Bert wrote:

flourescent I built in 1960. Until the LED lights came along there just
wasn't any serious competition to the carbide lamp.

That depends on your criteria and application. I used to use a carbide
lamp for caving. In terms of the duration-to-weight ratio, it was hard
to beat, and it was the hands-down winner for coolness factor.

Indeed! I've never done any caving and my *serious* backpacking days
are over (asthma) but my application was three days to onw week trips,
often late fall or winter, and battery life/weight was very much a
consideration. My lamps are the old Justrite ones and I've not found
any newer ones as well made. They come with a dinky little reflector
but the next size up (available as an accessory back then) makes a
**huge** difference in the quality of the spot. I got a good flood at
and near my feet to avoid tripping over things and could pick out
objects a hundred yards away in the spot.

6-volt halogen lamp put it to shame in terms of light output, as well
as maintenance and ease of operation.

Any halogen that would provide as good a spot combined with simultaneous
flood would really suck hard on those batteries! But I would expect
caving is usually a few hours thing not a few days.

while and haven't gotten around to trying out an LED lamp yet.

I think the best ones will impress you. :-)

Ted