can anyone tell me the original function of the push/pull switch found top right on series 2 dashboards?

Panel lights I think

 

Now a rear foglight switch for me with a period warning light below it, dash lights on with side lights.

Most of us have the switch doing something completely different.

You can switch off panel-lights on Saabs too. I can't tell you why you'd want to do this with your LR or a Saab. I suppose it allows you to leave you lights on fractionally longer but the panel display contains the low-watt bulbs not the high. Is this a wiring hangover minded to military use?

I imagined that the dash panel light switch was a vintage vehicle folly, a pre-war hangover with an origin lost in the mists of time; perhaps when Fred the farmer was bouncing over his fields to check on his ewes, interior lights were a distraction (I am ever a fan of James Herriot bouncing his Austin Seven through scarcely lit Dales). Do vintage aircraft have optional panel lighting? I was delighted in the late 1980's when I was sat bored at traffic lights after dark, pulling and twiddling that particular switch (which never did anything in daylight) to find out my gauges had illumination after all.

Useful for when you are poaching or greenlaning at night. Turning the panel lights off helps with your night vision, But then Guess only a small number of owners venture out on the lanes at night


 

I'm not entirely convinced, yet the night-vision thing is less contrary to common-sense than the Saab version...

In Saabs we infer 'A pilot excludes information not pertinent to the sound-barrier. ie: we make aircraft you know, did you know we make aircraft?'

I'm ready to buy every word.

Even on early coilsprung One Tens and Ninetys, you can still switch off the panel lights.

I can't imagine they would have kept this feature going from 1948 until then, if there wasn't a market for it in somewhere in the world.



(I found it a handy feature when going rabbiting in the dark.... ).

I used to like the 'stealth' light features on my wolf. Various combinations which I can't now recall but including just a small 'convoy' light on the rear.
Perhaps this feature is, as suggested something to do with military requirements.

I thought all modern cars had dimmable dash lamps...

Quote from: Old Hywel on Jun 25, 2024, 06:30 PMI thought all modern cars had dimmable dash lamps...

My 1977 MGB GT has.

Quote from: Alan Drover on Jun 25, 2024, 06:37 PM

Quote from: Old Hywel on Jun 25, 2024, 06:30 PMI thought all modern cars had dimmable dash lamps...

My 1977 MGB GT has.

That's not modern! Nor, I suppose, is my 20 y.o Passat.

Remember in the 1950/60's one always needed side lights on when parking on the road at night even in a built up area. Having the ability to  switch off the panel lights would conserve the battery & that might be a reason for them to be switched. That's why a single parking light hooked into the window was a popular extra.