Object Record
Images
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Metadata
Object Name |
Component, Rail Vehicle |
Title |
Fresnel Lens in Housing Can Assembly |
Date |
ca 1900 |
Description |
Clear Fresnel lens for a rail car headlamp. The lens is encircled with a rubber gasket and black retainer ring. This assembly is then bolted into a steel housing can. The housing can and retainer ring are catalogued as CP.2005.CL.1-78. The Fresnel lens, created from a 19th century lighthouse technology and mounted on the front of a rail car, provided an extremely bright beam of light that lit up the tracks, at night, for several hundred feet. The glass lens has a plano-convex center surrounded by ring-shaped prisms that project the light beams in parallel beams. For more information about headlamps and headlamp parts, see 'Electric Railway Dictionary - Definitions and Illustrations of the Parts and Equipment of Electric Railway Cars and Trucks', by Rodney Hitt. Free Google Book at: https://books.google.com/books?id=7z07AAAAMAAJ&pg=PP7&dq=Electric+Railway+Dictionary+by+Rodney+Hitt&hl=en&ppis=_c&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiA3f-O68blAhUSZKwKHWRuDvgQ6AEwAHoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=Electric%20Railway%20Dictionary%20by%20Rodney%20Hitt&f=false |
Owned By |
Texas Electric Railway |
Used By |
Reflect/Refract Light |
Material |
Glass |
Dimensions |
D-5.5 Dia-13.75 Cir-42.75 inches |
Collector |
Cook, Hermon C., Sr. |
Search Terms |
Fresnel Lens Headlamp Parts |
Collection |
Hermon C. Cook Collection |
Catalog Number |
CP.2005.CL.3-77 |