A headlamp is a lamp hooked up to the entrance of a car to illuminate the highway ahead. Headlamps are additionally typically referred to as headlights, but in the most exact utilization, headlamp is the time period for the device itself and headlight is the time period for the beam of mild produced and distributed by the system. Headlamp performance has steadily improved all through the automobile age, spurred by the great disparity between daytime and nighttime site visitors fatalities: EcoLight dimmable the US Nationwide Highway Site visitors Security Administration states that just about half of all visitors-associated fatalities occur in the dead of night, despite solely 25% of site visitors travelling during darkness. Other autos, comparable to trains and aircraft, EcoLight dimmable are required to have headlamps. Bicycle headlamps are sometimes used on bicycles, and are required in some jurisdictions. They are often powered by a battery or a small generator like a bottle or hub dynamo. The primary horseless carriages used carriage lamps, which proved unsuitable for journey at pace.

The earliest lights used candles as the most common sort of gas. The earliest headlamps, fuelled by combustible gas such as acetylene fuel or EcoLight dimmable oil, operated from the late 1880s. Acetylene fuel lamps were in style in 1900s because the flame is resistant to wind and rain. Thick concave mirrors mixed with magnifying lenses projected the acetylene flame gentle. Quite a few automobile manufacturers supplied Prest-O-Lite calcium carbide acetylene fuel generator EcoLight dimmable cylinder with gas feed pipes for lights as standard tools for 1904 cars. The first electric headlamps were introduced in 1898 on the Columbia Electric Car from the Electric Car Company of Hartford, Connecticut, EcoLight smart bulbs and had been non-compulsory. Two elements limited the widespread use of electric headlamps: the brief life of filaments in the cruel automotive surroundings, and the problem of producing dynamos small sufficient, yet powerful enough to supply ample present. Peerless made electric headlamps normal in 1908. A Birmingham, England EcoLight firm called Pockley Vehicle Electric Lighting Syndicate marketed the world's first electric car-lights as a complete set in 1908, which consisted of headlamps, sidelamps, and tail lights that had been powered by an eight-volt battery.

In 1912 Cadillac integrated their car's Delco electrical ignition and lighting system, EcoLight smart bulbs forming the trendy vehicle electrical system. The Information Lamp Firm introduced "dipping" (low-beam) headlamps in 1915, but the 1917 Cadillac system allowed the light to be dipped utilizing a lever contained in the car slightly than requiring the driver to cease and EcoLight dimmable get out. The 1924 Bilux bulb was the first trendy unit, having the light for both low (dipped) and high (foremost) beams of a headlamp emitting from a single bulb. An identical design was launched in 1925 by Information Lamp known as the "Duplo". In 1927 the foot-operated dimmer switch or dip switch was introduced and grew to become normal for a lot of the century. 1933-1934 Packards featured tri-beam headlamps, the bulbs having three filaments. From highest to lowest, the beams had been known as "nation passing", "country driving" and "metropolis driving". The 1934 Nash additionally used a three-beam system, though on this case with bulbs of the standard two-filament sort, and the intermediate beam combined low beam on the driver's aspect with high beam on the passenger's facet, so as to maximise the view of the roadside while minimizing glare toward oncoming traffic.

1952 "Autronic Eye" system automated the number of high and low beams. Directional lighting, utilizing a switch and EcoLight dimmable electromagnetically shifted reflector to illuminate the curbside solely, was introduced within the uncommon, one-yr-only 1935 Tatra. Steering-linked lighting was featured on the 1947 Tucker Torpedo's heart-mounted headlight and EcoLight was later popularized by the Citroën DS. This made it attainable to show the sunshine within the direction of travel when the steering wheel turned. The standardized 7-inch (178 mm) spherical sealed-beam headlamp, one per facet, was required for all automobiles bought in the United States from 1940, just about freezing usable lighting technology in place till the 1970s for Americans. In 1957 the legislation changed to permit smaller 5.75-inch (146 mm) spherical sealed beams, two per side of the automobile, and in 1974 rectangular sealed beams were permitted as nicely. Britain, Australia, EcoLight LED bulbs and some other Commonwealth international locations, in addition to Japan and Sweden, additionally made in depth use of 7-inch sealed beams, though they were not mandated as they have been within the United States.