Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/116

 Tip the Lamps to Stop Headlight Glare

��Night and a curve in the road ? Pull the lever and swing the lamps

���Casing mounted on steering postx

��1 lie lamps are set at an angle which will brightly illuminate the road without unnecessary glare

��DEVISED to eliminate the disadvan- tages of the various types of auto- mobile headlight dimmers now on the market, which either do not prevent glare or reduce the light to such an extent that it is not sufficient for country driving, a system of tilting head lamps has been invented. It enables the driver to set the lamps at any de- sired angle so that the light may shine fully up- on the road with the rays parallel or at an angle to the ground. The tipping head lamps also enable the driver to quickly se- cure the full headlight illumination after the use of the dim headlights. This is of especial im- portance in country road driving when it is essen- tial to dim the lights upon passing another vf^- hide and to resume the full brilliancy immediately

���The mechanism which moves the lamps at the pull of a lever

��afterward. Although the invention may be applied to any make of car, the design shown in the accom[)anying sketches, is particu- larly adapted to Ford automobiles and

��may be applied to them simply by the removal of the ordinary head-lamp brackets.

The device consists of one transverse shaft carrying two headlights and mounted in two bearings bolted to the front frame member in front of the radiator. A bell-crank lever arm is keyed to the shaft and is pushed backward or forward by means of a flexible metal shafting inserted through a hole cut in the radiator core and then carried to the rear under the motor hood to a point on the steering column directly below the hand wheel. The lamps are tilted downward from their vertical position by twist- ing the flexible shaft slightly on its axis so that a pin driven through it near the end on the steering column is en- abled to slide in a slot with three notches cut in the casing over the cable end. A longitudinal movement is then given to the shafting by means of a small handle so that the bell-crank lever is moved forward or back- ward. When the handle is again released, the pin will quickly spring back to the next notch by reason of the energy stored up in the flexible shafting resulting from its being twisted. A further movement of the handle tips the lamps to a still greater degree while the longitudinal movement in the opposite direction similarly brings the lamps back to their normal position. The operating lever is so easy to turn that the driver need not divert his eyes from the road to manipulate it and move the light where he wants it.

��Handle

��100

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