Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1912-12-12
THE uNERRIN9; SUI S ii,
| It Is Uncle Sans Must Heliat..c
Lighthouse Keeper.
NEVER FaLTERS IN ITS WORK.
sy the Aid Of the Wonderful Sun Valve
I. Lights the Aeetylsne eeaeons a. u
Gets at Night and Extinsuishes Them
as It Rises In the Morning.

Il Lights the AcetyIene 6eacons - ~
Gets at Night and Extinsuishes Them
as It Rises In the Morning.
The sun Is the most trustworthy o..
light house keepers. The sun or th9
, heat from 1t lights many hundreds CT
eacons along our coasts ana water
y:,ys evening after evening and eX-
.i,iguishes them punctually every morn
ny. They are guides on land and sea-
hat are never touched by human hands
rom one months end to another. The
way in whirh the United States gov
eminent. through it's lighthouse board
has utilized the services Of the sun ana
made that great lamp Of heaven Il
faithful and unerring servant Is most
interesting.
The discovery of acetylene gas was
the first step toward retiring the lonely
keepers Of the little lights In faroh
places. Modern magic was not slow
in recognizing the fact that by the an
plication Of certain well known scicn-
tific principles the lighting of the greai
chains of beacOns that girdle tile coasts
Of the two seas and the gulf ana cover
the great lakes and every navigable
stream in our huge country could be
much simplified.
The United States did not become In
terested in the acetylene light and It's
automatically generating gas buoy unit
about the year 1906 and did not adop
it until 1908. Then the engineers OF
the lighthouse board devised som,
wonderful improvements. among the,.
the utilization Of the sun.
The self lighting and self extinguish
ing acetylene beacon is Il very simp.r
thing. but it depends almost entire.
ON the ''sun valve" which is one Of The
most wonderful but least complex Of
the achievements of modern science.
ln the first place. the source of light
for these lone beacons IL dissolved
acetylene. Which is stored under pres.
sure in steel cylinders One of these
cylinders can be charged with enough
gas to last a small beacon three years.
Usually. however, in the case Of float
ing buoys. II six months supply is all
that is necessary. as such buOyS are
Overhauled and painted twice year.
knowing the size of the flame and Its
hourly consumption Of gas. 1t is very
easy to compute how long cylinderful
will last and how often it will need to
be visited. That il all the care the
light will need. The sun valve does
the rest.
The scientific principle upon which
the sun valve depends is that light
waves become transformed in different
degrees, according to the nature of the
interceptIng body. Sunlight upon dark
surfaces Is converted into heat, and
heat produces expansion. This expan-
sion Is especially perceptible in certain
metals.
In carefully sealed and substantial
ly mounted glass jar nearly a foot
high and about one-fourth that in d.
ameter II thick black rod Is placed per-
pendicularly through the center. 1t is
supported by three slenderer rods Of
highly polished copper. The big black
rod is Of copper also and is coated with
lampblack to make 1t absorb light to
the greatest possible degree. The sup
porting rods reflect light without alb
sorbing it and do not expand or con
tract to the same extent as the largest
rod.
The thick black piece Of copper In
the center of the jar is extremely sen
sitive to light and heat. AS the sup
appears and the atmosphere grows
warmer in the morning this rod length
ems. 1t pushes down into the meta.
chamber in which the glass jar rests
and touches the end Of a lever. 1t
presses down on this lever. which il
controlled by spring and cuts Off the
flow of the gas to the lamp.
When the sun disappears from view
in the evening and the temperature Of
the air falls the process Is reversed
The rod contracts and releases its pres
sure on the lever, allowing the gas to
flow upward to the lamp. The gas Is
ignited by little pilot fame that Is
never extinguished. Thus the beacon
is lighted mt the proper time and is put
ont when 1t il no longer needed. al
though along desOlate coasts 1t may
never gladden. the human eye for
months ut time.
The engineers Of the lighthouse boarc
say that the precision Of this device IL
almost incredible. 1t can be used with
equal certainty in equatorial heat ana
in polar cold. for it responds with the
utmost accuracy to small variations IL
temperature. 1t is used on lonely is
lands in the Pacific. There are nearly
a hundred Of these sun valve beacOns
in Alaska. In summer they are aids
to navigation. and in winter they guild:
the travellers on dog sledges over the
frozen wastes Weekly.