Seems that the US army developed this type of torch in the 1930’s and used them extensively during the Second World War. They call them flashlights there and the military designation was TL-122 though nobody seems quite sure what TL stands for or why it was 122! Anyway, as is often the case, the flashlights became torches as they made their way across ‘the pond’ to be adopted by the British Army and other NATO forces. In the UK various companies were invited to make the torches to the required specification; the two we have here in the collection have two different manufacturers but the same military specification number. The newer one has an attachment at the bottom for a red or green replacement lens and both have storage for spare bulbs. As usual with military items, surplus torches found their way into the outdoor shops where they became popular with climbers, campers and walkers as they were robust and reliable if a little heavy: the clip on the back was most useful for attaching to just about anything. The arrival of LED bulbs and a new wave of headtorches pioneered by Petzl in the 1970’s sounded the death knell for torches like these- in the outdoors at least.