GLARING HEADLIGHTS

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 23 September 1933, Page 12

GLARING HEADLIGHTS

CLEAR VISION IMPOSSIBLE. | NOVEL REMEDY SUGGESTED. 4 It is well known that the traffic <S dangers caused by 7 glaring headlights <3 remain one of the most serious uno solved problems of motoring. Now X that speeds of cars are fast, it is <5 essential that bright driving lights A should be carried, and that there 9 j should be an adequately long projoc<j tion of the illumination; but these conditions, despite ingenious devices, have 5 not been satisfactorily 7 reconciled to the suppression of glare. A novel remedy has been propounded by 7 an American engineer, Mr. E. L. Elliott, who is a prominent member of the Illuminating Engineering Society 7 of the United States. His contention is, act cording to reports, that if the interior of the car is brightly lighted during night driving, the motorist’s eyes become adapted to intense illumination, and he does not experience the same embarrassment as when the interior of the vehicle is in darkness and he has suddenly to adjust his vision to the . bright glare of the headlamps of an •approaching car. His theory, which, it is claimed, has been vindicated by careful experiments, is that the ey 7 e , is similar to a photographic camera, , and that the sensation of glare ex1 1 perienced by motorists when meeting ; i, bright headlamps is comparable to photographic over-exposure, which is '■ s often guarded against bv reducing the I > aperture of the camera. lens. i In the case of the human, being the 1 eye automatically adjusts itself to ; 1 varying intensities of illumination, and I reference is made to the sensation i which a person experiences when sud-/f denly emerging from a brightly lighted 1 room into the night, and vice versa, s The report adds; “The practice of I keeping the interior of a car dark dur- i ing night travel is, according to Mr. i Elliott, the greatest handicap to clear j vision and safe night driving. He 1 suggests that the veiling of the car ..body should be white, or a very 7 light v tint, and a simple sy 7 stem of indirect v lighting should be installed to throw c a relatively bright light against the s ceiling, at the same time keeping it s out of the occupants of the car. This n results in the eyes of the driver being o kept in such a condition of light adapt- b ation that the bright beams of an on- o coming car cause no serious ineonveni- f< ence. Further, when the other vehicle a has passed, the transition does nob w leave the driver temporarily unable a to see clearly. One of the greatest fi menaces of lamp glare is thus over- e come Mr. Elliott lias tested his novel ji plan and states that it is successful.” u