The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1890-04-18
COAST SENTINELS.
INFORMATION ABOUT AAIERI-
CAN LIGHTHOUSES.
The Different Buildings and Lamps
Notable American Lighthouses
Number OF Persons Employed
and the Cost of Maintenance.

alone tne loloWihg grand showing o
our st sentinels: In 1888 there wer
223d at hted and 1896 unlighted aids
In.l...z grand total of 1926 aids t,
E7-,ation, consisting of lighthouses
graded from the first to the sixth order
lightships, fog signals, day beacons anC
buoys Of every description. The repor
further goes on to state that in the con
struction, care and maintenance of these
various aids are employed twenty-sever
vessels winch are 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
laborers to 3OS5 people
AS it was found necessary that each
signal should present something peculiar
to itself that would render it a protector
IN truth and not n misguiding and con-
fusing indicator. variety of lights was
introduced. The complete system as
used at present comprises eight varieties
namely: fixed white, fixed red, flash
ing white, flashing red, fixed white varied
by red fashes, 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
chimney Of ruby glass or panels of red
glass outside the lens; red is thus chosen
as being the one color whose rays, above
ali Others, best penetrate the thick and
murizv atmosphere OF q fog.
OF the 2230 lighted aids to navigation
fifty-two are what are termed first order
lights. The height of the tower is re-
galatsd by the elevation of land on which
1t IS placed, and the angle of vision sea-
ward that IS desirable to establish, and as
1t is necessary that by day as well as by
night distinct difference should exist be-
tween the different stations, variety Of
shapes, number Of out-buildings, differ
ent eoloring and different combinations
Of color are employed to give to each
station its own idiosyncrlsies, making it
a totally separate and individual thing
from any other Of its fellows.
The Absecon Light, Atlantic CITY,
n. J., which divides with the Fire Island
Light the honor Of being the first land
mark discerned by incoming vessels, is
167 feet high, and to give some idea of
the thickness of its walls, it will be suffi-
cient to say that while tle outside diam
eter at its base is twenty-six feet ten
inches, the interior measurement is but
ten feet. Is 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 |
white for the remainder of the distance
upward
The oldest Lighthouse in the United |
States is the Boston Light, on Little
Brewster Island, at the main entrance to
Boston Harbor It is q light of the Sec
ond order, iashH every thirty seconds, |
thrown from a IL sr III feet above sea
level and visible for sixteen and a half /
miles. So greatly was this light es-
teemed that in 171S, when the first
keeper, a certain George Korthylaze, |
lost his life in a storm, together with /
that OF his wife aud daughter, Benjamin
Franklin wrote ballad thereon and I
hawked 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 was blown
up by them. It was, however, restored
By slslassaelusetts IN ! 7s3, and rebuilt IN
lis present shape in 1853.
The Farallon Light, on the largest Of
the Farallon Islands, off the entrance to
San Francisco Bay, Cal, commands the
surrounding sea from the great height Of
800 feet. 1t is lonely enough, this
Faralion Light, with its eonical, white
tower perched upon the very highest
point Of the rock, with no neiehbors
save the screaming gulls, and a weird
and mournful sound issuing from the
depth Of the rock every forty-five Sec
onds, tirst-class steam siren or fog horn
occupying a subterranean cave.
The well-proteeteI Boston Harbor can 4
also boast q another fine Eight, the cele-
bratea Mlnot's Ledge Light, founded
veritably on a 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-
turs, 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, 1856, the work Of rebuilding it
was begun, and completed in 1860, and
IS the sun went down on the evening of
November IS Of that year, the magnif-
cent star Of AlInot's Ledge Light SHINE
1ut steady and clear from its tower. The
Outer lAinots, on which this light
ilands, has rarely surface greater than
twenty-five feet, which IS left uncovered I
y the sea; the lighthouse tower Is J
therefore, the realm in which the keepers
must live and move and have their being.
The structure is divided into Eve stories,
With sixth compartment directly under I
he lantern, constituting the keepers t
-oomss store rsoms, etc, and the entire 7
sost Of this light was $500. 600. a
Such structures are likely to be super i
eded by towers OF iron instead ofmasonrv, e
s being lighter and especially adapted to b
ties, where altitude and lightness Of f
'eight are both indispensable. The two b
ones Of this order are those e
n the Fowey Rocks and American Shoals. b
florida, and which rest on iron piles al
uyen into fonad- ton Of coral rock. n
be inst OF these iins structures built at
'oBey Rocks, at the northern extremity D.
Fiorida Res, vas begun in the spring c.
1857, and completed on June Is, S
SO, the whole sum expended being al
ut Sl75. 900 h.
Lighthouses are divided into various A
riders, from first 10 sixth, according to
be Strength Of lens apparatus. They are OF
laced on eapes, rocks aad headlands. and sa
airy from eighteen TO twenty-seyen nan CT
cal miles in the carrying power Of their
ghts. Second and third ord,f 6gbts
re employed to marx islands. reefs
lndbars, etc, while the lights Of an in, -
srior order are used at the entrances 10 :.
arbors and chaane.-. The river rohts y
re yery simple in their arrangements. 3
Of pole with an arm at its l !
'p to support a lantern, or sometimes an -
on spindle inserted into the rock in the -
ed Of the river. =
Pier-head lights arc peculiar to the =
arbors Of the great lakes, and are two ~ ~
D