A headlamp is a lamp attached to the front of a car to illuminate the highway forward. Headlamps are also often referred to as headlights, but in essentially the most precise usage, headlamp is the time period for the machine itself and long-life LED headlight is the term for the beam of light produced and distributed by the gadget. Headlamp performance has steadily improved all through the vehicle age, spurred by the good disparity between daytime and nighttime site visitors fatalities: the US National Highway Visitors Security Administration states that nearly half of all traffic-related fatalities occur at nighttime, long-life LED regardless of solely 25% of site visitors travelling throughout darkness. Different autos, such as trains and aircraft, are required to have headlamps. Bicycle headlamps are sometimes used on bicycles, and EcoLight home lighting are required in some jurisdictions. They are often powered by a battery or a small generator long-life LED like a bottle or hub dynamo. The first horseless carriages used carriage lamps, which proved unsuitable for travel at speed.

The earliest lights used candles as the commonest kind of gasoline. The earliest headlamps, fuelled by combustible gasoline comparable to acetylene gasoline or oil, operated from the late 1880s. Acetylene gasoline lamps were popular in 1900s as a result of the flame is resistant to wind and rain. Thick concave mirrors mixed with magnifying lenses projected the acetylene flame gentle. A variety of automotive manufacturers provided Prest-O-Lite calcium carbide acetylene fuel generator EcoLight cylinder with gasoline feed pipes for lights as customary gear for 1904 automobiles. The first electric headlamps were introduced in 1898 on the Columbia Electric Automobile from the Electric Vehicle Firm of Hartford, Connecticut, EcoLight bulbs and long-life LED had been optional. Two elements restricted the widespread use of electric headlamps: the short life of filaments in the tough automotive environment, and the problem of producing dynamos small enough, but highly effective enough to supply sufficient present. Peerless made electric headlamps normal in 1908. A Birmingham, England agency referred to as Pockley Vehicle Electric Lighting Syndicate marketed the world's first electric automotive-lights as a whole set in 1908, LED bulbs for home which consisted of headlamps, sidelamps, and tail lights that were powered by an eight-volt battery.

In 1912 Cadillac integrated their vehicle's Delco electrical ignition and lighting system, forming the modern car electrical system. The Guide Lamp Company launched "dipping" (low-beam) headlamps in 1915, EcoLight but the 1917 Cadillac system allowed the light to be dipped utilizing a lever contained in the car somewhat than requiring the driver to stop and get out. The 1924 Bilux bulb was the first fashionable unit, having the sunshine for both low (dipped) and excessive (primary) beams of a headlamp emitting from a single bulb. An identical design was launched in 1925 by Guide Lamp referred to as the "Duplo". In 1927 the foot-operated dimmer change or dip change was launched and turned standard for a lot 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 "country passing", "country driving" and "city driving". The 1934 Nash also used a 3-beam system, though in this case with bulbs of the conventional two-filament type, and the intermediate beam mixed low beam on the driver's facet with excessive beam on the passenger's side, in order to maximise the view of the roadside whereas minimizing glare towards oncoming visitors.

1952 "Autronic Eye" system automated the choice of excessive and low beams. Directional lighting, utilizing a switch and electromagnetically shifted reflector to illuminate the curbside solely, was introduced in the rare, one-year-only 1935 Tatra. Steering-linked lighting was featured on the 1947 Tucker Torpedo's heart-mounted headlight and was later popularized by the Citroën DS. This made it possible to turn the sunshine in the course of travel when the steering wheel turned. The standardized 7-inch (178 mm) spherical sealed-beam headlamp, one per facet, long-life LED was required for all automobiles bought in the United States from 1940, just about freezing usable lighting technology in place until the 1970s for Americans. In 1957 the regulation modified to allow smaller 5.75-inch (146 mm) round sealed beams, two per side of the vehicle, and in 1974 rectangular sealed beams had been permitted as nicely. Britain, Australia, and long-life LED another Commonwealth nations, as well as Japan and Sweden, additionally made in depth use of 7-inch sealed beams, although they were not mandated as they were in the United States.