Dimming Headlights

On the old 1930s and 1940s era automobiles there was a pedal at the extreme left side of the floor board which the driver used to switch the headlights from high beam to low beam.

When my Aunt Lena got a Buick Super (three portholes instead of the 4 portholes of a Roadmaster) in the early 1950s, her car had an “automatic dimming” feature on it. A device on the dash was pointed forward and would register when a bright light came toward it and dim the headlights. This device was not perfect and often would dim the headlights from the return off a white building or a white billboard along the highway.

I don’t think we have such a device today. The dimmer switch has moved from the floorboard to one of the handles along the steering wheel which also is used for the windshield wipers and washers.

The automatic dimming feature just wasn’t that reliable and has disappeared from today’s models.