Golden Elephant: Thailand's Lineage of Lighthouses

On a rubber plantation in Surat Thani province, Thailand, Old Wu (father of Golden Elephant's founder) began cutting rubber at age 16, following in the footsteps of his ancestors. Back then, headlamps were either damaged by sweat or surrounded by mosquitoes, and workers often had to wipe away the sweat while swatting the insects from their faces.
"The flashlight would break, so we'd cut in the dark; mosquitoes would swarm, and we'd just have to endure the itching," recalled Old Wu. "Back then, I thought, 'If only there were a flashlight actually designed for rubber cutters...'"
In 2010, Old Wu used his savings to open a small workshop specializing in repairing and modifying headlamps. He didn't have an engineering degree, but he knew better than anyone: "A worker's tool can't just be 'useful,' it has to be 'good.'"

On old Wu's thumb, there are always three shallow scars—the marks of thirty years of controlling the depth of the rubber cut between 0.18 and 0.25 cm. "Cutting 0.1 mm too much damages the tree; cutting 0.1 mm too little reduces production," said the veteran farmer. One humid morning, he noticed that the flickering light was causing the blade to lose control. Thus was born the first generation of his flashlight, with a stabilizing device made from a bicycle bearing, ensuring stable illumination, comparable to moonlight.

Thanks to Master Wu's tireless research, the first Golden Elephant lamp was created.