Torch, Olympic torch

A torch from the 1948 Olympic Games torch relay. This was a British design, by Ralph Lavers and boffins at the government’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Made of brushed aluminium, it was a ’special design, so it is the Flame and not the torch which is passed from one man to the next’. The secret was the way it was fuelled by 8 cakes of hexamine, delivered to the burner one by one through a cunning spring loaded mechanism.

1,720 torches were produced, one for each of the 1,680 men who carried the Olympic flame across war-torn Europe, from Greece to London. Each runner was allowed to keep their torch, which were all inscribed 'XIV Olympiad, 1948. Olympia to London with Thanks to the Bearer'.

This is one of the basic torches, produced at the EMI factory in Hayes. There was also a more luxurious stainless steel version which was used for the lighting of the Olympic flame in Wembley Stadium on 29 July 1948 by John Marks, a doctor from St Mary‘s Hospital Paddington.
This example was presented to the London Museum by the organising committee of the London Games.