General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

4

Total Parts

5

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Synthetic filter with metal clips.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

15.5 cm

Width

14.5 cm

Height

1.3 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Aviation

Category

Communications

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

GRIMES

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Ohio

City

Urbana

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

Period

Unknown

Canada

The Grimes C-3A signal lamp was widely used by the U.S. Army Air Forces and, perhaps, the U.S. Navy, during the Second World War. Grimes Manufacturing was well known for its aircraft lights (green red and white), mounted on the wings, tail, etc. of civilian and military machines (see Ref. 2). It is entirely possible that Royal Canadian Air Force people used Grimes signal lamps during and / or after the Second World War. This signal lamp was presumably sold as war surplus, in the U.S. or Canada, after the end of the conflict. At some point during the post war years, it was modified to plug into the cigarette lighter of an automobile. Whether or not this was done in Canada is unclear.

Function

A coloured filter used to alter the colour of light emitted from a hand held signal light.

Technical

As was written above, Grimes Manufacturing was well known for its aircraft lights, mounted on the wings, tail, etc. of civilian and military machines. The company’s designs were adopted in 1933 by the U.S. Department of Commerce. The all-important patent was awarded in 1936. Warren G. Grimes (1898-1975) has been described as the Father of the Aircraft Lighting Industry. Grimes Manufacturing is still with us, as Urbana-based Grimes Aerospace Company, a subsidiary of Honeywell International Incorporated. What is interesting about the Grimes signal lamp donated to the collection is its transformation from a military, airplane-oriented item to a civilian, ground-based one, closely associated to an automobile.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

None apparent

Missing

Appears complete.

Finish

Translucent, blue synthetic disc with silver-coloured metal clips.

Decoration

N/A