What I Have:
18" Golden Glow headlight, I believe is from a Russell plow. Originally yellow, no hood, and never had numbers on the windows.
I am looking for pictures, or information, on how the reflector is mounted inside the housing. I have threaded tabs, but no reflector. I believe there should be some sort of mounting ring that I am missing.
I am also looking for a reflector and lens. Reflector may be 17".
Thanks in advance
E

Weren’t those golden glow reflectors made of uranium glass? That’s gonna be hard to find unless someone has one squirreled away.

Within the past few months there was a thread with a similar question, I think for a Golden Glow headlight.

Yes, there was a topic on this very same light that I believe was in classifieds. But between the small topic derailments, some of comments that were starting to surface, and the history lessons emerging (which was valuable info) I decided to repost in the interchange. I do not want to coble this together. I would like to restore it as it should be, with the proper reflector and lens. Maybe the parts do not exist. If not then I will go a different route. I have never seen an 18" headlight before so I like the fact that it is unique, which may very well kill the whole project.
E

I may have found a source for the lens and reflector. I need to know the approximate curve in the lens (the depth of the center of the lens from the inside) and any info on the distance of the bulb filament from the hole in the reflector. Measurements from a 16" light would get me close and a 14" may help.
E

Here is the link to the last thread on this.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=45527&hilit=golden+glow

It seemed from that discussion the lamp had a clear lens with a parabolic reflector. If so once you have the diameter and focal point established the reflector shape can be derived by mathematics.

Could this work?

https://discoverlivesteam.com/discoverf ... /index.htm

I am in no way shape or form associated with the seller but it appears in the dimensions there might be a similar measurement to what you are looking for on the headlight. Perhaps this person was referring to the side with the lense when they listed the X17 in the 21X17X19? Seller has already confirmed the bowl is Uranium glass so it might be worth a shot.

That headlight on "Discover Live Steam" is from an Illinois Central MU car. The offset is to conform to the curved end of the roof. DL&W MU cars had similar headlights, with the number boards offset to the top of the light.

Howard P.

And those MU headlights are 14".

For what it's worth, "Golden Glow" was a trademark of the Electric Services Supply Company ("ESSCO") of Philadelphia, although Pyle and C-H also supplied uranium glass reflectors. Uranium for industrial processes became unobtainable upon commencement of the Manhattan Project, when the Government pre-empted all the supplies of it, eventually placing them under control of the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission) in 1946. The AEC has since been converted into two other alphabet soup-lettered Government agencies.

The reflectors are parabolic in cross-section, and the ESSCO-made ones have a keystone emblem etched on the silvered side of the glass near the rim. The theory was that the yellow/green color projected without causing a lot of glare. If you watch the sun disappear over the horizon, there is a flash of this same yell/green color, which is an effect of refraction as the sun sets (or rises) https://www.phenomena.org/atmospheric/greenflash/

The reflectors can be re-silvered, after which they look brand new. If yours has the Keystone (or any other) emblem, be sure the mirror silvering company doesn't polish it away during re-silvering -- it will stand out quite noticeably.

I would have thought the reflectors were silvered on the backside and coated with a protective coating that would both protect the fragile silver and keep it from tarnishing. Thus the light from the source would travel through the glass of the reflector, picking up the color of the glass.

If that's the case, I wouldn't understand someone removing old silver by grinding it off, but using a solvent to remove the protective coating. If there is any silver left, it should come off pretty easy with a bit of rubbing. Grinding could also damage the polish of the glass surface.

If you want to silver the reflector yourself using closer to historical methods, the process isn't that hard but does require some learned art. This company (no connection other then I've been a customer) has the materials and training videos:

https://angelgilding.com/

If you want something more durable, there are companies that will vacuum coat optics with everything from aluminum (durable and cheaper) to gold. Some might even be able to coat an interface coating on a modern piece of glass that would replicate the gold color of the glass, but these days that might be easier to do by trying some LEDs.

Finally, there is some science behind using a yellow/green color. That is the range of wavelength the human eye is most sensitive to at night/when dark adapted. I have to guess the old timers figured this out through trial and error or by accident.

Bob

> I would have thought the reflectors were silvered on the backside and coated with a protective coating that would both protect the fragile silver and keep it from tarnishing.

Correct.

> If that's the case, I wouldn't understand someone removing old silver by grinding it off, but using a solvent to remove the protective coating.

Yes, the old silvering is removed chemically, buy there is still some polishing involved, mainly to remove all traces of the backing paint.

> If you want to silver the reflector yourself using closer to historical methods, the process isn't that hard but does require some learned art. This company (no connection other then I've been a customer) has the materials and training videos: https://angelgilding.com/

The slightest amount of grease or oil on surface to be silvered will cause the process to fail.

> If you want something more durable, there are companies that will vacuum coat optics with everything from aluminum (durable and cheaper) to gold.

Having had several reflectors re-silvered, and trying to do so myself (and failing), I recommend finding a supplier who can silver mirrors.

I recently had a 100+ year-old mirror resilvered by Frank at Walter's Mirror. Frank and his associates are courteous, professional, and enthusiastic about the work. They delivered a quality product at the agreed to price and in the agreed to timeframe. He has a pretty large set up so he may be able to do the reflectors. When I was there picking up he had some large metallic items that he had just nicely resilvered sitting on the bench waiting to be packed for shipping. They looked to be some sort of electrical contacts. Contact info below. Also has a website.

Frank
Walter's Mirror
1625A Cody Ave.
Ridgewood, NY 11385
718-366-0777
sales@waltersmirror.com

Sorry for the tardy reply, these show a Pyle National, but in my experience, glass reflectors were mounted the same way in all brands.



I understand that the mold used was the same for all sizes of reflectors, the only difference being that the resulting glass parabola was cut to a larger diameter for the 17" reflectors compared to the 14".

For what it's worth, I just ran across this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGw6fXprV9U

His results aren't "green enough", so I suspect that some iron was added to the mix "in them days". Because of their relatively large size, alpha particles can be stopped by two sheets of paper or about 2 feet of air, but beta particles and in particular gamma rays are far "smaller" and more energetic, requiring shielding (lead or several inches of concrete). So this isn't something to try at home. Besides, ordering uranium compounds of any kind will flag you with the homeland security folks.