HEADLIGHT DAZZLE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 208, 3 September 1935, Page 16

HEADLIGHT DAZZLE.

USE OF SIDE LAMPS.

What is "the precise use of eide lamps on a motor car? Are they required in order that one may see to drive by their light, or are they necessary merely to indicate the approximate width of the vehicle? It is time for these questions to receive an authoritative answer. One view is that the side lamp should not be employed to illuminate the road, for the reasons that it 'ie not normally fitted with any anti-dazzle device, is very rarely focused correctly, generally has a reflector that makes focusing difficult, if not impossible, and —in a word —is a real source of dazzle annoyance and danger through the "spraying" of its beams in an upward direction.

So long as cyclists are not bound to carry live rear lights it is exceedingly dangerous to rely on a motor vehicle's side lamps as a means of picking them out. Side lamps, also, cannot give timely warning of a pedestrian's presence. Therefore, apart from the dazzle nuisance which they accentuate, the function of side lamps should be only to show the width of the vehicle to -which they are fitted.

One simple way of preventing their employment as supplementary, uncontrollable head lamps would bo to lay it down that no side lamp should have a bulb exceeding six candle-power, and that all side lamp front glasses should be either frosted or coated with some form of translucent material, such as tissue paper, which would prevent the filament being visible.

The Hamilton Motor Cycle Club's wrestling team will meet the Auckland Club team at Auckland on September 14.

Ixion Cup. For the Ixion Cup trial, -which will be held by the Auckland Motor Cycle Club on September IS, a short course, but one that will test the skill of the riders more than the speed or reliability of their machines, has been selected by the committee. Kiders will leave from the club rooms at 10 a.m. T.T. Date. The date for the New Zealand Tourist Trophy race at Waiheke Island has been definitely fixed for January 1, an amicable agreement having been reached between tho Auckland Motor Cycle Club and the Manawatu Motor Cycle Club, who also wished to hold a meeting on that day. No decision has yet been reached on the proposal to hold the race in two classes, senior and junior, as the club is doubtful whether a sufficient number of 350 c.c. machines will be entered. In any case, however, there will be a special cash prize for the first 350 c.c. machine to finish, and if a junior class is instituted, the prize money in the senior event will remain unaltered. The rule that forbids Tidcrs to carry any tools other than those in the tool bags on their machines is to be strictly enforced this year as a safety measure. In past years many riders have carried handy spanners in their leggings, running the riek of injury should they happen to fall. Club Meeting. A meeting of the Auckland Motor Cycle Club will be held this evening.