Question about lights in subs

[cardician]

Bit of an odd question, but what's the deal with the lights in subs? From 6am to like 9pm or something the light is white, then its red overnight. Why? It is *always* dark in a sub right? Not like they have windows. So a light is always needed. So why not just leave the light white all the time? I know it might be realistic or whatever, but I'm just wondering if anyone knows why ;)

[Captain Nemo]

Bit of an odd question, but what's the deal with the lights in subs? From 6am to like 9pm or something the light is white, then its red overnight. Why? It is *always* dark in a sub right? Not like they have windows. So a light is always needed. So why not just leave the light white all the time? I know it might be realistic or whatever, but I'm just wondering if anyone knows why ;)

Red light makes the eyes accustomed to the dark so when you go out on the conning tower at night looking for ships your eyes are already adjusted to night vision.

Nemo

[cardician]

Ah, interesting.

So why the white light then? Same story for brightness? Wonder if they tried different colors like blue lights and then even black lights? :p Imagine everything in the sub glowing with black lights...heh:rotfl:

[Miss Behavin]

It's all about night vision my friend. My brother, who was in Armored Cav, said the tanks are the same way (at least back in his day, cannot speak for the newer ones).

At night, it is said that red lighting will not affect your night vision as much as bright lighting. I remember during my time in the military, that during the fire watch at night, many of the buildings had red lighting for the same reason. Enough to see by but not enough to make you blind as a bat if you had to go out in the dark.

Same for sub crews, If the bright lights are on at night and the watch goes topside, not very effective if they can't see.

Hope this explains it.

Cheers!

Oops, Captain Nemo beat me to the draw. Anyway, same thing.

[Morts]

you loose your "night vision" (eyes getting used to the dark) from whit light
but red is not as hard on your eyes and lets you keep your "night vision"

[Miss Behavin]

Now, MY question is why do the ones in the command room flash. The ones in the radio room don't.

?????

[Platapus]

So why not just leave the light white all the time?

Another reason, besides enabling night vision, is that red light is harder to detect with the human eye over long distances.

Imagine you are cruising along on the surface at night. You need to change lookouts and Barnard accidenlty cracks the hatch on a compartment just oozing with white light. Even non-carrot eating Tommies will see the white light and mention it to the Captian of the destroyer.

With the compartment illuminated with red light, even if Barnard forgets to douse the light before cracking the hatch, the chances of Bugs Bunny being able to see the light is much less.

Smart crew members always douse the light when cracking the hatch at night. But by using red light, even if Barnard is on deck, the chances of self-illuminating are reduced.

I believe I read somewhere that modern theory says that using a blue light of a specific frequency protects night vision while enabling all colours to be seen.

[Sailor Steve]

There's also the psychological factor: Red lights are easier to sleep with, helping keep normal sleep patterns.

[minute]

You have a valid question there about why the white lights were on durring the day. I suppose it's the same reason - no point to stay in the dark in the sub to be temporarily blinded by strong light when you get out... Or have to wait for minutes to accomodate with the dark if you go into a crash dive...

I think in real life white or red lights would have been used more liberally... If you watch Das Boot (which is no actual reference to how it was but close enough), some quarters kept red lights, some kept white lights no matter whether night or day. It comes and goes with the teritory - if the torp crews needed more light to arm the eels they probably kept the white lights and doors locked while the command room would keep red lights for a periscope search.

Actually, even red lights would not be sufficient to do a night-time periscope search, the captain would wear full-black googles for a few minutes before looking through the scope - again to be witnesseth in Das Boot :yep:

[Enigma]

Same reason I carry a red flashlight when flying my Tomahawk at night. I can look at my map with the red light without losing my night time adjusted vision....

[fastfed]

Here is something cool..

Mythbusters did this.

Pirate Patches over one eye, The reason they figured it out was when a captain or pirate would go from the top of the ship to the bottom, its pitch black and espically in battle it would be bad to not see, so after being topside they would go below and switch eyes with the patch.. Mythbusters made a pitch black obsitcle course, and tried it both ways, with the patch moved from the lite eye to the dark eye they noted they were able to see as easy if it were light out..

I tried it myself with a dark garage and it worked great!

Obviously we don't really know the TRUE reason for the pirate eye patch but we know not thousands of pirates lost an eye, and when you lose one eye not due to birth ( Accident, sword,gun powder ) you usually lose both eyes ( The vision )

[Gedscho]

wow cool thing about the night vision. i never knew that.
but i think it has other reasons too.

like somebody mentioned: sleep patterns.
i can tell you, ive been playing a lot the last days, and i only get sleep when the sun is rising again. if you sleep while your surroundings are lit brightly you wont be as refreshed as if you slept in the dark.
and since there are some crewmembers working when some are sleeping, there needs to be some light.
i think it helps the crew not to loose the feeling for time as well. everything that keeps the average joe and bernard more functional is good, i guess.

and yet another reason i can think off is again connected to brain chemistry. a certain tone of green is used in almost ALL hospitals where surgery is performed (dont know how you call the OP in english). because that certain green is soothing and makes for a calm hand.

similar with red light. i think that gives you more adrenaline and faster reactions, in case you get "activated".

[Heibges]

wow cool thing about the night vision. i never knew that.
but i think it has other reasons too.

like somebody mentioned: sleep patterns.
i can tell you, ive been playing a lot the last days, and i only get sleep when the sun is rising again. if you sleep while your surroundings are lit brightly you wont be as refreshed as if you slept in the dark.
and since there are some crewmembers working when some are sleeping, there needs to be some light.
i think it helps the crew not to loose the feeling for time as well. everything that keeps the average joe and bernard more functional is good, i guess.

and yet another reason i can think off is again connected to brain chemistry. a certain tone of green is used in almost ALL hospitals where surgery is performed (dont know how you call the OP in english). because that certain green is soothing and makes for a calm hand.

similar with red light. i think that gives you more adrenaline and faster reactions, in case you get "activated".

True, that is why in the "old days" before Night Vision and Thermal Sights, the best time to attack was like an hour before dawn, at the darkest point in the night because biologically your enemy would be at his least alert.

[GoldenRivet]

Same reason I carry a red flashlight when flying my Tomahawk at night. I can look at my map with the red light without losing my night time adjusted vision....

cool you have a traumahawk? :lol: i have a grumman cheetah red light in it too.

a dim blue light can work nicely too but red light is the best.

[P_Funk]

An interesting thing I have to add to this is that in WW2 it was thought that the best colour spectrum for night vision was red. However after further testing post-war, they found out that the green end of the spectrum was actually better. That's why night vision today is all green.:p

[cardician]

I'm glad I asked such a question that spawned such interesting discussion. Thanks all :D Always good to learn something.