And here's one more. The TL-122-A Army light box show a different flashlight inside the box. The picture show a angular lens cover on the box, the light inside the box has a round lens cover.
I was lucky to find eight penlites all with boxes. Five green, two red and one brownish colored. Brings my total to sixteen penlites. Might be other colors out there waiting to be found? Just like the USALite purse-spotlights. Only time will tell.
My latest USALite penlite and box find shown above, (6-26). First time seeing this penlite and box. The box is green and a little beat up, the penlite looks black, but shine a flashlight on it, looks brownish. Also, USALite is printed above the clip, on the body and not on the clip. The light works as it should. Has a lock-type switch. I'm thinking it's from the 40's. This one is almost the same as the penlite of eight I found with the boxes, just a few details makes it different. Maybe came out earlier than those, and with a different box. Better to have than have not.
My only USALite penlight that works using one AA battery
NOTE - Click or tap on the photo of the flashlight you want to see, then you can read the information. Click on another photo, and that one will come up.
1920 USALite Smooth Vulcanite Body
w/Dome Lens 2 D Cell
First Year Flashlight?
Pat Date On Switch - 1918
1920 USALite Ribbed Body
Dome Lens 2 D Cell
First Year Flashlight?
Pat Date On Switch - 1918
1936 USALite Zep-O-Lite
3 D Cell
1930's USALite Brass Body
Ring Hanger 2 D Cell
1950's USALite Chrome body
Red Strips 2 D Cell
1920's USALite 3/4 Ribbed Body
Ring Hanger 2 D Cell
Pat. Date 1918 On Switch
1920's USALite Nickle Body
2 C Cell
1950's USALite Chrome w/Black Stripes
2 D Cell
1950's USALite Bullet End
2 C Cell
1950 USALite Chrome Body w/Groves
w/Slide Switch 2 C Cell
