Re: arc headlights and dynamos

Posted by John Greenly on
URL: http://c-sng-discussion-forum.254.s1.nabble.com/arc-headlights-and-dynamos-tp15165p15204.html

Hey Jim,

this is excellent!   What great photos!  Your chronology looks good to me from the photo evidence.   I think in general, as I suggested before, that we can guess that headlights after 1915 with electric cables and generators but no blinds were likely incandescents and not arc lamps.   On the other hand, the earliest electrified headlights, any before 1913 for sure, installed in existing headlights replacing kerosene lamps were almost certainly arcs.  And of course in any year headlights without generators on the boiler were almost certainly kerosene.  Looks like all your photo evidence fits this scheme.  So on the narrow gauge there may not have been arc lamps in any headlights- but I'll keep watch for evidence to the contrary!

By the way, if you look at the technical reference that I gave in an earlier post, you'll see how the Pyle arc lamps were configured. They were vertically long and narrow.  It looks as if they could have been quite straightforward to fit in either the round or box  headlights as a replacement for the kerosene lamp and its chimney.  I suppose probably made that way on purpose!

John