When we are driving in the nighttime, they are one thing that we must do and that is on the car headlight. With the modern-day car, we may no need to on the headlight as most of the car is equipped with automatic headlight once the sensor detects the changes of the day and night which equaled the low light situation. The headlight like the brake component, windscreen, mirror, tire, and many other components also had evolved according to the time. Let us see how it all started.
It all started in the early 19th century. The early years of car headlight use the acetylene a hydrocarbon chemical compound and it also can be called as carbide lamps. It is highly unstable and must be handled with the care by the professional during that era. Although the acetylene still used by cavers and miners today but when comes to the car headlight it is not suitable as the light can be scattered around reducing the capabilities to illuminate the road effectively.
Due to unstable nature and the effectiveness of this type of headlight in 1900 comes the electric headlight. The electric headlights were introduced by Peerless Motor Company in their car model named Peerless in 1903. Peerless Motor Company although it had started the electric headlight it was Cadillac Motor who introduced the integration of the car electrical system with a car lighting setup which had been the foundation for the present car. Amazingly, the electrical system with the lighting setup had started in the year 1912 and continues in the modern-day car with some advancement of technologies.
In the past, the car headlight was designed were not the same on every car. Each car manufacturer had designed the car headlamp according to their preferences which are not standardized. Due to these, sealed beam headlight was introduced in 1939 that uses a parabolic reflector with the light filament and the headlight lean seal together. A parabolic reflector means a curved mirror that will focus on the light. Like the Cadillac electronic integration will also include the car lighting setup, the sealed beam headlight also become a common feature in the modern-day cars.
With a sealed beam headlight design, comes another component that will be widely used until the introduction of High-Density headlight. In 1962, the halogen light was introduced by an Italian auto manufacturer. The halogen light had quickly become popular in Europe as it provides even brighter and longer-lasting headlights. This is possible as halogen prevents the car light tungsten blackening the surface of the tungsten glass that will lead the car headlight to last longer. Although in the European markets the halogen had become popular, it had made a late entry in the US. Only in 1978 that the halogen is widely used in the US and it had been regulated by the US transport department and since then most of the cars around the world are fixed with the halogen headlamp.
With the car manufacturers, continuously finding a way to innovate and improve their new product in 1991 BMW 7 Series comes another headlight evolution. It is the xenon headlamp or better known as a High-Intensity Discharge (HID) headlamp. These types of headlamp produce light by creating an electrical arc between two metal electrodes through an inert gas, inside a glass bulb. The advantages of this type of headlamp are they can create more light compared to with little power consumption. Due to these, the headlamp can be smaller without impacting lighting capabilities of the car headlamp hence this can make the car manufacturer design the car headlamp more creatively. The HID in what becomes a common thing in luxury cars had become a compulsory item in most of the modern cars. The HID headlamp, however, had its disadvantages, as it needs a specific assembly line to ensure the light source is focused in the correct place.
We only illuminate the car headlight during night-time however Audi had changed these entire concepts by introducing the daytime LED running headlight in 2004 when they had introduced it in their 2004 Audi A8 model. The LED had many advantages as they are bright, required very little energy and able to last in a very long time. Audi had been continuing to pioneer the LED light until they had made a significant evolution in them as in 2007 Audi R8 becomes the first car to use a fully LED headlight. The daytime LED running headlight now had been a common feature in every modern car as it looks impressive and given the car a unique look in the daytime.
Like Audi who had introduced the daytime LED running headlight in 2004, BMW had proceeded to make another evolution in the headlight. In 2014, the BMW i8 which was launched had introduced the laser headlight which claimed to be 30 percent more efficient than the LED and can illuminate up to 2000 meters. Due to the efficiency of the laser headlight, BMW had fixed this laser headlight in their BMW 7 Series 2017 model. In the future, like the LED daytime running headlight, the laser headlight also can be featured in every model.
Not only the sources of the headlamp had seen an evolution, but the many advancements had happened in the car headlight. The modern-day car had been equipped with the auto-dimming headlight where the car sensor will detect situations or any changes in the day and night and dimming the headlight via switching the headlight to low or high beam automatically without the need of the car user input. Another advancement is the active cornering headlight where the light will illuminate according to the steering movement of the car user enable them to see clearer during cornering on the road.
The car headlamp had been evolved from the unstable acetylene light to the latest laser technologies. It is due to car manufacture continuous improvement in making the headlight better according to the time and technology advancement. They are more evolution and innovation that will be expected to be introduced in the future.