The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1902-11-05

by being shot to many angles.
A bivalYe light of the fourth order
will throw a flash Of 5000 candle poM er
from a light of only go candle power
Only a few Of them have been in
stalled as yet. Their cost is heavy, a
third-order lens costing $4,000.
One of these bivalYe lights has been
installed in the famous Navesink
lighthouse, overlooking Sandy Hook.
Although not a first order light. the
new lens makes it one of the most
powerful in the world. 1t throws a
flash every five seconds, and the Light
house Department has a report from
a sea captain, who declares that he
saw the fash seVenty-fiye miles at
sea. If he was correct. what he saw at
that distance must have been the re-
Election of the flash on the sky; for the
Navesink tower is 246 feet above the
sea, and consequently the extreme
limit at which the eye could see the
light directly is only twenty-five and
one-quarter miles. the curvature Of
the earth precluding any greater reach
But the light is so powerful that it is
certain that its illumination Of the sky
and sea can be seen from distance
many miles beyond the direct reach of
it's rays. When twenty miles away
from it, it's glare is so binding in
clear weather that the eye is dazzled
and panied by it.
The bivalve dight. of course, must be
revolved much more quickly than any
cylindrical lens, according to its class,
the problem was a difficult one in prac-
teal mechanics, since all the lights of
the country are revolved by clock
work. A system of chariot wheels
mounted on beautiful steel ball bear
ings has been perfected now that car
ries these great masses of ground
glass so smoothly that the touch of
finger is sufficient to set them revolv-
ing Once, as an experiment, mighty
third-order lens was set to revolving
In the lighthouse headquarters at
Tompkinsville, States Island, by man
with powerful lungs who blew at it I'M
til it turned.
Another big Improvement in the eff
ficiency of the lighthouse service is the
final construction of an apparatus that
will burn acetylene gas perfectly.
Scores of plans have been tried only to
be rejected, but now the department
feels fairly certain that it has sue
ceeded.
The value of acetyline gas for coast
lights does not lie in its illuminating
power. Kerosene oil has been found
to be the most satisfactory in all re
spects for all kinds of lights. But
acetylene gas is of great value with the
hundreds of lights that are not in the
care of keepers, but are simply lighted
and left burning day and night. Small
lights set on bars and reefs, range
lights set along shore and on hilltops,
and many lesser lights in harbors and
estuaries are kept going this way.
The trouble with kerosene is that at
ter a time the wick carbonizes and
the light fails before the kerosene in
the reservoir is exhausted. With the
new apparatus for making and burning
acetylene gas Their is no such trouble,
and the burners will last at least as
long as the gas holds out. Lights have
been kept burning for sixty days and
nights without needing attention.
The method cannot be applied to
light buoys or other floating lights, as
the proper production and government
of the supply Of gas demand that water
shall reach the chemicals only in
strictly regulated quantities So that
class of light still must continue to de-
pend on ordinary gas and kerosene for
fuel. For this purpose immense iron
tanks are used. On their tops is a cage
in which the lens is set. Immense
chains are shackled to the bottom, and
queer cast-iron mushroom anchor
holds them in position. These mush-
room anchors or sinkers are so shaped
that they work themselves deep into
the mud or sand and after a few weeks
cannot be dislodged, even by the huge
derricks Of the lighthouse tenders
When it is desired to take up buoys Of
this kind-as in the winter when the
ice threatens then1-they are I'M
shackled from the chains and dragged
aboard, and big wooden spars are fas-
tened to the chains to serve as marks
until the danger is past.
While every year sees more or less
damage to lighthouses and beacons
there is only one spot along the coast
that has defied the lighthouse builders
successfully, and that is Diamond
Shoals, off Cape Hatteras, the most
dangerous place in the lighthouse SER
vice A lighthouse engineer will get
mot in the collar" if it is suggested
that this spot has defeated the depart
ment He will say that a lighthouse
can be built there and built to stay
He will point to the lighthouse that
finally was constructed and has re-
manned at he mouth of the Elbe, a
worse spot than even Diamond Shoals.
But the question of money prevents
A lighthouse on Diamond Shoals would
cost too much.
So this year, as in previous years, d
lightship will hang on to the bottom
there with it's anchors like grim death,
with all on board praying that it will
continue to hang on. A somewhat
alarming comment on the beauty of
the station is to be observed in the de-
partment's directions for the year:
Light vessels number II to y will be
used on this station alternately" Each
of these ships is fitted so that she can
move under her own steam, so she will
not be an absolutely helpless hulk
when she breaks away from her moor
ing in a bowling gale, as she will more
than once in this coming winter
Lightship number &c. also built to go
under her own steam, was driven from
her anchorage six times in four
months, but managed to steam back to