arc light

plural arc lights · alternative arclight

1. A lamp that produces light by generating an electric arc across an enclosed gas.

   In 1809 Humphry Davy had made the first arclight by attaching a charcoal rod to each terminal of a Volta battery...

   2000, James Burke, The Knowledge Web

   2 more examples

   With one, last desperate lurch, the lorry cleared the tracks, disappearing out of the arclights, into the darkness; and then there was silence...

   1987, Martin Gilbert, The Holocaust

   All five had seen the four wooden targets, thirty feet above their heads, holding the great submarine in place, stark against the glare of the arclight...

   1998, Patrick Robinson, Nimitz Class