Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1890-03-21
COAST SENTINELS.
INFORMATION ABOUT ADIERI
CAN LIGHTHOUSES.
Tho Different Buildings and Lamps
Notable American Lighthouses;
Number of Persons Employed
and the Cost of Maintenance.

Lighthouse BOard gives Tor this country
sdonc the following grand showing of
our coast scntinels: In 1888 there were
2230 lighted and 1896 unighted aids,
making a grand total of 1926 aids to
navigation, consisting OF lighthouses,
graded from the first to the sixth order,
lightships, fog signals, day bcacons and
buoys Of every description. The report
further goes on to state that in the con-
struction, care and maintenance ofthesc
various aids are employed twcnty-scvcn
vessels which arc used in the construc-
ton of the different works and in carry
ing supplies; the service also giving
employment in different capacities of
light keepers, crews of lightships and
laborcrs to 3035 people.
AS it was found necessary that each
signal should present something peculiar
TO itself that would render it protector
in truth and not misguiding and con-
fusing Indicator, variety Of lights was
introduced. The complete system as
used ut present comprises eight varieties
namely: fixed white, fixed red, flash
ing white, flashing red, fixed white varied
by red flashes, fixed white varied by red
and white flashes and flashing red and
white alternately. Only the two colors,
white and red, are employed, the latter
color being obtained by either using n
chimney of ruby glass or panels of red
glass outside the lens; red is thus chosen
as being the one color whose rays, above
all others, best penetrate the thick and
murky atmosphere of fog.
Of the 2230 lighted aids to navigation
fifty-two arc what are termed first order
lights. The height of the towor is re-
gulatcd by the elevation of land on which
it is placed, and the angle of vision sea-
ward that is desirable to establish, and as
it is necessary that by day rs well rs by
night distinct difference should exist be-
tween the different stations, variety of
shapes, number of buildings, differ
cnt coloring and different combinations
of color are employed to give to each
station its own idiosyncr;lsics, making it
a totally separate and individual thing
from any other of its fellows.
Tho Absccon Light, Atlantic City,
n. j., which divides with the Fire Island
Light the honor of being the first land
mark disccrncd by incoming vessels, is
1877 feet high, and to give some idea of
the thickness of its walls, it will be sufii-
cicnt to say that while the outside diam
ctcr mt its base is twcnty-six feet ten
inches, the interior measurement is but
ten feet. Its color or day mark is white
part of the way from the base of the
tower, and it completes its individuality
by two horizontal stripes Of red and
1,-hitn fnr thn rputnin1nr ,,f In Il
upward.
The oldest lighthouse in the United
States is the Boston Light, on Little
Brewster Island, at the main entrance to
Boston Harbor. 1t is II light of the sec
ond order, flashing every thirty seconds,
thrown from tower Ill feet above sea
level and visible for sixteen and n half
miles. So greatly was this light cs-
tccmcd that in 171S, when the first
keeper, IL certain George Worthylakc,
lost his life in Il storm, together with
that of his wife and daughter, Benjamin
Franklin wrote ballad thereon and
hawkcd it about the streets OF Boston.
During the Revolution this light passed
to and fro between the British and
Americans, until, when the British fleet
evacuated Boston Harbor, it vas blown
up by them. It wns, however, restored
by Massachusetts in 1888, and rebuilt in
its present shape in 1859.
The Farallon Light, on the largest of
the Faralon Islands, off the entrance to
San Francisco Bay, CAL, commands the
surrounding sea from the great height of
3G0 feet. 1t is lonely enough, this
Farallon Light, with its conical, white
tower perchcd upon the very highest
point of the rock, with no ncighbors
save the screaming gulls, and weird
and mournful sound issuing from the
depth of the rock every forty-five sec
onds, II first-class steam siren or fog horn
occupying n subterranean cave.
The well-protcctcd Boston Harbor can
also boast of another fine light, the cele-
DRAFTED AIinot's Ledge Light, founded
veritably on Il rock, holes twelve inches
in diameter and five feet deep being
drilled therein to receive the heavy
wrought iron piles on which this octagon
tower is built. Such is the present struc-
ture, the first one being swept away in
1851 after the labor of eleven years having
been expended upon it. So important
was this warning signal considered, that
in May, 1855, the work of rebuilding it
was begun, and completed in 1860, and
as the sun went down on the evening. of
November Is of that year. the magnifi-
cent star of NIlnot's Ledge Light shonc
out steady and clear from its tower. The
"Outer Minot's," on which this light
stands, has rarely surface greater than
twenty-five feet, which is left uncovered
by the sea; the lighthouse tower is
therefore the realm in which the keepers
must live and move and have their being.
The structure is divided into five stories,
withn sixth compartment directly under
the lantern, constituting the keepers
rooms, store rooms, etc, and the entire
ost.of this light was 100000.
Such structures arc likely to be super
seeded by towers of iron instead of masonry,
as being lighter and especially adapted to
sites, where altitude and lightncss CT
weight are both indispensable. The two
representative ones of this order are those