Guide Lamp Corp Tester

[stick]

I am looking for help with anyone able to identify a device that I am potentially trying to sell. It was made by the Guide Lamp Corporation, and I believe it was used to either test headlights -OR- test the vehicle's battery strength by measuring the strength of the headlights. This is an aluminum globe that has dials and knobs on it. You can Google "Guide Corp Output Meter" to see if you can see a photo. I saw something online that states that there may have been fewer than 40 of these made prior to WWII. This is a terrible description, but I was just wondering if by chance anyone knew anything about these and could help out in any way to find out exactly what it is and any sort of value of it.

[Tom7227]

I can't find it but with even my limited knowledge of light and electricity I don't think this is a particularly useful way of finding out how your battery is doing. A light meter can be influenced by many things - is it an averaging meter that senses light input from a lot of places, or a spot meter that sense it from a narrow area. Cock the thing a little bit and get a totally different result. I think a car battery needs a lot of amps to get the motor going around and a whole lot less to get the lights lit.

I would probably buy a lottery ticket before I would invest in what you have described. If it was a good deal and a useful product it wouldn't have been on the shelf since WWII.

[delcecchi]

It might have some value as a collectible automotive history item.

I checked an auction site and they have "guide lamps"

Guide appears to be a company that manufactured car lamps back in the 30's and 40's. It was a division of GM.

http://www.charleswbullock.com/Guide/Index.html

Best way to sell would be to put it on the bay. If you are afraid of it going too cheap set a reserve or starting price up a ways. But no reserve and a low initial bid will make it more likely to get some action.

I surmise it is a device to check how bright headlights and foglights are.