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The electric arc headlight was made practical for railroad use as early as the 1880s, and found use well into the 20th century, especially on interurbans.

An arc headlight commonly used up to 4 A at 80 volts, which seems reasonable for the output of a second magneto driven by a belt off the crankshaft, similar to the ignition magneto (later the generator) of brass- or nickel-era cars. The extreme brilliance of an arc headlight beam could have been offset somewhat by appropriately designed housings that would prevent the beam from going too high and thus blinding oncoming drivers. Since arc lights are known to put out a considerable amount of electromagnetic radiation in the UV part of the spectrum, perhaps UV-opaque glass could have been used as the lens for such lights. And certainly arc lights would have been lower in maintenance than the acetylene-fueled headlights in common use until (very roughly) 1912 or so.

What might have happened had similar, smaller headlights been adopted for automotive use in the first decade or two of the 20th century?
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