Glass Message Board
Glass Discussion & Research. NO IDENTIFICATION REQUESTS here please. => British & Irish Glass => Topic started by: keith on June 25, 2013, 02:02:13 PM
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Not mine but my photo,looks like a headlight,dimensions are on the object,any ideas please, ;D ;D
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Is it not a Spiderweb bowl?
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Not a bad guess, Keith. At about 4-ins diameter these were light lenses and could have been used in a hand-held lantern, for example, and acting by focusing the light into a tighter beam - similar to lighthouse optics. But at about that size, in red, amber or green, they would have been for traffic or railway lights.
Headlight lenses have a different and more complex geometry, and were also made by Chance for Lucas headlight units.
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Can I ask about the numbers shown... I presumed that 6 3/8 D would be the diameter, so would the 3 ¾ F be the focal length of the lens?
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Thanks all,I've just spoke to my brother and he said it was sold as a railway 'light' what annoys me is he said it cost 99p !
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Yes, the 'F' indicates the focal distance.
Here's a 1946 Chance advert for traffic signal light lenses. This one is quite mundane compared to others of its adverts around the same time - they could be quite bizarre sometimes.