Just A Car Guy: 1921 Boyce MotoMeter light and parking lamp. Meant to be a parking light on dark busy streets, and also to light up the hood ornament temp gauge at night

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

1921 Boyce MotoMeter light and parking lamp. Meant to be a parking light on dark busy streets, and also to light up the hood ornament temp gauge at night

In the early auto years, drivers couldn't read their Moto-meter gauges at night, so the Moto-Meter company developed a solution with this light.

This light attached to the outside post of the windshield. The driver could reach out and focus a strong beam of light onto his temperature gauge, allowing him to see the temperature of his car at night.

Inside the glass dome of this light is a magnifying glass piece that is used to focus the beam of light onto the Moto-Meter gauge.

The back side of the lamp had a shutter affair that could be opened about 1/2" to show a red light, either light or dark red, to the rear (the “parking lamp”). The whole affair cost six dollars; for an additional dollar, one could add a rearview mirror that bolted to the light fixture.

I'm showing you examples from several websites, to give you the best possible look at the inner workings, broken and not, so this is the most thorough post about this rare accessory.