Talk:Turbinlite

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Strength of searchlight[edit]

Was the strength of the searchlight 2700 million or 2.7 million candela? This page says "2.7 million candlepower", which is 2.7 million candela. Searchlights today all seem to be in the range of hundreds of thousands to millions of candela, so an airborne searchlight in the 1940s with a strength a thousand times this seems unlikely. Airminded 11:29, 18 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

My reference (Green, William. Famous Bombers of the Second World War, 2nd Edition. London: MacDonald & Jane's,1975. ISBN 0-356-08333-0.) definitely says 2,700 million candlepower. Whether it's a misprint or not I don't know. Ian Dunster 08:53, 22 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Whilst the first poster may be right, the Turbinlite's power source was an array of lead-acid accumulators which would allow very high currents to be drawn, (rather like the large current required by the starter motor of a car) the searchlight only being needed to illuminate the bombers for a few minutes at a time. So the large candela figure quoted 2,700 million candlepower may well be correct. Lead-acid accumulators can provide very-large currents for short periods, which is why they are used for car batteries, and also why diesel-electric submarines use them. In the Turbinlite's case, drawing a high current that might cause reduced battery life would not have been a problem, the batteries could have been replaced as-needed, after each sortie if necessary. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.112.82.120 (talk) 13:04, 2 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]