The headlight flasher as an urgent innovation of the fifties
01/08/2011
It's hard to imagine today, but back in the 1950s, cars in our part of the world only had a headlight flasher in exceptional cases. Today, we are all aware of the negative aspects of this innovation, but in the 1950s, car magazines vehemently demanded this safety feature.
Motor Rundschau 3/1955 of February 10, 1955 justified this several times, but also published critical comments on the design:
"(1) We are in favor of the headlight flasher because it is a quick and easy to introduce, cheap and yet effective overtaking signal at night and during the day.
(2) We demand a decree that only flashers are permitted which (e.g. via a flashing motor) allow an effective, but only short and as little disturbing "blinking" as possible and not a long signal which is also disturbing during the day.
(3) Just like the acoustic horn, the light horn is an emergency signal! The best driver will always be the one who honks the least - acoustically and visually!
(4) We do not deny that in the very distant future there may be better overtaking signals that are just as easy and quick to introduce. But we can't wait for that now, because we need help immediately. Therefore, for the time being, we are calling for the headlight flasher together with perfect rear-view mirrors, which are mandatory anyway."
In the same issue of Motor Rundschau, the headline is even more explicit:
"When will the headlight flasher be introduced? When will the headlight flasher finally be approved in Germany? We keep calling for the correct flashing (!) headlight flasher! A small addition to the StVZO would suffice for its introduction ...."
The car industry certainly listened.
In the presentation of the Mercedes-Benz 190 in AR 22/1956 of May 9, 1956, the comfort detail is described as follows:
" The headlight flasher is a new feature installed in all three new models. This tried and tested instrument, which has been in use in Italy for decades, allows the headlights to flash briefly. It has been proven that this signal, which can be seen in the rear-view mirror of vehicles in front, is a more clearly recognizable right-of-way signal than the horn, which is often no longer sufficient at high speeds. In the new models, the headlight flasher was attached to the left of the steering column as a small lever, while the horn ring, which could be rotated around its center, still served as a direction indicator."
But even in the 1960s, the headlight flasher was still worth mentioning as a feature even in car advertising, as the Volvo advertisement from 1961 shows.
