Oasis frozen

[Quoth]

Electric torch in UK from the start.
The Hellesen type cell (Sweden) was copied by a British Chemist who patented it in the USA. A Novelty company bought the patent and sold electric torches to the NYPD. The batteries were poor, hence flashlight.
By 1905 they were as good as the Hellesen type and the company was variously Eveready, Union Carbide and NCC over the years. The UK branch was by 1905 the British Ever Ready Electrical Company, later Ever Ready. After WWII they used BEREC overseas and US NCC/UC/Eveready sold as UCAR. They agreed market areas. Eventually the US became Energizer and bought the UK Ever Ready company which had been asset stripped in 1980s to 1990s.

Sometimes US usage was used.
US Eveready 1923
US Novelty Company using Eveready brand in 1905
UK Ever Ready, before 1939. Refers to torches. Electric prefix already dropped.
UK Ever Ready in 1932 Torches and Batteries

Hellesen Advert 1930.

Wet or open zinc carbon batteries existed maybe from 1831, but Hellesen invented the sealed cell in Sweden, Copied by English chemist and patented in USA and bought by the American Electric Novelty & Manufacturing Company, later USA Eveready (one r), NCC, UC, Energiser. But inferior at first, hence NYPD "flashlights". That really got them started.






http://www.blaukatz.com/overview/

The NYPD nickname of Flashlight stuck in the USA. It was Electric Torch in UK from at least 1906.

[bugmen00t]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Ahhh... Thread drift...

Perhaps we could try to stay vaguely within view of the topic?

It seems that OP's problem is solved, so just let the gentlemen and/or ladies have a little fun...

[DNSB]

True. Let them have fun!

[mergen3107]

Talking about torches and flashlights seems very suitable in the Amazon Kindle / Amazon Fire forums though...

[bob_obo]

What do americans call a head torch, then? I'm assuming not a head flashlight, as thats a mouthful and sounds like some kind of implement of torture...

[John F]

Originally Posted by bob_obo

What do americans call a head torch, then? I'm assuming not a head flashlight, as thats a mouthful and sounds like some kind of implement of torture...

I had to Google "head torch". Initially, I wasn't sure what to call it here/U.S.. head lamp or head light sounds good to me?

What do brits call headlights on a car?

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

What do brits call headlights on a car?

Headlights, because they are just at the front of the bonnet (hood in USA). Or headlamps.
The smaller ones are called side lights, parking lights or driving lights depending on era and function.

Note, not all users of British English are "brits" which is regarded as offensive.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Headlights, because they are just at the front of the bonnet (hood in USA). Or headlamps.
The smaller ones are called side lights, parking lights or driving lights depending on era and function.

Note, not all users of British English are "brits" which is regarded as offensive.

It's also insulting to someone who is Scottish to call him/her British.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's also insulting to someone who is Scottish to call him/her British.

You are confusing English and British. But so do most English

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by Quoth

You are confusing English and British. But so do most English

Person-group names for the inhabitants of this group of islands are a total mess. No single term really covers everyone when you factor in places like the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, not even the horrifically ugly "UKian". Citizen of the Atlantic Archipelago? (That also covers the Irish, though, which might offend them I suppose we could always say the Atlantic Archipelago consists of multiple frequently feuding states in a near-permanent state of civil war...)

[j.p.s]

I have no idea how widely it is accepted, if at all, but Wikipedia claims that the British Isles contain the island Ireland and the republic Ireland but that the British Islands contain Northern Ireland but exclude the island and the republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termin..._British_Isles

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

I have no idea how widely it is accepted, if at all, but Wikipedia claims that the British Isles contain the island Ireland and the republic Ireland but that the British Islands contain Northern Ireland but exclude the island and the republic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Termin..._British_Isles

Well, I've lived here all my life and I've never heard the latter term used once (but then it's not like self-satisfied smug people in the south-east like me even notice the *existence* of Northern Ireland more than once a decade).

[Quoth]

It was John Dee's Idea that the English should be included in "British" to bolster Queen Elizabeth I's claims to Americas with French, as the "British" formerly had been a name for Celts in Great Britain and Little Britain (Brittany). Back then Great Britain was only the largest island, and the area was the British Isles.

Another name for Ireland was Hibernia, possibly from Latin/Romans. Wales is from Anglo-Saxon for foreigner, Gaelic also means foreigner. The Celts (Celtic) was originally a collection of many tribes from Ireland to Northern Turkey, mostly destroyed by the Romans in retribution (The Helvetii helped Hannibal. Earlier Macsen, a North Italy Celt captured Rome in retribution for Romans helping Etruscans, see story of Geese and Capitol). An agreement between Macedonian Alexander (Eskandar) the Great and Celts north of there survives.

But the Pope had earlier given Ireland to Henry II. Ireland had never then had a national identity or been a single nation, which is why it was still not "conquered" by the time of Elizabeth I (nearly 400 years later). Elizabeth cut all international trade with Ireland and most Irish trade was then controlled by English middle men till the late 1970s (gradually aver Common Market/EU Irish-British trade dropped so low by Brexit 2016-2021).

Great Britain now includes all islands off the Great Britain mainland, but not Rathlin north of Northern Ireland, nor Rockall, which the UK annexed in maybe 1955, and as is it's not possible to inhabit it, that's contested.
The Isle of Man and Channel Islands are "British" but not in the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland", which has six of the nine Ulster counties. There was supposed to be a boundary commission and there was no referdum in each county. Perhaps it should only have been 3 or 4).

From 1801 to 1922 it was the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland." Despite William of Orange taking Queen Mary's throne when his armies forced James to Abdicate (the later Jacobite wars in Ireland and Scotland were really an English Civil war), Scotland became part of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain" in 1707, so likely that's when all the Scottish isles inc unlikely Shetlands and Orkneys became part of Great Britain.

There was talk in 1922 of becoming just Great Britain when the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" ceased, but as a sop to Unionists they put Northern Ireland.

Ireland had never been a Nation State and the Ard Rí (High King) wasn't a National ruler. So after 1922 it wanted to be a Republic. But it was still partially under British Crown, so was called The Irish Free State (Saorstát Éireann) till 1937 when it unilaterally became a Republic. The name is simply Ireland and till 1998 claimed the entire Island of Ireland.

So in the Good Friday or Anglo-Irish agreement which ended 70 years of pointless IRA terrorism, the Irish Government agreed to give up territorial claim to the 6 of 9 counties of Ulster called Northern Ireland and the UK agreed that the whole area should be called "These Islands" rather than the British Isles.

The Nation state, less 6 counties of Northern Ireland on the Island of Ireland is still just Ireland, the "Republic of Ireland" is a nickname and Éire is only when writing or talking in Gaelic, and also is both the entire island and surrounding islands inc Rathlin and the Nation State.

That is the simplfied version!

I've never in decades of living in UK and longer in Ireland heard anyone say the "British Islands", which technically would include Falklands, Bermuda, British Virgin Island etc in people's thinking.

The Chagos Is were illegally held after Mauritian independence and UN ruled on that. UK only recently agreed to give them back.