If the eyes lose their light, the world in front of them will be dark. That’s right for humans, and it’s right for cars.
Since Carl Benz, the father of automobile, created the first automobile, people’s life has changed dramatically. In the development process of more than 100 years, the process, materials and technology are constantly upgrading, and the automotive lighting technology is also constantly upgrading.
From today’s point of view, as a bright night ahead, the performance of car headlamps is strong enough. Mercedes Benz has improved the LED technology, BMW and Audi have continuously improved the laser performance. With the development of science and technology, the performance of automobile headlights is also developing. But what about the lights of history? Brother, I want to bring you together today.
Kerosene lamp and acetylene lamp
Don’t be surprised, before the birth of the first car in the true sense, that is, as early as the 19th century era of horse drawn carriage, there were lights.
In fact, there was no electricity at that time, there were no street lights on the road, and the carriage was very inconvenient and dangerous to drive at night. Therefore, the car began to be equipped with lights, but at this time, all the lights in the car were powered by kerosene or candles, and only a few lights had the spotlight function, so the lighting range was very limited. Fortunately, the speed of the carriage was not high at that time, and the weak light could illuminate the road ahead and warn passers-by.
However, due to the low luminous efficiency, kerosene lamp was soon replaced by acetylene lamp. Although there were electric lights later, the carbon wires inside couldn’t withstand the bumps of the road, nor could they be used in cars. After that, there were other light sources, but for various reasons, they didn’t succeed. Only acetylene lamp became the stable light source of the early lamp, and it was used until 1925.
However, with the development of automobile, the shortcomings of acetylene lamp gradually exposed. First of all, the acetylene lamp relies on the burning light, which is easily submerged by the rain on the road. Driving in bad weather has become a nightmare for drivers. Secondly, the durability of acetylene lamp is not better than incandescent lamp. In addition, acetylene combustion will produce a lot of alkali stone. This kind of harmful substance with the function of dissolving protein can produce strong irritation and corrosiveness on the skin, resulting in adverse reactions such as shock and gastric perforation.
Acetylene lamp on Ford t
Incandescent / halogen lamps
In 1913, the United States first applied incandescent lamps to Cadillac’s headlights, but due to the poor filament technology, it was in trouble. It wasn’t until 1925 that cars really entered the age of incandescent lighting. However, due to the low luminous efficiency of ordinary incandescent lamp, halogen lamp was born in 1960 and has been used up to now.
Halogen lamp is also a kind of incandescent lamp, is an upgraded version of incandescent lamp. Halogen lamps use high melting point tungsten wires and inject halogen elements (such as iodine or bromine) into the tubes. When used, the tungsten wire will sublimate at high temperature, and the halogen element after sublimation will solidify on the tungsten wire, thus prolonging the service life of the bulb.
Now, many of the older or lower end models you see on the road are still using halogen lamps as headlight sources
Although halogen bulb has longer life and more durable service life than traditional incandescent bulb, halogen bulb still adopts the principle of filament heating and then emitting light, so its high calorific value, power consumption and low illumination are still its insurmountable congenital defects. People put forward higher requirements for automobile headlamp, and xenon headlamp has higher brightness, lower energy consumption and longer service life. The first model equipped with xenon headlights was the new Mercedes Benz E-class launched in 1995.
Unlike incandescent lamps, xenon headlamps can increase the vehicle’s 12V voltage to more than 23000V through electronic ballasts, and then xenon can be ionized to form arc discharge. The color temperature of xenon lamp is close to the sunshine at noon, which can provide a more comfortable observation environment for the driver.
LED lights were first used in cars in 2008, but they were only used in Audi A4 tail lights at that time. In 2010, Audi’s flagship car used LED lamp as the headlamp for the first time.
On the basis of xenon headlamp, LED headlamp improves brightness and reduces energy consumption again. At the same time, compared with xenon headlamp, LED lamp has the advantages of fast response and various shapes. Finally, Audi became a “lamp factory” by virtue of its numerous innovations in the field of LED headlights.
Although laser headlamps sound full of sense of future technology, they are in the same era as LED headlamps. However, some car manufacturers are still focusing on the development of LED headlamps (e.g. Mercedes Benz), while some car manufacturers are starting to develop laser headlamps (e.g. BMW and Audi).
The first mass production vehicle equipped with laser headlamp BMW I8
The light source of the LED headlamp is guided, and the light source of the laser headlamp is the laser diode. Compared with LED headlamp, laser headlamp has obvious advantages in response speed, brightness attenuation, energy consumption, volume, life and so on. However, due to its high price, it is only equipped with top flagship models of luxury brands.
Whether it is kerosene lamp, acetylene lamp, halogen lamp, xenon lamp, or LED lamp and laser lamp, it has broad development prospects. They have witnessed the development of automotive headlamp technology. There may be more advanced lighting technology in the future, let’s wait and see
