Headlight lens manufacturer(s)

[SeaSlugs]

I looked through the 2016 restoration guidelines and it just mentions the crossover periods and dimpled logo or smooth logo but no mention of who made the headlight lenses.

I know McK company made one of the known originals to my 29 AA and can see the same company made the ones in the pictures of the restoration guidelines. I acquired a nice set of 28-M30 commercial housings and lenses and the lenses are identical except instead of being made by McK company these were made by L.E.S.. They feel different on the inside like "sharper" and the "TWOLITE" logo seems bigger and more stretched out...Are they old repos? Or a different manufacturer? Restoration guidelines offer no mention of who made the lenses...

[MikeK]

Both McKee glass company and Lewis E. Smith glass company were suppliers to Ford going back to the earliest use of the vertical flute "H" design lens first used in the Model T.

The 'Twolite' driving beam glass refractor pattern was the property of McKee glass company and produced in several sizes for different manufacturer's headlamps. Ford reluctantly went with the Twolite design after his legal department nixed his wishes to use a fluted reflector with a plain glass lens. Brown and others had existing fluted reflector patents. Chevrolet was using the Brown patent reflectors at the time.

When Ford contracted with McKee for the Twolite design two things happened: 1) The dual filament bulb pin orientation was changed. 2) Exclusive Twolite glass press molds were made with the oval Ford logo for use by BOTH Smith glass and McKee.

The sharpness of the rear surfaces is dependent on variables during manufacture, not which company produced the glass. I have many lenses in my collection from both manufacturers and some are crisp and sharp, others somewhat rounded.

The oval logos were all hand chased and graved by the hand of journeyman mold makers. I could show you a dozen that are all slightly different.

FWIW, there are at least five pattern focus variations in the Twolite design that are not addressed by the judging standards. These showed up solely in Ford Twolite lenses, not the other size Twolite pattern lenses also sold as aftermarket for other vehicles. This fine tuning of the beam pattern was in response to a miriad of differing state regulations, as there was no D.O.T. at the time.

There is quite a bit about lenses in the Benson Ford Research Center if you know what acquisition files to access.

Both L.E.S. and McK marked lenses are original.

I ran two seminars on lamp glass at the MAFFI Model A day event two years ago. I also have an unpublished 80 page book covering Ford lens history. A few problems have delayed publication.

[SeaSlugs]

Perfect! Thank you so much!

[Brad in Germany]

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In mid-1930, BOSCH started supplying the lenses for the German manufactured Model A's and AA's (before that the lenses were the same as the lenses on the US manufactures Model A's).

Here is a photo of a German Model A headlight lens, starting in mid-1930:


Note the typical BOSCH fluting U-shaped pattern with the small round magnifying lens in the center and the required Ford script at the bottom. There is no manufacturer's marking anywhere on the lens.

The German BOSCH-Ford Model A headlight buckets were the same as the US headlight buckets except the BOSCH buckets had no script on the top of the buck, nor did they have a focusing screw in the back of the bucket. The rim fastening clasp at the bottom was the same as the one on the US light buckets.

Brad in Maryland