It's not spam from an electrical company. And it includes both British and German tanks.
Noticed on the drawing of the Mk VII that there's a "lighting dynamo" under the driver's seat. I don't know if that was for internal or external lighting or both, but it's the first time I've seen any reference to such a thing. Which leads to the question of internal lighting in general. Haven't read anything about it, and couldn't see any lights in the Bov Mk IV or the Schneider and Saint-Chamond.
So the question is: did any of the first tanks have lighting inside? Even though they were usually painted white on the inside, was there enough light in a closed vehicle to see what you were doing?
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
German tanks all had interior lighting - independent from the coloured lights used for fire control. Captured Mk.IVs were equipped with interior lighting by B.A.K.P. 20.
mad zeppelin wrote:Captured Mk.IVs were equipped with interior lighting by B.A.K.P. 20.
Ah. Which implies there was none previously. I thank you.
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"Sometimes things that are not true are included in Wikipedia. While at first glance that may appear like a very great problem for Wikipedia, in reality is it not. In fact, it's a good thing." - Wikipedia.
On page 174 of D. G. Browne's "The Tanks In Action" he writes, "Normally, tanks are lighted by small electric festoon lights hung under the roof, but in G46, these were now out of action, the accumulators being under water."
On page 174 of D. G. Browne's "The Tanks In Action" he writes, "Normally, tanks are lighted by small electric festoon lights hung under the roof, but in G46, these were now out of action, the accumulators being under water."
Gwyn
Martin Borchert (who directed tank recovery at Cambrai and is author of "Der Kampf gegen Tanks") states: the interior lighting of the Mk.IVs is fed by accumulators. - I wouldn't think any part of this survived initial contact with German soldiers looking for parts easily to be removed and sold separately. So, B.A.K.P. 20 had to install new interior lighting.
I was looking into the lighting side of things but didn't get very far... I have though however recently recognised the lighting that still exists in the surviving tanks. Now I'm not sure if it is the original lighting, only dating of the parts and some good contemporary photos will decide that.
The light fittings are still there, just not where you would at first think. The lights are festoon dash lamps and strung along the sides of the interior just above the sponson openings. The reason for this is I suppose twofold, so that you can remove the roof and sponsons 'without' touching the wiring, and that the light would shine inwards (That makes sense in my head but not sure about that one).
The light fittings are very similar to Joseph Lucas Festoon Dash Lamps. The reason they are hard to spot, is that without the tube like bulb pushed between the contacts, it looks like a bracket to tie things to. Also painted white they just blend into the rest of the tank interior.
So, maybe not the final answer, but at least a start.
Helen x
-- Edited by MK1 Nut on Sunday 11th of May 2014 11:46:50 AM
I can confirm that records at The National Archives show that Lucas supplied lighting sets for Mark IVs. Up until Helen's post I had rather assumed these were for headlights.
James mentioned the Schneider; AFAIK, these had no lighting inside other than what came in from vision slits - and perhaps a little filtering through the roof ventilator.
