Outdoor Education: Light the Way With a One-Battery Flashlight

Dick Moss, Editor

Night has fallen, the campfire is burning low and your students are heading back to their tents.

Just when it seems like all is well, a nervous student comes to you in a tizzy, explaining that his two-battery flashlight is dead and he only has one spare battery.

Fortunately, there's a feat of handyman magic you can perform. Pull some tinfoil out of your cooking pack and wrap one of the dead batteries in the foil. Then place the tinfoil battery in the flashlight along with the good battery—the tinfoil will conduct the energy from the good battery, producing a dimmer, but still effective, beam of light.

If your student doesn't have a dead battery to use as a dummy, you could cut a small piece of wood and wrap it with the tinfoil.

References
1. Tom Carpenter & Jeff Taylor, “Quick cottage cures.” Cottage Life, April/May 1995.
2. Rich Johnson, Outdoor Life - The Ultimate Survival Manual - 333 Skills That Will Get You Out Alive, Simon & Schuster, 2012

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