Q Could you tell me where! can obtain detailed information on vehicle lights and reflectors?
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A The vehicle lighting regulations them' selves are confusing because they are spread over so many documents going back as far as the Road Transport Lighting Act 1957.
Joseph Lucas has produced an excellent guide to the lighting regulations applicable in Gt Britain and Northern Ireland to all mechanically propelled vehicles. A summary of the regulations and a list of definitions of terms used are included and each section contains diagrams showing where and how lamps, reflectors, direction indicators and long-load projection markers should be fitted.
Copies of the book are obtainable from Joseph Lucas (Sales and Service) Ltd, Great Hampton Street, Birmingham 18, price 25p. QWhen referring back to regulations
concerning vehicle lighting, I have found that there appears to be no consistency with regard to the use of the words lamp and
light. This situation is made even more confusing by textbooks which talk of sidelights and headlamps or side/amps and headlights. Could you tell me if there is any clear distinction between one and the other and what the official view is on the correct description of lights and lamps? A It is certainly true that there has been
no recognized pattern in the use of these terms in the past either in regulations or other publications. We understand from the DoE that this matter is one that is receiving its attention and in future regulations will refer to the unit which produces the light as the lamp and the light emitted as the light. Here are two examples: "headlamps which emit a white light to the front of the vehicle", "rear lamps which emit a red light to the rear of the vehicle".