The Daytona daily news. [volume] (Daytona, Fla.) 1903-1926, 1913-01-31
The UNERRINC sun
1t Is Uncle Sans Most Reliable
Lighthouse Keeper.
NEVER FALTERS IN ITS WORK.
BY the Aid of the Wonderful Sun Valve
II Lights the Aeetylene Beacons as 1t
Sets at Night and Extinsuishes Them
as II Rises In the Morning,

Sets AT NiSnt ana EErin9uishes Them
as 1t Rises In the Morning.
The sun is the most trustworthy of
lighthouse keepers. The sun. or the
heat from 1t lights many hundreds of
beacons along our coasts and water
ways evening after evening and ex-
tinguishes them punctuaIly every morn
ing. They are guides on land and sea
that are never touched by human hands
from one months end to another The
way IN which the United States gov
ernment, through its lighthouse board.
has utilized the services of the sun and
made that great lamp of heaven a
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 faroff
places. Modern magic was not slow
in recognizing the fact that by the APP
plication of certain well known scien-
tific principles the lighting of the great
chains of beacons that girdle the coasts
of the two seas and the gulf and 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 its
automatically generating gas buoy until
about the year 1906 and did not adopt
it until 1908. Then the engineers of
the lighthouse board devised some
wonderful improvements, among them
the utilization of the sun.
The self lighting and self extinguish-
ing aeetylene beacon is a very simple
thing. but it depends almost entirely
on the sun valve" which is one OF the
most wonderful but least complex OF
the achievements of modern science.
In the first place, the source of light
for these lone beacons is dissolved
acetylene. which is stored under pres
sure in steel cylinders One of these
cylinders can be charged with enough
gas to last small beacon three years.
Usually. however, in the case of float
ing buoys. six months supply is all
that Is necessary. as such buoys are
overhauled and painted twice a year.
Knowing the size of the flame aud its
hourly consumption of gas, it is very
easy to compute how long cylinderful
will last and how often it will need to
be visited. That is 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
interceptlng body. Sunlight upon dark
surfaces is converted into heat. and
heat produces expansion. This expan-
sion is especially perceptible in certain
metals.
In a carefully sealed and substantial
~ mounted glass jar nearly foot
/ high and about one-foHrth that in di-
ameter 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 it absorb light to.
the greatest possible degree. The sup
porting rods reflect light without abb
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 sem
sitive to light and heat As the sun
appears and the atmosphere grows
warmer in the morning this rod length
I ems 1t pushes down into the metal
I chamber in which the glass jar rests
! and touches the end of lever It
I presses down on this lever. which is
/ 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 a little pilot fame that Is
| never extinguished. Thus the beacon
| is lighted at the proper time and is put
/ out when it is no longer needed. a.
| though along desolate coasts 1t may
never gladden. the human eye fox
months at a time.
! The engineers of the lighthouse L. /.
say that the precision Of this deYice d
almost incredible 1t can be used with
| equal certainty in equatorial heat and
| in polar cold, for it responds with the
! utmost accuracy to small variations tn
temperature. 1t is used on lonely is
| lands in the Pacific. There are nearly
| hundred of these sun valve beacons
! in Alaska. In summer they are aids
/ TO navigation, and in winter they guide
| the travellers on dog sledges over the
frozen wastes.-Harper's Weekly.