Golden Glow?

[Fred W. Schneider III]

There were all sorts of lights and ways to dim them.  Some of the brightest that I've
ever seen (on a CA&E car at Seashore) were carbon arc lamps which would light up the
next town down the right of way and were dimmed mechanically by hanging a curtain or a
dimmer baffle over the arcs.

If any of you are familiar with old movie theater projection technology; you might
recall that the projectors used the electricity jumping from one carbon rod to
another, consuming the roads in about an hour, and producing an incredibily brilliant
white light.  Same idea.  They used mechanical flaps to turn the arc on and off (one
started the arc about a minute before jumping to the incoming reel of film, allowed it
to stabilize, and then opened the flap).  A similar shutter was used automatically in
case of a film jam ... this was a hang-over from the days of highly combustable and
highly toxic sodium-nitrate film stocks (I've been told that a 20 minute roll of 35 mm
film, more than 15 inches in diameter, could go up in a very hot fire in 20 seconds).

There were also very high wattage bulbs in reflectors ... look at the one we hang on
3756 at Arden for night operation.

Finally, think of railroad locomotives.  Many of those lights were nothing more than
grade crossing protection devices because you sure couldn't see with them.  I'm
thinking back to my days as a fireman on the Strasburg Rail Road.  It was after the
NRHS picnic.  A official decision had been made to run faster than normal (that
happened once in a while).  I was firing.  I think John was running about 40 to 45
miles per hour with the former Pennsyl D16sb.  And I couldn't see a damn thing more
than a few feet ahead of the coupler.  The only consolidation was that, day or night,
we knew the railroad and didn't have to see it.  And there was absolutely no way you
could stop a train within the headlight beam, let alone within 1/100th of it.

Kenneth and Tracie Josephson wrote:

>
>
> I wonder how the old interurban motormen could see during the night prior to
> spotlight equipped cars? :-)  Did the older intrurbans have the low and high
> switch to dim the headlight for street running?  Ken J.