Valdez daily prospector., 1914-06-20
Wonderful LIghtIng System
 Now Being Installed.
NEW TYPE FLASHING LIGHTS
Illuminated Buoys, eeacons and Range Towers Will Allow Continuous Pas sage of Ships-sun Will Control Gas-Its Flow to Be Regulated by the Solar Heat.

l 1uc lSutIHS SSStem uOW UeluS lu- stalled in and along the Panama canal Is so complete as practically to render night into day, so far as the great in- teroceanic waterway is concerned. In the Navy, the organ of the Navy League of the United States, is de- scription of the wonderful system of lights that is being installed.
 "The completed Panama canal" says the Navy, "has been called a new won der of the world. It is more than that. It is a combination of wonders united in one vast whole. Not least among these wonders is the system of light ing which has been installed through out the entire length of the waterway to enable vessels to utilize night as well as day in their passage.
 "The contract provided for the in- sta1latiop ef dftI:ssyen eomplsets s light buoys of the shape, size and dimen- sions specified by the 1sthm1aR Canal commission, together with installations in some of the beacons and range tow efs.
 Acetylene Lighted suoys. Accordingly the Panama canal is lighted throughout by automatic unat. tended lights, each having distinctive characteristic. At the entrances and through the Gatun lake the channel Is marked by double row of automatic acetylene lighted buoys. The channel is further defined by powerful, rapid flashing range lights, one set at either end of each successive tangent. Through the Culebra cut, or wherever the proximity of the banks permits, beacons will be used instead of buoys.
 "The illumination used is dissolved acetylene-that is, acetylene under pressure dissolved in a tank filled with a special porous mass and acetone. Ace tone has a solvent capacity of twenty five times its own volume per atmos- phere of pressure. The acetylene stor- ing capacity of the tank is accordingly ten times its own volume for each at mosphere of pressure. Therefore at a pressure of ten atmospheres a tank contains 100 times it's own volume of acetylene. Two or more of these tanks are attached to each buoy or installa | tiOn.
 '"The gas released from the tanks passes through governor or reducing chamber and from there into the fash ing chamber and then passes through a pipe to the main burner. where it Is ignited by constantly burning pilot fame The pilot flame is fed through a bypass direct from the governor.
 'The system shows an entirely new principle in flashes which permits the production of very large number of separate and distinct flashes compared with the older types of flashing lights. This new flasher may be adjusted to give light periods of any desired time down to one-tenth of second or less. alternating with dark intervals of any desired length. The principles of the system used are covered by the Dalen patents.
 The Sun Valve.
 Although not employed on buoys. but on many beacons and range lights. it may be of interest to give brief description of that ingenious invention of Mr. Dalen's. the sun valve. The sun valve controls the How of. gas to the burner, so that the light will burn only in darkness. It is actuated entirely by light, it's construction and operation being based on the well known phys ical law that body with light ab' sorbing surface attains higher tenn perature and consequently expands more than similar body with light reflecting surface when both are ex- posed to the same light.