recorded in history and was built about 280 B.C. Those records tell us that it was thetallest one ever built — 450 ft. (comparable toa 45 story skyscraper) and used an open fireat the top as a source of light. (Can youimagine being the keeper, climbing to the topto light the fire, and then forgetting thematches or whatever was used in those daysto start a fire?)

This fantastic structure survived for 1500years until it was completely destroyed by anearthquake in the 14th Century. Slave laborwas used to build it, and it took twenty longyears to complete. It was a three-part tower— with a square base, a second story witheight sides and a narrow, taller, round thirdstory. At night they believe its lighted firecould be seen for thirty miles, whereas by dayit produced a column of smoke for a daymark.Today we call people who study (or areinterested in) lighthouses pharologists. Thename comes from that famous lighthouse.

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Many, many years ago(thousands of years to bemore exact), people livedin a very primitive way —both hunting for andgrowing their own food(there were nosupermarkets in thosedays, no stores at all!).Eventually they decided toexplore the water in a boatto find out what the seahad to offer in the way offood. And, what did theyfind? They found fish andall kinds of other seafood:clams, mussels, scallops,oysters, lobsters, crabs,etc. During the day theycould find their way backto the landing place bylooking for a pile of rocksthat had been left there.These were the first daymarks. But how couldthey find their way home at night? Since muchof the shoreline looked very similar, friendshad to light a bonfire on a high point to guidethem to the right landing area. Still later theyused a pole or a tripod to hang a metal basketcontaining a fire as a method of signaling (alever light).

Our first lighthouses were actually given to usby Nature herself. Sailors sometimes usedlandmarks such as glowing volcanoes to guidethem. In the Ancient World, trading shipswere eventually built enabling navigators tosail long distances to buy and sell goods. Inthe days of wooden ships with sails, the windand waves could easily push them against therocks and wreck them. And so, the need forlighthouses as warning signals arose.

One of the Seven Wonders of the AncientWorld was a lighthouse — the famous Pharosof Alexandria, Egypt. It is the first one that is

The Story of the Lighthouse

Pharos lighthouse in Alexandria, Egypt

A lever light.

What is a lighthouse?

It is a tower with a brightlight at the top, located atan important or dangerousplace regarding navigation(travel over water). The twomain purposes of alighthouse are to serve as anavigational aid and to warnboats of dangerous areas. .It is like a traffic sign on thesea. What a seeing eye dogis to a blind person is whata lighthouse is to a seaman.

Do all lighthouses look

alike?

Although we often think ofa lighthouse as a tall, whiteconical tower, there aremany, many variations of design. Depending on itslocation, it might be tall(where the land was veryflat) or short and squat(where there was a high cliffor rocky coast). It could besquare, octagonal (witheight sides), conical (like anice cream cone upsidedown), cylindrical (like avery fat pipe), or even like askeleton.

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A screwpile lighthouseA round caisson,

or “sparkplug” lighthouse

Lighthouses come in all shapes and sizes…square octagonal (8 sides) conical cylindrical (round) skeletal

A tall, conical lighthouse

A square caisson lighthouse

You might find the lighthouse standing alone,attached to the building where thelighthouse keeper lives, or connected to thekeeper’s quarters by an enclosed walkway.Sometimes the lantern room is built into theroof of the keeper’s house.

When the lighthouses were built, they wereconstructed with whatever materials weremost readily available. They were designedto fit the local geographic and climaticconditions. Some are made of stone; othersbrick, concrete, wood, steel, cast iron, andeven tabby (a mixture of shells, lime, sandand water). So you can see that eachlighthouse is very unique.

Where are lighthouses located?

They can be found in a variety of places, onrocky cliffs or sandy shoals on land, on awaveswept reef in the sea, and at entrancesto harbors and bays. They serve to warn thesailor of dangerous reefs beneath the sea orperilous rocky coasts on land, and to guideships into a safe harbor or back out to sea.So the message of thelight-house might be —STAY AWAY, DANGER, BEWARE, or COMETHIS WAY. Everylighthouse tells themariner, “This isexactly where youare.”

Our country hasseveral coastlines usedby ships from around theworld. In the East it bordersthe Atlantic Ocean, in the West thePacific Ocean, and in the South the Gulf ofMexico. But we also have another veryimportant area of coastline where the landmeets the sea, the Great Lakes. So, all of thesefour areas bordering our country need andhave lighthouses, as well as some of our moreimportant navigable inland waterways.

For example, the Hudson River, LakeChamplain, Chesapeake Bay and San FranciscoBay are also dotted with lighthouses.

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How could one lighthouse be distinguished from another?

Years ago, before they had all the sophisticated technology of today — loran, radar, sonar, onshipelectronics, radio beacons, etc. — ships near shore in the daytime would use lighthouses as alandmark. This use gave them an additional name — a DAYMARK.

Imagine that you are the Captain of a ship sailing along the coast. You need some landmarks tohelp you find your position. When you look on shore you see a tall red brick tower. Then you sailabout forty miles down the coast and you see another round red brick tower — just like the firstone. How would you know where you are? This is the way things were along a portion of theVirginia and North Carolina coast in the 1870’s. To help the mariner determine his location theLighthouse Board (which was in charge of lighthousesfrom 1852 – 1910) issued an order to have each light-house painted in different colors and/or designs. This isthe best example of DAYMARKS we can see today.

Cape Henry, Virginia (the tallest cast iron lighthouse inthe U.S. today) was painted in alternating black andwhite sections. Currituck, the next one down the coast,was left its natural brick color. Bodie Island was paintedwith horizontal bands. Cape Hatteras (the tallest one inthe country) was given spiral bands. Cape Lookout waspainted in a diamond or checkerboard pattern. On somelighthouses elsewhere the color red has been used tohelp distinguish them. There are two very striking onespainted in red stripes — at West Quoddy, Maine, andAssateague, Virginia.

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Some lighthouses are painted in black and white designs:Cape Henry, VA Currituck, NC Bodie Island, NC Cape Hatteras, NC Cape Lookout, NC

And some are painted red and white:West Quoddy Head, ME Assateague, VA

But, what about nighttime — the mostdangerous time to navigate, and the mainreason lighthouses exist? You can’t see colorsor patterns at night, but you can see lights.However, unless there was some way to makeeach light different you could have the sameproblem. Early on, in a few places in ourcountry, they built multiple lights (that is, twoor three together.) There are twin lights atCape Elizabeth, Maine and at Thatcher Island,Massachusetts that are still visible today. OnCape Cod, they built three lights which theycall “The Three Sisters of Nauset”, no longerin use, but which have been moved to acentral location and preserved by the National Park Service for us to see today.Many of the double lights were either torndown or one of the twins was moved toanother location. Building double or triplelighthouses was one way to help the sailors at sea determine their location, but it was avery expensive way to do it.

Mounting a group of lights on a rotatingframework made it possible to produce aspecial signature (the first flashingcharacteristic) for each lighthouse, so theycould be easily told apart (more on thisfollows).

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A group of lights mounted on a rotating frame made alighthouse look like it was flashing its light on and off.

The two lighthouses on Thatcher Island off theMassachusetts coast helped mariners identify theirposition.

The three lighthouses at Nauset Beach on Cape Cod,known as the Three Sisters, were the only triple lightsin this country.

The invention of the Fresnel lens in 1822 wasprobably the most important discovery inlighting technology. As well as enabling manto produce an unlimited number of flashingcombinations, it also intensified (brightened)the light so it was much more helpful to themariner, and could be seen at greaterdistances.

The Fresnel (pronounced “Frey Nel”) lens canbe compared to a huge lampshade except thatit is made of 100’s of pieces of beautiful,specially cut glass. It surrounds the lamp bulb,but differs from a lampshade, whichconcentrates the light downward. This lens,due to its special design, and because it ismade of glass, intensifies (brightens) the glowfrom the light. It takes the rays of light whichnormally scatter in all directions and bends(refracts and reflects) them, focusing theminto a single beam of light, which shines out ina specific direction.

Fresnel lenses are of two types; Fixed —which shows a steady light all around thehorizon and Revolving — which produces aflash or a characteristic. The number offlashes per minute depends on the number offlash panels and the speed at which the optic(lens) revolves. (Teacher: See footnote.)

Different periods of darkness and lightproduce a unique flash pattern for each light.For example a light can send out a flash everyfive seconds. or it might have a fifteen secondperiod of darkness and a three second periodof brightness, or any number of othercombinations. The individual flashing patternof each light is called its CHARACTERISTIC.Mariners have to look at a light list or amaritime chart which tells what light flashesthat particular pattern and what color thelight is as well. Then they are able todetermine their position at sea in relation tothe land.

Footnote: There was actually one more style forclarification. So as not to confuse young students Ielected to leave this off. It is a fixed light varied withflash. However, if your students are particularlyprecocious, you may elect to use it.

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A fixed Fresnel lens sends light beams in alldirections all of the time. The light does not flash.

A revolving Fresnel lens sends light beams (whichlook like a flash) in specific directions.

Today aerobeacons are also used to helpidentify each lighthouse. They, along with theFresnel lens, are the principle behind theautomobile headlight.

Fresnel lenses come in seven commonly usedsizes (called orders). The larger ones (lstorder), used on major seacoasts, flash a morepowerful beam which shines as far as twenty-one miles out to sea. Sixth order lights, thesmaller ones, are used in bays where theydon’t have to shine as far or as brightly.

Most look like a beehive or barrel; some havebullseyes and can contain from two to twenty-four different panels. Those with the fewestflash panels (two) are called clamshell orbivalve lens. A clockwork type mechanism(which had to be wound by hand every fewhours before the advent of electricity) is usedto make these revolving lenses rotate aroundthe lamp itself to produce the flash. Themovement of the lens is timed precisely so thebullseye panel will pass by when a flash is due.

These lenses are really beautiful works of art;most contain hundreds of prisms – pieces ofspecially ground, cut and polished glasswhich, when arranged in a certain way, bend(reflect and refract) the light. Thus all the raysof the light are collected and redirected into asingle pencil beam of light. This makes it

much brighter and more effective. The lensesthemselves can weigh as much as four tons.

There is one light near Boston (Minot’s Ledgeon the killer reef) which flashes out acharacteristic of one flash, darkness, thenflash, flash, flash, flash, darkness, then flash,flash, flash, or 1–4–3. The people nearby call itthe “I Love You” light because it flashes outthe number of letters in each of those words.

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Modern aerobeacon used inlighthouses today rotates to senda beam of light many miles.

Fixed Fifth order Fresnel lenssends a steady beam of light.

Rotating Sixth order Fresnel lenssends a flashing beam.

A bivalve, or “clamshell”, Fresnel lens sendslight beams in only two directions as it rotates.

Another way to distinguish lights is throughthe use of color. Although most lights have awhite lamp, some do use red and others greenlights, as well as combinations of the colors.(Sounds like Christmas, doesn’t it?)

What happens in fog when the

light isn’t visible?

Have you ever been out in a car on a dark ,stormy, very foggy night? You know howdifficult it is to see other cars on the road.Now, picture yourself sailing along a black-looking sea in a thick peasoup fog with nostars shining or moonlight visible. Thewindshield wipers are working overtime, butthe view of the light from the lighthouse isbeing blocked by the fog. In situations likethis there is another method of notifying themariner using sound. It is called a foghorn.The first one was used in 1719 at Boston lightand it was, of all things, a canon. Can youimagine being a lighthouse keeper and havingto fire the canon every hour when there wasfog? During a long spell of fog you wouldn’tget any sleep. Later they tried various othermeans of making a noise for warning. Fogbells were used as well as steam whistles andreed trumpets and sirens. Thesounds they gave out were generally lowpitched and very mournful – almost like awail. Each one emitted a specific number ofblasts every minute so it could be told apartfrom all others. Today, an automatic sensorwhich detects moisture in the air turns on thefog signals when needed. There are alsosoundless fog signals called radiobeacons (anelectronic device).

These fog signals were not placedeverywhere. Although some placesexperience no fog problems, fog warningdevices are very necessary in New England,on the Pacific Coast, and in Alaska.

What fuels were used to

produce light?

The main source of power for the light todayis electricity, although in some places they use

acetylene gas. For thousands of years beforethe electric lamp (bulb) was invented byThomas Edison in 1879, different fuels wereused to illuminate the lamps. First, it waswood and coal for fires, then bales of oakumand pitch, and rows of candles. Later lampswere lit using various fuels – sperm whale oil(produced by cooking the blubber of thewhale), lard oil (from animal fat), kerosene (afuel like gasoline with a petroleum base), etc.

When they first designed a lighthouse with anenclosed lantern room (the original 1696Eddystone Light in England) it was possibleto employ candles for light. This wave-sweptlighthouse used 60 candles! Most used farfewer candles which were sometimesarranged in a circular candelabra or achandelier with two tiers, or on a frame.

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Reflectors

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Next came spider lamps which consisted of ashallow brass pan containing oil with eitherfour, eight or more wicks usually arranged ina circle, but other shapes such as a rectanglewere also used. (Since a spider has eight legs,the first one probably had eight wicks!)

Two very importantdiscoveries occurred inthe late 1700’s. Theparabolic reflector was abowl-like device with asmall oil lamp in thecenter. The light from thelamp was gathered andfocused into a beam.This was similar toputting a mirror behind aflame. Thus the firstreally efficient lighthousewas created. Think of aflashlight which has asilver reflector behindthe tiny bulb to increase the brightness of thelight. It is based on the same principle.

The invention of the hollow wick oil lamp (theArgand lamp) resulted in a light which wasseven times brighter than a candle. This lampwas used with various types of fuel inside theFresnel lens until the electric light bulb wasinvented.

The first lighthouse ever to use electricity inthis country was the Statue of Liberty in 1886.Yes, this special symbol of freedom was usedas a lighthouse in New York harbor for thefirst fifteen years of her existence.

A parabolic reflectorThe Argand lamp

An early whale oil fueled spider lamp.

Head of the Statue ofLiberty showing lights

on the coronet.

When were the first lighthouses built

in our country?

In colonial times, before we became anindependent nation, men realized the need forlighthouses at the major ports to help guideships into the harbors, to prevent them fromcrashing, and thereby losing their preciouscargoes. So, the first lighthouses were built bythe colonies (which were called states whenwe became the United States of America). Inthose days the ship owners had to pay a fee(toll) for the use of the lights which helpedcover the costs of their construction andmaintenance. Each ship which passed by alighthouse on its way into or out of a port paida tax based on the weight of the cargo it wascarrying. They paid a penny for each ton ofgoods on board ship. (You have to rememberthat in those days a penny was worth a lotmore than it is today.) Once we gained ourindependence from Great Britain and thefederal government took charge in 1789, thisfee was eliminated.

Most lighthouses werenamed for their location,but several were namedafter ships which wreckedthemselves nearby before alighthouse was built. Forexample: Carysfort, Fowey,Alligator Reefs, PigeonPoint and Ship John Shoal.Others were namedbecause of events whichoccurred there: CattlePoint, Dead Man’s Rock,Cape Disappointment,Destruction Island andExecution Rocks.

What is the difference between a

lighthouse and a light station?

A lighthouse is the tower itself containing thelantern room with the lamp which shines itslight. A light station (which is usuallyonshore, but occasionally on offshore islands)is the property containing all of the

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Above: A lighthouse all by itself.

Below: A light station with a lighthouse and buildings.

outbuildings (as many as eight) of the“station”, as well as the lighthouse toweritself. There were usually separate livingquarters (houses), depending on the numberof lighthouse keepers and assistants livingthere. Besides these there would probably bean oil (or fuel) house, a barn, a boat house,and a fog-signaling building.

Lights with no families living in them, (called “staglights” in some areas) were usually located on offshoreislands or reefs, and inhabited by men only. Theirquarters for sleeping, eating, and recreation werelocated on the various levels of the lighthouse itself.One room was located above the other and theywere connected by a winding staircase. It waspretty confining to have to live in that onebuilding, especially in the days before theinvention of the telephone, radio and TV. Theyhad to stay on the island for a certain period oftime before a tender (small boat) came outwith supplies and other keepers to relievethem of duty and give them some shore leave.If the weather was too rough for the boat tocome out, often they had to stay many extradays or even weeks before being taken toshore. In later years helicopters weresometimes used for transportation.

What were the duties of the

lighthouse keepers?

Before the days of electricity, they had tolight the lamp at sunset and extinguish it (put it out) at sunrise. During an 8 hourwatch at night they had to climb the stairsin the tower one to three times a night tocheck on the light and wind the weights.Some lighthouses have as many as twohundred steps! They earned the name“wickie” because one of the chores was totrim the burned lamp wick, so it wouldn’tsmoke and dirty the lens. The brass in thebuilding had to be shined, and all thewindows cleaned. Often it took a wholeday to clean and polish the lens alone. Itwas very important to keep both the lensand the lantern room windows clean sothe light would not be diminished(lessened) in any way. A daily log had tobe kept detailing everything from theweather to the amount of fuelconsumed. The Keeper alsohad to tend to the mechanismused to operate the fog signal.During the year many items had to bepainted. So the Keeper and his family were kept very busy.

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WatchRoom

LanternRoom

Galley(Kitchen)

LivingRoom

StoreRoom

Bedroom

Entrance

Galleries

What is the most important

aspect of the lighthouse?

Of course it is the light that shines outfrom the lantern room at the topwhich encloses and protects the lens.This lantern room is made of metaland glass which is divided intosections by pieces called astragals.Usually they run vertically (up anddown), but some run diagonally.

In this world, at every period inhistory, there have always been somepeople who did not want to work fora living, and tried to live off the sweatand toil of other people. During thelast century there were men alongcertain of our Eastern shores whowould lure ships to an isolated beachby shining lights to make the sailorsthink it was a safe harbor. When theship ran aground and the cargowashed ashore, they stole it and soldthe goods. They were called“mooncussers” because they operatedon nights when the moon was notshining. Another name for them was“wreckers.”

The false lights were called “Judaslights.” At one place in NorthCarolina, they tied a lantern around ahorse’s neck and walked him backand forth along the beach to lureships in to their destruction. That ishow the place called “Nag’s Head” gotits name.

What is happening to

lighthouses at present?

Today, all of the lighthouses in ourcountry have been automated, exceptthe one at Boston, which still haskeepers, for sentimental reasons only.(Boston light was the first one builton our shores.)

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A lantern room with a fixed first order Fresnel lens.

At left, vertical astragals. At right, diagonal astragals.

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Many of the lighthouses are no longer needednow due to advances in technology, and theyhave been or are being turned over to variousgovernment agencies or non-profit localorganizations to maintain and administer. It isimportant to keep them in good condition forfuture generations to learn about their placein the history of our country. And it is aspecial experience to be able to climb thestairs just as the keepers did and picture whatlife was like in times past. They also needprotection from vandalism and threats oferosion.

Esopus Meadows Lighthouse surrounded by icein the middle of the Hudson River in New York.

To discourage vandals, the Coast Guard paintedcurtains on the boarded-up windows. One also

has a cat painted in and another a flower pot.

THE STORY OF THE FLYING SANTA

Many years ago when lighthouse keepers andtheir families often had little communicationwith the outside world (1929) a man namedBill Wincapaw was flying in his small singleengine supply plane out of Rockland, Maine.An unexpected snow storm arose and he losthis bearings. If he hadn’t seen the beams fromthe lighthouses which guided him back toRockland, he probably would have perishedbecause he arrived there just as he wasrunning out of fuel.

He was so thankful for the faithfulness of thelighthouse keepers who manned the lightswhich guided him to safety that he decided toput together small Christmas packages for thekeepers and their families. Each year hedelivered them by plane dropping them at allthe lighthouses in the area near his home.Thus began the tradition of the “Flying Santa.”

Since most of these light stations werelocated in lonesome places they really lookedforward to this touch with the outside world.A few years after he started this Christmastradition he was replaced by Edward RoweSnow, a lighthouse author, who continued theflights himself until his death in 1982. At thatpoint the Hull Lifesaving Museum took overthe custom.

Mr. Snow wrote in one of his books of missingthe tower at Whaleback Light and realizingthat the bundle would be lost in the sea. So hecircled back and dropped another package.About three weeks later, ninety miles acrossthe bay, the first package was found.

A DOG NAMED SPOT

Spot was a springer spaniel who belonged to agirl named Pauline, the daughter of the keeperat Owl’s Head Light in Maine. This little dogloved everything about the lighthouseincluding the fog bell, and the ships thatpassed by in the bay. Whenever a boatreached a spot near the cliff, he had a habit ofrunning over to the rope attached to the fogbell and tugging on it vigorously with his teetha few times until it rang out over the water.When the boat answered with a whistle, hehappily dashed down to the shoreline andbarked.

One very stormy snowy night, the lighthousekeeper received a telephone call from thewife of the mailboat captain who was veryworried because her husband was alreadyseveral hours late. She knew about Spot andwondered if he might be able to hear the mailboat’s whistle. So the keeper let Spot out buthe returned in a little while and scratched tobe let in. Just as he was about to go to sleep,snuggled up in a cozy corner, he raised up onhis haunches, lifted his ears, and tensed hisbody. He had heard the mailboat’s whistle!

HUMAN INTERESTThere are many, many interesting stories of happenings

at lighthouses. The following are three that childrenmight enjoy hearing.

The keeper let him out again and off hescampered through snowdrifts to try to reachthe bell, but the snow had piled up too high.So he took off to a point high on the cliff,which was nearest to the boat and barkedaway. The keeper had followed the dog and itwas then that he heard the mailboat’s whistleand realized if the captain could hear thedog’s barking it would tell him where he wasin spite of the storm. Spot kept barkingfuriously and soon three blasts from themailboat’s whistle were heard in answer. Theyhad heard Spot’s barking and now they couldchart their course home. Spot had saved theboat from disaster!

THE ARMY OF TWO

Two young daughters of the lighthouse keeperat Scituate, Massachusetts performed aremarkable feat during the War of 1812.Rebecca and Abigail Bates were alone at thelighthouse one day in September of 1814when they saw the large British man-of-war LA HOGUE approach and anchor nearby.They sent their younger brother to town towarn the people of a possible attack. Fivelongboats from the ship started rowingtoward shore.

At this point Rebecca grabbed a drum andhanded her sister a fife. She started beatingthe drum while Abigail played the fife, usingfamiliar military tunes of the day. As theoarsmen neared the lighthouse, they playedlouder and louder until the British stoppedrowing. They began to wonder if Americantroops were mustering to fight them.

The commander of the warship heard themusic and ordered a gun fired signaling thelanding party to return. As they hastily left theharbor they fired a parting shot at thelighthouse which missed its mark. Rebeccaand Abigail collapsed on the beach inexhaustion but their “phantom army” hadsaved the town great loss of life and property.

(There is a more detailed account of this in the 1981issue of COBBLESTONE Magazine, 7 School Street,Peterborough, NH 03458)