>>And I've finally found wind-up 3-LED torch below $10 - K-mart had them recently - and it seems to hold its juice for quite a while. Tried some at Wal-mart, just to see how the bad ones look, and saw that they grow visibly dim within a minute after you stop cranking.
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>It's interesting that you call them "torches" (English word), ratger than "flashlights" (US).

I actually wanted to buy one of them before, but didn't, because it was flashing too much... these things seem to have one multifunction switch that you have to click 4 or 8 times until it does what you want, and I'd have to click it too many times to skip the flashing.

So I'd rather not call it a flashlight, because I don't want one that flashes.

>A few weeks ago, when I mentioned torches, somebody lampooned me by suggesting we still used burning fire brands (I suppose you can't call them faggots any more :-)

I'm not buying any brand of fire as long as I can make my own by means of sunshine and a powerful lens :).