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In February of 2006, a large portion of the City of Amsterdam, Town of Amsterdam, Johnstown and Gloversville experienced a lengthy power outage. To pass the time while we were "stranded" in the Tech Club room, some members gathered together a cart full of odds and ends and began making flashlights!

The different "versions" of our flashlights appear below, along with the materials used to make each one. We made significant improvements as we built them, and the changes we made appear in the table.

Flashlights:

	Prototype. Made of  2 "D" batteries, a small projector bulb, masking tape, metal expansion slot cover for support, and a piece of single strand Ethernet. Strip the ends off the single wire from the twisted pair and anchor it to the slot cover. Clip it on to the bulb base and VIOLA! Let there be light!		Version 2.1 in the "on" position.
	Version 1.0. The perfect working condition of the prototype. 3 volts of power!		Version 3.0 adds an extra metal slot cover for stability when using on a tabletop. Cross the two pieces and tape together.
	Version 2.0 is comprised of the same materials but has a larger bulb taped to the top of the batteries.		Version 3 in the "on" position.
	Version 2.0 in the "on" position, with the bare wire clipped to the rim of the bulb. Remove the wire to turn it "off".		Flashlight XP. Named so because it is the nicest looking of the bunch and has an on/off switch. The 4 "D" cells have been covered with red and blue book tape from the library. Aluminum foil around the bulb concentrates the light to focus it better than the other models. It is 6 volts of power.
	Version 2.1 is really the same model as the first of the flashlights. We found that the elongated bulb worked better and gave out better light. We decided to cover the entire "flashlight" with masking tape to give it a more finished look.		Flashlight XP in the "on" position.

Could a "Vista" version be far behind? We won't wait until the next blackout to create it. In fact, we have started it and are currently making improvements every day. One thing is for sure, you need a lot of batteries to pump out some serious light.