Wichita eagle., 1889-05-21
Daily = Eagle
LIGHTS FOR MARINERS.
Electricity Rapidly Supplanting All
Kinds Of Mineral Oils.

But rs Yet 1t Can Not Be Made to Pens-
trate Fog as Well as Other nlumi-
nants-Old and New Lighting Meth
ods-Experiments Made Recently.
The last century has seen very consfd-
cradle Increase in the number of light
houses and ught-vessels on the various
coasts of the world. Consequently, with
the enormous increase In the number of
coast lights very great improvements have
from time to time been effected In their
efficiency, says the New York Tines An
cient lighthouses were erected on promi-
nent parts Of the coast beyond actual at
tack by the sea, and in many instances they
were at considerable distances from navi-
gable waters; and so with their Pickering
and feeble wood and coal fires they were
far from efficient as aids to mariners. So
slowly was lighthouse illumination de-
veloped that the last coal-fre beacon on the
coast OF England was not replaced by oil
until 1922
Modern engineering efforts, however, in
directing the great sources of power in
nature for the convenience of mankind,
may be said to have begun about two hun
dred years ago with the first Eddystone;
efforts which, followed up, have been so
successful in converting hidden dangers
Into sources Of safety, thereby assuring the
safe guidance Of the hardy toilers of the sea.
In 1859 the Eddystone lighthouse was illu-
minated by twenty.four candles weighing
two-ffths Of pound each. No optical ap-
paratus, however, was used for condensing
their radiant light and directing 1t to the
surface of the sea. At the current price Of
tallow candles the cost per hour IN those
days was sufficient to provide mineral oil
light at the focus of modern optical ap-
paratus which would produce q beam Of
about twenty-four hundred times the in
tensity
In the invention of the cylindrical wick
lamp by Argand much more efficient focal
iuminary was provided than the fat wick
lamp previously employed, and 1t was very
soon generally adopted for both fixed and
revolving lamps. Another very important
invention, also by Frenchman, was thai
OF the dioptric system of Fresnel and the
addition Of second, third and fourth con-
centric wick. The slow progress made with
coal gas abroad was chiefly due to the great
cost incurred IN obtaining the proper quail
ity of the refined article Cola, or cabbage
seed oil, was the kind most generally used.
Experiments were also made by throwing
oxygen to the middle of fame derived
from the combustion of fatty oils, which
gave an increased intensity over that of the
fame of the large oil burner-not sufficient,
however, to justify the greatly increased
cost.
In 1857 there were some experiments
made In England with direct current mag
neto-electric machines for the production Of
the arc light, which gave such promising
results that practical trial was made in
0ne Of the English lighthouses, happy ex-
ample OF steel magnets being made, not
only TO guide the mariner On his course, as
in the case of the compass, but also to warn
aim Of danger. The irregularities Of the
current not being sufficiently under control
in those early days of electrical machinery,
constant substitution Of oil was neces-
sary, and as 90 advantage Of brilliancy can
counteThalance the want of certainty in sig
mails for the guidance Of the navigator, no
further steps were taken at that time to
develop the electric light in England. But
in France it met With more encouragement,
and there was established at Cape La Hove
a system of electric illumination that seems
TO haye been very much more of success
than was the case across the channel
In 1877 the Lizard lighthouses on the
south coast of Cornwall Were lighted by
electricity, many of the former serious diff
Culties having been overcome. In the
meantime the successful development of
the electric arc light acted as keen slim
illus to inventors Of burners for producing
oil luminaries for lighthouse illumination.
Gas and the Drummond or lime light were
both experimental with and attention was
directed to the question of substituting min
eral oil for COLA; but owing to the imper-
fectly-refned mineral oil and its high price,
the results at that time were not found to
be so satisfactory as to justify a change
from the vegetable oil
The time, however, was at hand when 1t
was absolutely necessary that an exhaust
I've series Of experimental trials should be
made on practical scale for the exact de-
termination Of the relative efficiency and
economy Of electricity, gas and mineral oil
as lighthouse illuminants. The South Fore
land station, Eng, was selected On &C
count of the existing facilities for observa-
tons on land and sea, and the experiments
were from time TO time witnessed by repre-
sentatives of almost every country. A
period of twelve months was devoted to the
tests, which were watched by numerous OBJ
servers, trained and unframed, scientific
and practical The general results of the
nluminants demonstrated that the oil and |
gas lights, when shown through similar
lenses, were equally affected by atmospher-
10 variation, that the electric light was
absorbed more largely by maze and fog
than either the oil or the gas light, and that |
all three were nearly equally affected by |
rain. The conclusion arrived at was that /
for ordinary necessities Of illumination
mineral oil was the most suitable and /
economical lluminant, and that for sa-
lent headlands, important landfalls, and /
places where very powerful light is
required, electricity offers the greatest ad-
In the repeated experiments electricity |
has from time to time gained so much |
ground, owing to the increased develop |
ment and greater control, that its many
friends claim that when another series Of |
trials is made the verdict will be still more
favorable 10 its use, aud that it viii not be
many years before it will reach that degree
OF perfection that will insure its successful |
Introduction as an illuminant in all of our
principal lighthouses. Experiments have
for some time been made with the view Of
having the continuous current introduced
In place of the alternating now IN use
wherever electricity is lighthouse illu-
plinant, and thus far they have been very
successful The trouble heretofore has
been that the high currents have burned
away the carbons with such rapidlty as to
throw the light out of focus, and It is to
this particular point that the attention Of