Locomotive head lights...

[Anonymous]

Not to sound like a total idiot, but could someone out there tell me what year electric head lights were put into service on locomotives, and what did they use before that - high powered lanterns ?.

"Thanks"

trainluver1

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by SDR_North

You may find the following information illuminating.

http://www.ideashelper.com/railway_headlamp_history.htm

Thank you SDR_North. I did indeed find the site "very illuminating"... I've always wondered about that, but never got around to asking until now.

Again, thanks.

trainluver1

[Glen Ellyn]

??

[miniwyo]

Im confused

[Overmod]

A bunch of problems with the provided link -- you can gauge for yourself the author's knowledge of actual railroading by the implied assertion that xenon strobes are the only suitable technology for what we know as ditch lights...

I believe you will find that (as the author indicates, but not for quite the reasons he indicates) the acceptance of electric headlights depended upon the development of practical and cost-effective steam-driven generators for their power supply, not so much on the technology that produces the light itself.

I would suspect that one of the 'prime' technologies for headlights prior to the commercialization of electric technology would be carbide (acetylene), as is seen in contemporary automotive practice. I would not expect anything requiring periodic manual pressurization (e.g. white-gas lanterns) to be particularly suitable for critical railroad service -- although I would expect the use of calcium lights (aka 'limelights' for fans of older theatre lighting!) to have been tried in service.

Older lamps still would have used whale oil, and later coal oil, as the 'active ingredient' -- the reason for the very large reflector sizes used in older headlights can be attributed to the relatively low intensity and low color temperature (corresponding to less visible-wavelength light intensity) of these devices. (I would note, however, that you can generate a relatively bright flame from some oil-lamp technologies (cf. the Argand lamp) and imho it would be a mistake to assume that older lamps did not provide good forward lighting.)

As a side note, I have seen a number of older illustrations that appear to indicate that, on some locomotives at least, the reflector was aimed to produce a fairly spot-focused beam pointing down at the rails some distance in front of the locomotive. Whether this was just an illustrator's view of the actual optical 'goings-on', I can't say (certainly there's enough wishful thinking in the way exhaust is depicted in many of these illustrations!) but in light of some of the comments made in the above link regarding headlight purpose (pun not intended) it may be possible that the lights were intended more for trackwork illumination than collision avoidance -- this appears to make eminent sense if my understanding of the (generally much lower) standards of American ROW in the 19th Century are right...

[dldance]

Remember that the lights in light houses were also whale or coal oil and with the optics used - these could be seen at sea for miles.

dd