Combination flashlight and continuity tester having hinged contact

Claim 1

In a combination flashlight and testing device comprising an elongated casing, a switch mounted on said casing, a battery supply within said casing electrically connected mediately to a first side of said switch, and an electric bulb, mounted on said casing at one end and connected between a second side of said switch and one electrical side of said battery supply; closure means for closing an end of said casing opposite the said bulb, and an electrically conductive spring compressively trapped between said closure means and the other electrical side of said battery supply, the improvement comprising a hinge leg electrically connected to said spring and projecting outwardly through said closure in electrically insulative relation thereto, an L-shaped bar-like conductor having a short leg and a long leg, the said short leg being hingedly mounted to the outwardly projecting end of said hinge leg, a snap sockeT mounted on said casing and electrically connected to said first side of said switch, an electrically conductive ball mounted on the side of the long leg of said bar-like conductor adjacent the casing, said ball being shaped and positioned complementarily to said socket whereby when said conductor is rotated about the said hinge to one position the ball is seated securely but manually demountably in said socket, a circuit through said spring, hinge leg, barlike conductor, ball, and socket constituting the sole electrical connection between said other electrical side of said battery supply and said first side of said switch.