....3 large markets have RHD: U.K. Australia and Japan.
So, was there another sealed beam requirement before the U.S.?
South Africa was the other big market for RHD
Mike and Garry,
here is a link to a W111 Fintail built in Germany for the SA market, it has the Euro style lamps, no sealed beams.
https://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C1072372In a long and detailed article on headlamp evolution:
https://www.revolvy.com/page/Headlamp?reload=1&_=385463it is stated that: "
Britain, Australia, and some other Commonwealth countries, as well as Japan and Sweden, also made extensive use of 7-inch sealed beams, though they were not mandated as they were in the United States.[8]"
Reference
8 mentions somewhat sarcastically that:
"In 1940, the American auto industry standardized on the 7-inch circular sealed beam headlight. There were to be two of these hermetically sealed lens-reflector-bulb modules on each vehicle, a system that quickly became enshrined in Federal law as the only type allowed. This standardization solved some significant problems with the previous system of unsealed, non-standardized headlights — some used specialized reflectors, lenses, and bulbs that had no way to be aimed other than a wild guess — but it also put a hard stop to progress in automotive lighting in North America.
Technological advancements in the field remained off-limits to American drivers for years — decades — after they became standard equipment for drivers in Europe and elsewhere. The first automotive halogen headlight bulb, for example, was released in 1962 after having been cooperatively developed by a working group of French, German, and Italian bulb and headlight makers. The headlights were filled with a halogen gas such as iodine or bromine and the inert gas let the filament run hotter, making the headlights more powerful, efficient, and compact than standard units. But they were banned in the U.S., where non-halogen sealed beam headlights (produced almost exclusively by a small number of American makers) remained the only type permitted until 1979. That's when halogenized sealed beams became available, but American drivers still couldn't see any better with the improved bulbs; automakers chose instead to use the extra halogen efficiency to reduce the headlights' wattage while keeping the beam performance above the legal minimum,
enabling the use of cheaper, thinner wires and lighter-duty headlight switches."
When it comes to glare US standards are still behind the rest of the world (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automotive_lighting#Dipped_beam_(low_beam,_passing_beam,_meeting_beam):
"UN Regulations for headlamps specify a beam with a sharp, asymmetric cutoff preventing significant amounts of light from being cast into the eyes of drivers of preceding or oncoming cars.[8][9] Control of glare is less strict in the United States-based Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) beam standard. It is contained in Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard 108 (FMVSS / CMVSS 108)."Daniel Stern - whose beam setting alignment procedure we have linked here
https://www.sl113.org/wiki/Electrical/Lights - has been for many years an advocate for change of Standard 108:
https://www.danielsternlighting.com/nhtsa/NHTSA.htmlbut he concluded: "
The public was allowed to vent via the public comment period, and then, as happened with the agency's nominal interest in reducing glare from overly-bright daytime running lights, the docket was quietly closed and nothing was done."
