From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
'LEAD ON, KINDLY LIGHT': It's true to say that in the early days of motoring there was little need for vehicle lighting. The reason for this was simple - early motorists seldom ventured out after dark as their automobiles were so unreliable.
Until about 1900 candle-powered carriage lamps were sometimes fitted to cars to enable them to get home if they were delayed by a breakdown. Some motorists fitted bicycle lamps but quickly found that these could not withstand the higher speeds and their flimsy construction was easily shaken apart.
Louis Bleriot, who would later find fame as the first to fly across the English Channel, had been experimenting with acetylene gas lighting for a number of years, and entered into a collaboration with an English lamp pioneer, Henry Salsbury, to produce the first successful automobile lamp.
These 'Salsbury Bleriot' lamps were made in London and distributed widely throughout Europe. The principle was simple enough: they produced acetylene gas from a mixture of calcium carbide and water within the body of the lamp, and thus were a self-contained unit.
Joseph Lucas improved upon the original by incorporating solid brackets and vibration-proof components on his first lamp, produced in 1902 and like all his other products, manufactured in Birmingham, were sold under his 'King of the Road' brand name.
Electric headlamps had been available from as early as 1901 and Daimler were the first car manufacturer to fit these lamps as standard a year later. However, the low-wattage bulbs proved to be the Achilles heel of early electric lamps and needed frequent replacement.
It was the introduction of practical dynamos by CAV around 1905 which made the longer-lasting high-wattage bulbs useable and pointed the way forward for the development of good vehicle lighting in keeping with the speeds contemporary cars were capable of achieving.
Electric lamps also had several other advantages over acetylene lamps including ease of control, the absence of smell and smoke and general cleanliness in use. Their major drawback was cost, an installation selling for around £50, a very considerable sum for the time. As a result only the wealthiest motorists could afford electric systems, while the majority had to be content with oil or acetylene lighting systems until the first World War.
The outbreak of war gave a tremendous impetus to the development of electric lighting systems because it became essential for motor transport to play a vital role on the battlefield and it was necessary that they should be able to do so 24 hours a day.
Post-war, vehicle speeds increased greatly and night-driving became commonplace and for the first time lighting systems were included as standard equipment on most cars, stimulating the development of more cost-effective systems.
But as more and more cars took to the road at night, headlight dazzle became a problem. In 1927, Lucas introduced the first practical answer to this problem with its patented dipping reflector, while in 1930 this was further refined to allow pedestrians on the kerb to be illuminated.
It was around this time that side lights also began to be introduced to give a guide to the width of a parked vehicle. This was given legal standing in Britain in 1930 by the introduction of a requirement for vehicles to have fitted two evenly positioned headlights, two parking or side lamps and a rear number-plate light which incorporated a stop tail light.