It Is Not Easy To Find Snipe Even With A Flashlight

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It Is Not Easy To Find Snipe Even With A
Flashlight
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When I was in college I lived in a fraternity my
freshman year.
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One night all of the freshman pledges were
taken to a farm along with some of the more
senior fraternity members.
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After a good amount of beer was consumed, the
pledges were each given a brown paper bag and we
were taken out into a forested area on the
property.
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We were told that we were going snipe hunting.
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I had never heard of a snipe before, but was
told that it was a small sized lizard.
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The premise, as it was explained to me and the
other pledges, was that the older fraternity
members were going to go to the other side of the
trees, make noise and drive the snipes in our
direction so that we could trap them in our paper
bags.
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To make a long story short, this was all a
prank.
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There is no such thing as a snipe.
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I wish that I had had two things with me that
night, common sense and a flashlight.
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It turns out that a man by the name of Conrad
Hubert felt that having something like what we
now know as a flashlight would be a good idea, so
in 1890 he developed the first hand held torch.
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It was Conrad Hubert who went on to become the
founder of the Eveready company, which is well
known today not only for its flashlights but also
for its batteries.
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Not to mention its Eveready Bunny.
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The first version of the portable torch or
flashlight made by Hubert were fashioned from
crude paper and fiber tubes that had connected to
them both a bulb and a brass reflector.
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The bulbs were made of a carbon filament, which
when used were only able to create a brief flash
of light, thus the name flashlight was born.
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In 1898, The National Carbon Company introduced
the first D cell battery.
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After its introduction, the first working
flashlights, tubes made with thin aluminum and
housing two D cell batteries were manufactured.
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These units had an incandescent bulb and a
plastic reflector.
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There level of light was quite dim in
comparison to today's flashlights and there
available time of use was very limited.
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And so it was that in 1898, Conrad Hubert, a
Russian immigrant, acquired a patent for his
first Eveready flashlight.
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Hubert continued to build his company and in
1906 he sold one half of the interest in his
company to the National Carbon Company for the
sum of two hundred thousand dollars.
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Hubert's invention was well received by a public
that from the beginning of time had a need and a
desire for some sort of hand held light source.
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Up to that point in time, oil lamps, candles,
torches and kerosene lamps had all been invented
and designed to be carried around but they were
all dangerous as a source of light due to their
flame.
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Although there have been many improvements over
the years in flashlight design, today's modern
flashlights generally still work the same as
Hubert's invention and consist of the same basic
parts.
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The most commonly used light sources in today's
flashlights are either incandescent light bulbs
or LEDS.
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The incandescent light bulbs have a tungsten
filament that is housed in a glass bulb.
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LEDS or Light Emitting Diodes are electronic
elements, or essentially semiconductors that emit
light.
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LEDS are much more efficient than incandescent
light bulbs and are able to last a lot longer for
the user.
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Today's LED flashlights come in a wide variety of
shapes and sizes.
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Some come made as key rings or pens.
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Others are made to be mounted onto helmets or
to are made to be used as headlights.
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Many individuals now find it convenient to use
the LED light that comes installed on their smart
phones.
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With his flashlight, Conrad Hubert invented
something that has more uses today than he could
have possibly ever imagined.