Various battery operated hand portable lamps have been developed which provide a source of light where conventional electric power is not available or practical. Such devices are commonly known as flashlights, electric lanterns, or portable utility lights. In addition to requiring lighting in remote places it is also often desirable to be able to place the light source on a flat surface and direct the light beam to most effectively serve the user. Such applications include playing board games at night while camping or working on one's automobile.
Numerous hand portable lamp devices are presently being marketed including many types of flashlights using one or more size A, size C or size D batteries. Some hand portable lamps use one or more 6 volt dry cells. One such device is the EVERREADY.TM., Model No. 5209 electric lantern known as the "Indoor/Outdoor Commander" and available from Union Carbide Corp. of Danbury, Conn. This device uses two 6 volt dry cell batteries and a tubular fluorescent lamp. This lantern, like most flashlights, is essentially comprised of a single body portion and does not allow for independent movement between the lantern body and its lamp. Consequently, if no convenient surface is available to place the lantern on, the user must hold it in order to maximize the lighting in a desired area. The Ray-o-Vac Company markets a portable lantern similar to the EVEREADY Commander in that they both house the illuminescent member and the batteries within a common housing. This type of arrangement, while satisfactory in applications where light positioning is not critical, suffers from the same drawbacks as the EVEREADY Commander and consequently provides undesirable results when the light must be critically positioned.
One lantern device which does allow for the positioning of the illuminescent member independent from the lantern's base is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,812, issued to Brindley and entitled "Portable Electric Lantern with Swivel Type Lamp Assembly." The Brindley patent discloses a lantern case and a swivel type lamp assembly adapted to be elevated above the case for illuminating the surface on which the lantern is placed. Although the Brindley patent does disclose a portable lantern with a swivel lamp, it is not designed to be used in applications where the light emitted from the lantern must be directed to areas other than the surface on which the lantern is placed. The Brindley lantern uses one lamp post to support the overhead lamp assembly. In order to adequately support the assembly, this single post must be quite wide. Thus, another drawback of the Brindley device is the undesirable shadow that is cast on account of its wide lamp post.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a hand portable light with a base housing and extendable lamp housing such that the light emitted from the lamp housing is capable of being positioned in a multiplicity of directions without moving the base housing.
A further object of this invention is to provide a hand portable light as described above wherein the shadows cast from the extensions which support the lamp housing are minimized, so as to facilitate night-time activities requiring fairly uniform lighting from a portable battery-powered light source.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a hand portable light having telescoping rod antennas which can support or hold a lamp housing at anyone of a variety of attitudes, as desired by the user.