Smoothest, and best, store purchased Joule Thief I have seen yet.

[Legalizeshemp420]

Yep, the chip is a little low-power square-wave oscillator.
Which gives me an idea. A friend of mine gave me a bunch of these:
http://www.surplus-electronics-sales.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38&products_id=589
They need a 5v supply but make a very nice accurate and clean square wave output.

Isn't that a sine wave oscillator?

[TinselKoala]

Isn't that a sine wave oscillator?

That one may be, sorry. I have the MTO version which is definitely a square wave. The distortions you see are caused by my casual hookup.

[Legalizeshemp420]

Hmmm, that is kinda nice even with the distortion.  Maybe use it in a pulse generator?

Where did you find the documentation for your version at?

[TinselKoala]

Here's the closest thing to a "data sheet" I could find.

[Legalizeshemp420]

btw, I just did a freq measurement on that circuit I showed for the sq. wave osc and it had a period of 180.162 ms.  That comes out to be about 5.5hz using my flashlight.  In direct sun I have no idea what this would be at.