Lucas Military Vehicle Headlamp L-WD-H1-R

[Flying10uk]

One of the many items that my late father purchased from the local government surplus store, in the late 1940's or 1950's was this British military vehicle headlamp, L-WD-H1-R. As I understand it this type of headlamp was in use during WW2 on British military vehicles but with a mask to deflect the light downwards. The reason for purchasing this lamp was to use it as an auxiliary driving lamp and a fog lamp on a number of vehicles and possibly also motorcycles.

[Low & Slow]

Interesting piece. I could see why he picked it up, could have many uses, especially in those days. What voltage is the bulb?
I will refrain from inserting a crass Lucas electrical "joke".

[Sapper740]

I will refrain from inserting a crass Lucas electrical "joke".

Well. I won't, having suffered at the hands of the "Prince of Darkness" many times! My absolute worst experience with Lucas electrics was a Vauxhall Firenza I bought in the '70's. Some clown decided that putting the windshield wipers and the headlights on the same fuse was a good idea, the problem was the windshield wipers kept shorting out and blowing the fuse, but only in the rain! Imagine driving a car during the dark, dreary, and very wet Winters in British Columbia that at any moment would lose both windshield wipers and headlights! I sold that piece of junk as fast as I could!

[Flying10uk]

Thanks for the relies chaps. One of the other items that my father purchased post WW2 from the surplus store was a daylight signalling lamp, just the lamp part. This was also used as an auxiliary vehicle/motorcycle lamp, as a spot lamp, and was very good for this purpose with it's curved mirror reflector. It was last used as a hand held spot light and as such I still have it. Please see pics below.

Lucas electrics were very well known in the UK for vehicle electrics but I believe it was the vehicle manufacturer that normally designed the vehicle's electrical wiring system/layout, not Lucas. Lucas, as far as I am aware, only made the components such as light units, starter motors, dynamos and so on. Not all vehicle manufacturers, in the past, incorporated a fuse in the headlamp/lighting circuit, i.e. sometimes there was no fuse in the headlight/lighting circuit for the very reason given above, but obviously this increased the chance of a fire if there was a short circuit.