A headlamp is a lamp connected to the front of a automobile to illuminate the road ahead. Headlamps are additionally usually called headlights, EcoLight energy however in probably the most exact utilization, headlamp is the term for the machine itself and headlight is the term for the beam of light produced and distributed by the device. Headlamp efficiency has steadily improved throughout the car age, spurred by the nice disparity between daytime and EcoLight nighttime site visitors fatalities: the US National Freeway Visitors Security Administration states that nearly half of all visitors-associated fatalities occur in the dead of night, regardless of solely 25% of site visitors travelling throughout darkness. Other automobiles, EcoLight energy similar to trains and aircraft, are required to have headlamps. Bicycle headlamps are sometimes used on bicycles, and are required in some jurisdictions. They can be powered by a battery or a small generator like a bottle or EcoLight energy hub dynamo. The primary horseless carriages used carriage lamps, which proved unsuitable for EcoLight bulbs travel at pace.

The earliest lights used candles as the commonest sort of gasoline. The earliest headlamps, fuelled by combustible gasoline comparable to acetylene fuel or EcoLight energy oil, operated from the late 1880s. Acetylene gas lamps have been in style in 1900s as a result of the flame is resistant to wind and rain. Thick concave mirrors combined with magnifying lenses projected the acetylene flame gentle. A number of automobile manufacturers supplied Prest-O-Lite calcium carbide acetylene fuel generator cylinder with gasoline feed pipes for lights as standard equipment for 1904 automobiles. The primary electric headlamps had been launched in 1898 on the Columbia Electric Automotive from the Electric Vehicle Firm of Hartford, Connecticut, and EcoLight had been non-obligatory. Two elements restricted the widespread use of electric headlamps: the brief life of filaments in the cruel automotive atmosphere, and the issue of producing dynamos small enough, yet highly effective sufficient to produce adequate present. Peerless made electric headlamps standard in 1908. A Birmingham, England firm known as Pockley Vehicle Electric Lighting Syndicate marketed the world's first electric automobile-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 built-in their car's Delco electrical ignition and lighting system, forming the fashionable vehicle electrical system. The Guide Lamp Firm introduced "dipping" (low-beam) headlamps in 1915, but the 1917 Cadillac system allowed the sunshine to be dipped utilizing a lever contained in the automobile fairly than requiring the driver to stop and get out. The 1924 Bilux bulb was the first modern unit, having the sunshine for EcoLight smart bulbs both low (dipped) and excessive (predominant) beams of a headlamp emitting from a single bulb. An analogous design was launched in 1925 by Guide Lamp referred to as the "Duplo". In 1927 the foot-operated dimmer change or dip change was introduced and became customary for much 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", "nation driving" and "city driving". The 1934 Nash also used a 3-beam system, though in this case with bulbs of the conventional two-filament sort, and the intermediate beam combined low beam on the driver's side with excessive beam on the passenger's side, so as to maximise the view of the roadside while minimizing glare towards oncoming traffic.

1952 "Autronic Eye" system automated the number of excessive and low beams. Directional lighting, using a swap and electromagnetically shifted reflector to illuminate the curbside solely, was introduced within the rare, one-12 months-only 1935 Tatra. Steering-linked lighting was featured on the 1947 Tucker Torpedo's middle-mounted headlight and was later popularized by the Citroën DS. This made it doable to turn the sunshine within the path of journey when the steering wheel turned. The standardized 7-inch (178 mm) spherical sealed-beam headlamp, one per side, EcoLight energy was required for all autos offered within the United States from 1940, just about freezing usable lighting technology in place till the 1970s for EcoLight solutions Individuals. In 1957 the regulation modified to permit smaller 5.75-inch (146 mm) round sealed beams, two per side of the automobile, and EcoLight energy in 1974 rectangular sealed beams had been permitted as well. Britain, Australia, and some other Commonwealth countries, as well as Japan and Sweden, also made intensive use of 7-inch sealed beams, although they were not mandated as they were in the United States.