The development of mobile lighting tools can be traced back to the primitive society at the beginning of the development of human society. Since humans learned to drill wood for fire, mobile lighting has experienced a development process from fire, oil, candles to flashlights. Mobile lighting tools have undergone countless changes, from torches, oil lamps, candles, kerosene lamps to incandescent bulb flashlights, xenon bulb flashlights, and a dazzling array of LED flashlights.

The oil lamp has been improved many times. The oil used in oil lamps was changed from animal oil to vegetable oil, and finally replaced by kerosene. In order to prevent the wind from blowing out the fire, people added a cover to the oil lamp. From the early paper cover to the later glass cover, this kind of oil lamp is not afraid of wind blowing and is convenient for outdoor lighting. While using oil lamps for lighting, humans are still looking for other mobile lighting methods. Around the 3rd century BC, someone made candles from beeswax. In the 18th century, candles made of paraffin appeared, and mass production of machines began. The British invented the gas lamp more than 100 years ago, which made the human lighting method a big step forward.

Movable lighting tools such as torches, candles, oil lamps, and gas lamps do not leave the fire. They are all illuminated by the light emitted by the burning of substances. At the end of the 19th century, Edison invented the electric light, which has since rewritten the history of human lighting, and mankind has moved towards the era of electric lighting.