GUIDING LIGHT

HOW THE GENERIC SEALED-BEAM HEADLIGHT INSPIRED DECADES OF ICONIC DESIGN.

- Bob Sorokanich

THINK OF THE GREATEST designs in American automotive history. The 1949“Shoebox” Ford. The '57 Chevy. The '64-1/2 Mustang. The suicide-door Lincoln Continental. The muscular Sting Ray and all its forebears. Every one of the Forward Look Chryslers that flowed from Virgil Exner's pen. The gobsmacking Buick Riviera. The razor-sharp Eldorado. The jolie laide Avanti.

These designs have practically nothing in common. You'd never mistake a Buick for a Lincoln, a Studebaker for a Chrysler. But take another look at those faces. They're all arranged around a ubiquitous, generic piece of mandatory equipment: the circular sealed-beam headlamp. It was a regulatory necessity-and an unsung motivator that pushed designers to unparalleled creative heights.

Starting in 1940, U.S. automakers agreed on the round seven-inch sealed-beam as the universal standard headlight. It made replacing a broken lamp easy, no matter the car's make or model. After 1957, dual53/4-inch round lamps were accepted, and in 1975, rectangular headlamps were approved again, generic sealed-beams.