Photo by Yash Raut on Unsplash
When it comes to the latest torches, things can get quite flashy (pun intended), and you wonder if all the buttons, modes, and features are really necessary. For example, strobe mode – what exactly is this and why do you need it? Practically all torches these days have this feature, so is there a reason it’s so popular? Believe it or not, strobe mode is not for throwing parties in your tent or for freaking your friends out while you tell that scary story. You would typically buy a strobe torch for self-defence.
Originally used by law enforcement and specialist units, the usefulness of strobe mode was soon noticed by the general public, and it caught on like wildfire. Strobe mode uses rapid flashes of light to disorientate threatening or suspicious individuals. The flashes of light are so fast that they’re imperceptible to the human eye. This results in an irritating glare effect.
How strobe mode protects you:
- It temporarily blinds a threatening individual.
- It disrupts night vision.
- It creates dizziness and confusion.
- It causes a threatening individual to lose their bearings.
With a threatening individual experiencing all of the above when you point your torch at them, you are given a window of opportunity to run away or disarm your target (if you are in law enforcement). And this could spell the difference between life or death.
The Bucha Effect
In the 1950s, the Bucha Effect was discovered by a scientist who was investigating a number of seemingly strange helicopter crashes.
When questioning the survivors, the scientist uncovered a common thread. The survivors all described a dizzy and disorientated feeling that resulted after looking up at the rotating helicopter blades. With the sun shining down through the moving blades, a strobe effect was created. This phenomenon of experiencing dizziness and disorientation after the flashes of light, was named the Bucha effect. Since its discovery, law enforcement has been using it to their advantage.
So, with all this information in mind, when you decide to buy a strobe torch for self-defence, remember to use it wisely, and only in situations where you feel threatened!
JETBeam flashlights featuring this helpful mode include all of our tactical flashlights, some of our headlamps (such as the HR30), and some of our outdoor torches such as the 3M ULTRA,3M Guardian,SSR50,Raptor Series BC20TAC and BC25 TAC.
