Conrad Hubert (15 April 1856 – 14 March 1928) was a Russian-American inventor known for electric flashlights. He was the son of Belarusian Jewish parents who were distillers and wine producers as were their ancestors.

Hubert attended Hebrew school when he was a boy. In 1868, at the age of thirteen, Hubert went to Berlin to study liquor distillation. While at this vocational school for 6 years he worked at odd jobs for subsistence. 

In 1874 he returned to Minsk and became a partner in his father's business. In the next 15 years they branched out to various cities throughout Russia. Hubert had built up a reputation as an excellent businessman. Because of the Russian persecution of Jews however, Hubert at the age of 35 decided to move to the United States in 1890.

He liquidated all of his commercial property and turned it into cash. The cash, however, was barely enough to buy passage to the United States.  He arrived at Ellis Island in 1891 and, like many other immigrants, without knowing anybody. One of the first things he did then was change his birth name from Akiba Horowitz to Conrad Hubert.

The electric hand torch, better known as the flashlight, is an invention with a handle and light on it. With the push of a button, the light turns on. 

Conrad Hubert invented the electric hand torch in 1898. The electric hand torch is now called the flashlight. It started as a battery powered flower pot! When you flip a switch it made the flower light up! Soon Mr. Hubert changed the flowerpot into the world’s first electric hand torch! 

According to slideplayer.com