DASHBOARD MAY DAZZLE

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22306, 21 January 1938, Page 8

DASHBOARD MAY DAZZLE

INSTRUMENTS TOO BRIGHTLY LIT A fault with many cars is that the illumination of the driving instruments., even though it be of the indirect sort, is far too bright, and after some time tends to dazzle the driver and interfere with his view of the road. In one case, the lighting was so bad in this regard, that the driver found a reflection of the two brightly illuminated dials rising in front of him on the screen and was forced to the expedient of pasting paper over them, as there was no separate instrument light switch. ~..., It is essential, however, that the instruments should have some illumination, so that the oil gauge and ammeter can be seen, while a view of the speedometer is essential. As it is now. however, many drivers switch the instruments off at nght. The problem is solved in an excellent way in some British cars, and the idea is so good that there seems no reason why it cannot be applied to other models. Briefly, the instrument light switch is a rheostat, by means of which the degree of illumination can be varied to suit the man behind the wheel. A rheostat is not a very expensive device (those commonly used in radio should be excellent for the purpose), and there would be little difficulty in introducing it in the instrument board lighting circuit. It is operated by turning a small knob.