Back in the late 1970s my oldest brother and his friends liked to read car magazines. Some of the titles included Car and Driver, Road Test, Motor Trend, and Road & Track.
My brother had an issue of Car and Driver that had an article how to spot US state police highway patrol cars. I think it was called the Tijauna taxi spotter's guide or something like that. Anyway, that was where I first came across the term 'light bar'. The lighting definitions in the article were as follows:
Single flush mounted beacon (e.g. CJ184)
Rack with single beacon (cross bar with one beacon only or one beacon and two blinkers)
Rack with multiple beacons (cross bar with two beacons - e.g. Twin Beacon Ray)
Rack with light bar (e.g. Twin Sonic with mounting brackets attached to roof or gutter)
So after reading that I got to defining a 'light bar' as being an oblong rectangular enclosure with two or more lights. If it was a cross bar holding up one or more beacons, I simply referred to it as a 'rack'.
My brother had an issue of Car and Driver that had an article how to spot US state police highway patrol cars. I think it was called the Tijauna taxi spotter's guide or something like that. Anyway, that was where I first came across the term 'light bar'. The lighting definitions in the article were as follows:
Single flush mounted beacon (e.g. CJ184)
Rack with single beacon (cross bar with one beacon only or one beacon and two blinkers)
Rack with multiple beacons (cross bar with two beacons - e.g. Twin Beacon Ray)
Rack with light bar (e.g. Twin Sonic with mounting brackets attached to roof or gutter)
So after reading that I got to defining a 'light bar' as being an oblong rectangular enclosure with two or more lights. If it was a cross bar holding up one or more beacons, I simply referred to it as a 'rack'.