On Fri, 6 Jul 2001, Tony Duell wrote:
> > > optically. It had a car headlamp bulb and a row of
> I can cofirm from practical experience that the Elliot optical _paper
> tape_ reader uses a bulb that looks a lot like a car headlamp bulb. I
> don't mean a sealed-beam unit, of course. A single-filament lamp about 1"
> in diameter and 2" long, with a flange mounting and a single contact on
> the end of the base. 48W IIRC. While I can't confirm that this card reader
> used anything similar, I think it's possible.
Yes, indeed. Two peoples separated by a common language. In the US,
"headlamp bulb" MEANS "sealed beam". The US mandated sealed beams. At
the time, it was as hard to get a non-sealed beam headlamp as it was to
find an acetylene lamp (which would be as likely to be what was referred
to when saying "headlamp".)
Once found, a non-sealed beam bulb would be a fine choice for such a
device. BTW, relatively recently non-sealed beam halogen units became
legal, finally.
> In the UK, the typical taillight bulb is 5W. It's often part of a
> twin-filament bulb, 5W tail light, 21W brake light.
> There's also a single-filament 21W bulb used for the turn signal. That's
> the bulb that was commonly used in later optical paper tape readers in
> the UK.
In the US, in typical sloppiness of language, the automotive parts
industry lumps together under the heading "taillight": brake light, turn
signal, backup light, and RUNNING light (which is what y'all more
accurately call "taillight".) Even the FRONT turn signal bulbs are
grouped as "taillights".
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
Received on Fri Jul 06 2001 - 22:57:03 BST