1980 Prototype Mag Charger and Rechargeable Flashlight History

Summary: Shown below is a prototype of the Mag Charger rechargeable flash light. Maglite wasn't the first company to make a rechargeable light but they were one of the best selling and most reliable.

I've covered the early history of rechargeable flashlights on my other flashlight blog. That story continues here with the introduction of the Maglite Mag Charger.

Maglites sales were not strong in the early days and were subject to relentless competition from newly developed rechargeable flashlights. Maglite knew that most professional users, the majority of the market at the time, wanted rechargeable lights. Maglite started developing their own rechargeable flashlight in 1980 just after production was underway on their original incandescent lights.

In 1982 Maglite introduced their rechargeable flashlight. Patent # 4388673. Mag Instrument further refined the existing charging designs by introducing external contacts on the barrel just above the switch. The end cap chargers and switch chargers at the time were not as reliable and subject to wear over time. Like most other rechargeables Mag also used a more powerful Halogen bulb as opposed to the regular vacuum PR based bulbs in their standard models. While run time was decreased, the light was exceptionally brighter. The brighter beam also made the light considerable hotter and required glass lenses and metal reflectors to be used.

Shown below is an ad sent to dealers in 1980 in anticipation of the  January 1981 release of the Mag Charger. Unfortunately the release was delayed until 1982 due to production issues. The claimed run time is 1 1/2 hours vs. the 8+ hours of a standard 3D. The Mag Charger was 10 times as bright though.

Shown below is the rarest light in my collection and likely the rarest Maglite in existence. It is a prototype of the Mag Charger that was hand assembled and tooled by Don Keller and Tony Maglica as a proof of concept in 1980. It houses a standard PR based vacuum bulb and unfortunately did not come with a charger. It also has a plastic OEM Maglite reflector and plastic lens. Many stock incandescent parts were used in this prototype light. An aluminum dot with adhesive was affixed to the lens to try to minimize the black hole effect however it did not work. This can be seen on the lens in the pics below. The end cap is not knurled like all other Maglites because this was a working concept so the extra step in the machining process was not taken. There is no serial number or other stamping on the light.

Another interesting fact about the Mag Charger is that it was the first D cell flashlight to be designed as a flashlight. What I mean by this is prior to it's adoption all D cell flashlights were made from 1 1/4" Schedule 40 aluminum irrigation pipe. The standard spec for this pipe is shown below. The wall thickness, ID, and OD will all match exactly to any early D cell Kel-Lite, Maglite, etc.. The reason batteries have extra space in older D cell lights has nothing to do with cardboard cells or anything like that it was simply due to the fact that they were being produced from relatively inexpensive, already available aluminum irrigation pipe. It was not until Mag Instrument introduced the Mag Charger that any flashlight company invested in aluminum extrusion to make a more optimized tube shape for the D cell aluminum light. In 1992 this was then transitioned into the now current, panther style Maglite. Many other companies would also follow suit with their own optimized, extruded flashlight barrels in the 80s.

Ironically after the rechargeable Maglite was introduced sales to general consumers started to dominate the market. These household users did not want to spend the extra money on a rechargeable system for the little use the lights saw. As such the swing in the market was back to alkaline powered incandescent lights once again. The light Mag Instrument hoped to be one of their biggest sellers still sold favorably but lagged in sales compared to the ever popular Streamlight SL-20. Even to this day Streamlight Stingers, along with a multitude of Surefires, are hands down the most popular flashlight choices among police officers.

As always I'm looking to buy Vari-Beams and Vintage/Rare Mags. Please let me know if you have any, top dollar paid.