The San Francisco call., 1910-08-30
DAYS OF LIGHTHOUSE
HEROES ARE PASSING
Science to Snuff Out Historic
Life Savers

Science is preparing to snuff out one
more of the romantic figures that have
fascinated poets and novelists for many
generations. The days of the light
house keeper who stands his lonely vigil
amid the roar of waves on stern and
rockbounJ coasts are numbered.
His place will be taken by a machine
if discovery announced recently does
all that preliminary trials promise for
it, and the crews of ships struggling
against wind and waves to keep off
the rocks of a stormy night will no
longer be comforted by the knowledge
that there are other human beings
safely housed in the tower from which
warning beams of light are flashing
James w. Pattison of Philadelphia
described the invention, which bids
fair to revolutionize the country's
lighthouse service, in a paper at the
morning session of the International
acetylene association meeting at the
Congress hotel. Experiments are now
being conducted by the department of
commerce and labor at a lighthouse
on the Connecticut coast, and so far
have been successful.
A Swedish scientist, G. Delen of
Stockholm, Is the inventor of the in
strument which takes the last oppor-
tunity for usefulness from the keeper
of the light. Hereafter it will be
necessary only to replenish the lamps
with fuel once each year and have a
few inspectors to visit the lighthouse
occasionally to see that everything is
in good working order, and lenses and
refectors are kept bright, says the
Chicago Post. Whenever it becomes
too dark to see either day or night the
darkness will automatically turn on
the light and when 1t becomes light
once the lamp will be turned out. The
mechanical effect of light rays will ac-
complish this Automatic valves in
the lamp will cause it to flash with
much the same effect as a revolvin G
light does now and, as there will be no
machinery to keep running, an attend
ant will not be required.
AS described by Mr. Pattison, the
Swedish invention by which the lamps
will be turned on at night and off at
dawn consists of a glass tube inclos-
ing several rods of different reflective
! powers. The reflected rays are of suf-
! ficient strength to open valve and
hold it there until the light weakens
| when the valve descends and cuts of
| the supply of gas to the lamp. The
| instrument is meant to work in con-
nection with acetylene lamps. which
| are now generally used in American
| lighthouses.
| Automatically flashing lights have
| already D0en uS6u successfully Dy Lie
| government in buoys and no difficulty
! in extending their use to lighthouses Is
anticipated. Automatic valves by which
| acetylene gas is alternately turned or
| and off accomplish the flash, the light
! continuing to burn in this manner as
| long as the charge of acetylene lasts
| 1t is claimed that buoys can be made
| which will burn without attention OF
recharging for two years. A buoy
which needs recharging only once a
year is now in use on the Alaskan
| coast The tanks of these buoys are
! filled with aeetone, kind of alcohol
| and this absorbs enough gas to last a
| year or longer.
1t is claimed for the new invention
| that, in addition to effecting tre-
| mendous saving in the cost Of main
| tanning lighthouses, 1t will be possible
! to anchor large buoys which will serve
| all the purposes of lighthouses at dan
| gerous points where it would be i'm
| possible or very costly to erect light
! towers. Particular advantage will be
/ taken of this along the Alaskan coast
| where sea traffic is increasing rapidly
and there are many dangerous reefs
J and islands now unmarked.