|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries: |
Research categories | Follow us on Twitter |
Research categories
View all topics in the newsView all reference sources at Encyclopedia.com |
|||
searchlight
searchlight device, usually swiveled, using a lens and reflecting surface to direct a powerful beam of light of nearly parallel rays. In 1892 such apparatus was used along the English Channel in coastal defense and later, in the South African War, as an aid to infantry movement. It was also used to illuminate vessels in order to identify them and for possible bombardment, for dazzling the enemy, for illuminating the coast in an attack, and to locate targets, at sea or ashore, for the guns. After 1900 acetylene came into use as an illuminant, and in 1916 Edison invented a portable electric apparatus powered by storage batteries. During World War I powerful searchlights mounted on trucks and railroad cars came into use. The electric arc was generally employed after the American inventor E. A. Sperry introduced (1915) his high-intensity arc lamp based on principles that still predominate in modern searchlight equipment. Searchlights of 1,500 million candle power, visible for 150 mi (241 km), have become common. Revolving searchlights as beacons spaced along air routes have yielded to radio beacons. Similarly, the use of powerful lights coordinated with antiaircraft guns developed during World War II has been outmoded by radar-directed artillery. Small searchlights, which are usually employed for signaling, use incandescent lamps. These lamps are often of the quartz-halogen type in which the filament is run at very high temperatures. |
|
|
Cite this article
"searchlight." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "searchlight." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-searchli.html "searchlight." The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. 2011. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-searchli.html |
|
searchlights
searchlights, used by all armed forces, were primarily employed to help anti-aircraft guns and warships take accurate aim at night, but they had other uses as well. The Germans, for example, shone them on low clouds to give their troops more light by which to advance at the start of the Ardennes campaign on 16 December 1944 (see also Simonds).
The range of early UK searchlights during the Blitz was only about 3,660 m. (12,000 ft.) and the Germans soon learnt to fly above that height, but once their power was increased, and they became radar-controlled, searchlights were more effective. Each box of the German defensive Kammhuber Line had a radar-controlled master searchlight which locked on to an aircraft, and the others then followed it. The British put searchlights on some of their aircraft. The TURBINLITE, used on early night fighters, was soon outdated, but the Leigh Light on anti-submarine Coastal Command aircraft, used in conjunction with radar, helped to destroy several U-boats. British searchlights were also used to help damaged bombers land safely. On the transmission of a codeword every searchlight near a crippled aircraft exposed its beam vertically and then shone it horizontally towards the nearest airfield. It has been estimated that no fewer than 3,000 aircraft were helped in this way. |
|
|
Cite this article
I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "searchlights." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "searchlights." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-searchlights.html I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. "searchlights." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-searchlights.html |
|
searchlight
search·light / ˈsərchˌlīt/ • n. a powerful outdoor electric light with a concentrated beam that can be turned in the required direction. |
|
|
Cite this article
"searchlight." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "searchlight." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-searchlight.html "searchlight." The Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English. 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O999-searchlight.html |
|
searchlight
searchlight
•halite • candlelight • fanlight
•lamplight • gaslight • flashlight
•starlight • headlight • penlight
•daylight • tail light
•Peelite, pelite
•street light • phyllite • rubellite
•Carmelite • proselyte • Monothelite
•highlight, skylight, stylite, twilight
•sidelight • limelight • night light
•spotlight • torchlight • lowlight
•cryolite • microlight • moonlight
•cellulite • floodlight • sunlight
•rushlight • Pre-Raphaelite • firelight
•acolyte • Bakelite • Armalite
•Ishmaelite • phonolite • cosmopolite
•electrolyte • Israelite • corallite
•heteroclite • chrysolite • socialite
•satellite • tantalite • overflight
•pearlite, perlite
•searchlight
|
|
|
Cite this article
"searchlight." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. 27 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>. "searchlight." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Encyclopedia.com. (May 27, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-searchlight.html "searchlight." Oxford Dictionary of Rhymes. 2007. Retrieved May 27, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O233-searchlight.html |
|
Search over 100 encyclopedias and dictionaries:
HighBeam™ Research, Inc. © Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
The Encyclopedia.com advertising network includes:
