Kansas agitator. [volume] (Garnett, Kan.) 1890-1905, 1904-09-16


A wave came swirling round the
masonry, hurled our small boat into
The air and then went Swimming off
toward the shore a mile away. The
motor snorted disgustedly. We were
still on the LAUNCH.
Hang it ALL" shouted Dwyer, you
fellows have got to catch that ladder
between waves or we'll be here all
day. Besides, can't hold her on
much longer" He strained on his
iron-tipped boat hook.
Above us rose ninety-six feet Of
solid masonry. Straight up the side
an iron ladder, slippery with moss
and barnacles, reached to little eye
of door, the object of our desire,
where two men shouted in derision,
for the reporter, brought up by the
sea, was ill-very ill-and longed for
the steady floors of the lighthouse.
The artist, who was western man
and knew naught of the sea, placidly
fished for perch and caught sculpins
with a reel that was manifestly in
tended for nothing larger than min
nows.
Another wave rounded the light, and
this time the third man of the party
an Australian who was visiting the
reporter, caught the ladder and COM
menced the ascent, followed by the
other two.
To one who has an aversion to high
places, the getting up this ladder is a
fearful thing. The door is forty feet
from the water, and seems 400; but
the alternative is being tied in a
chair and pulled up from above with
the delightfully."- erratlc motion of a
derrick manned by men. With little
cold shivers running up and down his
spine, the reporter crawled through
the door at the top of the ladder, and
the first thing he did on arriving in
side was nearly to fall down a well
into thirty-eight feet of water. This
was the first OF several surprises. The
we'll is actually there.
If it ever occurred to one to figure
out how the men on Minot's light get
their water, the guess probably did
not include the possibility of a well,
but there it is. 1t is filled once year
by a water boat from Boston, and the
statement of the keeper is that the
last bucket is always as fresh as the
first.
The party was welcomed by Keeper
]. E. Frates and his assistant, Roscoe
G. Lopaus, and were speedily initi-
ated into the mysteries of the light
that guards one of the most dangerous
lodges in the bay. The lenses were
the chief attraction, and to reach
them it was necessary to go up five
stories through the lamp room, the
guard rooms, the kitchen, and the
sleeping quarters of the crew, and
very interesting they proved to be.
The rooms are necessarily round, of
course, and a spiral stairway runs
up through the whole lighthouse, COM
mencing at the lower floor. From this
point down the light is solid granite
blocks dovetailed together and built
six feet thick around the well.
After strict instructions to touch
nothing and promises to behave, the
party were allowed, one by one, to
enter the lens chamber, the important
feature of the establishment. 1t was
rather surprising to find that the little
dot that flashes 143, 143, all night is
but a small part of the whole scheme
of the lens. One rather expected it to
be very large because so bright.
The lens itself is glass chamber
about six or seven feet across, that
floats in mercury somewhere below,
and which revolves by clockwork
around the lantern. The glass is cut
into prisms, so that the whole lens
looks as much like a dashboard as
anything, although very much larger.
The object of these prisms is not to
throw the light out, but to reflect it
back into the chamber on to the bulls
eyes of the opposite side which throw
the beam.
This lighthouse is not now a fixed
light. as it was formerly, but is re-
volving, showing the number 143. And
so these bullseyes, IL inches in dame