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Infra red light

landymaniac

landymaniac

Overdrive!
Anybody know something about the infra red light??. Was the infra red light used only on series land rovers??:eek: Is this light transmitted by spedial bulbs? are these bulbs fitted in the main headlamp?? How was this light switched on??(special switch??)

All I know that this light cannot be visible with a naked eye and special goggles are needed to see this light. Maybe there is some one that experienced this.....what do you see exactly with these goggles?:rolleyes:

If someone has got any pictures they would help

Maniac confused
 
I have never seen any IR fiitings beyond series rovers. These first or sometimes called zero generation systems needed active illumination from an IR source. This was simply a very dark red glass filter fitted over the headlights. Binnoculars with image converter tubes were worn by the driver. The IR switch was to disable all the other vehicle lighting except the headlights. The filters LV6MT3/6220-99-881-3417 fitted on the headlights No.2 Mk1 & No.3 Mk1. I think they were abandoned in mid 1980s, because of course the enemy with IR viewers can also see your headlights. you have to be careful you don't leave your headlights on, as of course you won't be able to see them. When you hold your hand close to the filter you can feel the heat.

I have several bits of early IR gear & a lot of wartime technical documents. I did once try offroad nightime IR driving. It was very scary & I kept hitting my face with the binoculars although they were strapped to my head.

The strange thing is that under this green image colours respond quite diffrently when seen under IR. I remember going round the garden to be greeted by the cat, but her eyes appeared black rather than the expected shine. I was quite frightened to see a large glowing figure in the back garden. I ripped off the IR gear & went inside to get a torch. The glowing object was a dressing gown stetched out on the washing line that was purple but under the IR vision system it looked bright green.

Modern night ivision stuff you see is entirely passive & amplify traces of starlight, moonlight etc, they can be supplemented by an IR source. But of course that gives you away to an enemy similarly equipped.

Clive Elliott
 
very interesting fv1620.
another question. on some pictures of lightweights there is a small lamp on the mudguard usually with a piece erected from the top(probably not to be seen by aircraft). Is that for infra red too? was that fitted on other land rovers?
 
on some pictures of lightweights there is a small lamp on the mudguard usually with a piece erected from the top(probably not to be seen by aircraft). Is that for infra red too? was that fitted on other land rovers?

Not IR but was night driving, I had one on a Dutch LightWeight. Just gave a a horizontal slit of light. At the rear the light cluster incorporated a 2watt red bulb, very feint but when your eyes accomodated to the darkness which can take a halfhour or so, then it is amazing how bright it seems when you are focussed on it following in the vehicle behind.
 
Any idea if 6220-99-962-3842 Would be landrover item's as well?
 

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Yes would be used on Rovers. That is the later type which started to appear in 1972, the pattern no is FV679465 I think. It is is convex, the early type FV494520 was flat glass. They are all now obsolete.
 
I should say you're an expert here fv1620. I've been years asking people about infra red and never got these answers.

therefore the infrared filters are now all absolete?? to be honest i never saw one.....did not evenknow that these existed. The infra red light switch I think still can be found at Blanchard.

So nowadays the soldiers use night vision binochulars and no lights???
 
I did a series of articles on IR for the MVT mag a few years ago spread over 4 editions it took 40 pages of A4 mag. Yes passive night vision systems are used, but no army can afford to equip every soldier with everybit of technology.

We manufactured a lot of IR stuff during the war but it was seldom used. It was code named TABBY as a pussycat can see in the dark. But the Germans had a system kater gerrat, meaning the equipment of the tom cat, eye balls I assume. So not so clever as a code word. Although originally we called it RG equipment, I assume RG = red glass.

Most of our initial research was from the Admiralty who thought it would be usefull for signalling. RCA I think developped a spin off from TV development & demonstrated a system of night driving to the US Defense Dept, who couldn't see the point & told them to get lost. German scientists developped IR system in 1930s the military could see no point in this novelty & dismissed the concept has having no practical value. Although this changed when the war started going not so well for the Germans. They viewed the systems largely as a means of night fighting, whereas the British thought more in terms of night driving more for moving large coloumns of supplies under the cover of darkness.

Scientists are proud of their work & the German scientists published several articles explaining their systems. At the outbreak of war our scientists merely adapted the German designs to mass production. Churchill was keen that IR would only be used when large amounts of equipment had been stockpiled. Waterbuffalo were equipped with IR for the Rhine crossing, but in the end they used 19 sets to get DF bearings. The only other reported use was the RN for signalling in the Cockleshell Heroes & destroying the under sea telephone cables from Hong Kong I think.

As we were so advanced with radar, the Germans assumed we we more advanced than we really were with IR. They assumed we had developped IR/thermal sensors for detecting submarines when they surfaced. It was in fact millimetric radar, but through double agents the story was fed in that we had developped such equipment. The Germans put some considerable effort into constructing ellaborate heat shields around the exhausts of surfaced submarines. Did no good of course but it kept them from realising they were being picked up on radar.

Then of course we also tried UV night driving which wasn't very successful. But thats another story.
 
i wish I could find a supplier for this switch. I will try blanchards. Therefore when switching on this switch(infra red lights) all the lights would be switched off except the headlamps?Besides the headlamp filters (and binochulars) n more equipment is needed?

thanks for the info fv1620. it was very informative
 
Yes that is correct.

Often the IR switch burnt out, as even when it was not being used the heavy current for normal headlight useage always had to pass through the switch contacts. There was a mod introduced in 1982 to wire the switch to a relay that then switched the heavy current.

The power for the binoculars (Receiving Set, Infra-red, Binocular, No.1 Mk 1) didn't come from the vehicle. It had a self contained 1.5 battery to power a simple transistor inverter to generate the necessary voltage about 12kv.
 
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