New Developments in Science 



593 



Westinghouse Electric Company. 



FLOODLIGHTS AT AN AIRPORT 



Floodlights are designed to spread their beams over a wide area. Notice how bril- 

 liantly the field is lighted up by these powerful lights. 



searchlights and floodlights. A searchlight is a powerful lamp, 

 usually an arc-light, which sends a narrow beam to a great dis- 

 tance. The light which guides planes to an airport is a search- 

 light, mounted on a tall steel tower and constantly turning about 

 so that its beam sweeps in a great circle. Each time the light 

 turns toward a distant pilot, he sees a flash of light. Some of the 

 searchlights used in aviation are not arc-lights, but contain power- 

 ful incandescent bulbs. Such lights are usually equipped with 

 automatic bulb changers, so that as soon as one incandescent bulb 

 burns out it is at once replaced with another. Searchlights are 

 also used on locomotives, automobiles, and ships, and wherever 

 it is desirable to light up a small area brilliantly from a distance. 



A floodlight is just the opposite from a searchlight. Instead of 

 concentrating all its light into a powerful narrow beam, it spreads 

 it out over as great an area as possible. The floodlights used in 

 airports are especially designed to spread their beams over a wide 

 radius without permitting any of them to shine upward into an 

 aviator's eyes. 



Floodlights have many uses besides those connected with 

 aviation. Fire departments use them, as well as searchlights, to 

 light up the scene of a night fire and make the work of fighting 

 it easier. Many wrecking trains are also equipped with floodlights 

 for use when wreckage must be removed from the tracks at night. 



