From: r_delaney2001@yahoo.com   
      
   On February 17, Phil Hobbs wrote:   
   >> I was shopping for a flashlight recently, and naturally   
   >> noticed a trade-off between size/compactness and brightness.   
   >> The devices range up to 500 Lumens.   
   >> Human perception is logarithmic. So I wonder, at what   
   >> point, measured in Lumens, does apparent brightness   
   >> level off? For instance, imagine you're in a dark place,   
   >> and you want to blind an adversary. How many Lumens required?   
   >   
   > Lumens are like watts---they measure the total amount of visible light.   
   > A good 100W incandescent bulb circa 2012 put out 1690 lumens. That's a   
   > whole lot for a flashlight.   
   > For a narrow-angle applications, you care more about lux (lumens/sq   
   > metre). 1000 lux is a nice number for reading a book, but 5000 is better   
   > for an old guy doing close work. ;)   
      
   The packages include the FL1 standard, but I don't know how to interpret   
   that.  One of the specs displays a light cone, and e.g. '95 ft.'  This   
   indicates lux?   
      
   Then there's a picture of a light beam reflecting from the floor ...?   
      
   > For incapacitating somebody, you're much better off with an 8-D-cell   
   > Maglite, know wha' I mean?   
      
   One of those police torches - not too convenient for routine carry -   
   probly nice self-defense gadgets though - "It's a tool, not a weapon, officer!"   
      
   --   
   Rich   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)