The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1914-03-12
TITANIC MEMORIAL LIGHT HOUSE

by the sea breezes and needed the
frequent use of the bellows TO keep II
alight. There we're many complaints
about the poorness of the lights and
the lanterns were subsequently re-
moved. but coal or wood fires re-
NAMED In use till 1922.
Candles were next thought OF, but
these again had obvious disadvan-
tages. for the great heat generated in
the lantern melted the candles and
thus diminished the intensity of the
light. The wicks also required the
constant use Of snuffers, and this
again was a serious disadvantage.
The use OF oil was not universally
| adopted until the middle of the eigh-
teenth century, while soon afterward
contrivances were adopted for increas-
ing the light by means Of refiectors.
Gas was first used as an illuminant
in the early part of the nineteenth
century, but only for lighthouses on
piers and harbors near gas works.
! and it was not until 1866 that gas
was used at out of the way light
! houses. Soon afterward electricity
and limelight were introduced; and
! these, gas and oil are now the princi-
! pal illuminants employed.
1t was toward the middle Of the
eighteenth century that schemes for
distinguishing one light from another
were introduced, and the first device
OF this kind was invented, strange as
II may seem, by a barber of Lynn
called Robert Hamblin. The method
by which lights are varied nowadays
consists of hiding the light shown for
certain number of seconds. Thus
one lighthouse may show a single
fash every 10 seconds, another three
flashes in quick succession every 30
seconds. and yet another may show a
light for 30 seconds and then be OBJ
scured for ten seconds and so on.
These methods. combined with the en-
ployment of white, red and green
lights, provide many different varie-
ties of lights and thus form a ready
means of distinguishing one from the
other, as no two lights on our coast
are exactly the same.
Bell on the inehcape Rock.
The present Bell Rock lighthouse lie
I situated of Arbroath, and this Is the
place, 1t will be remembered, that has
; been immortalized in the poem OF "Sir
= Ralph the Rover" where
The good old abbot Of Aberbrothock
: Had placed that bell on the Inchcape rock
! On buoy, In the storm, 1t fioated and
r swung,
And over the waves It's warning rung
/. The first time lighthouse was
' erected on an isolated rock was in the
!. case Of the first Eddystone lighthouse
,, completed by Winstanley in 1898
4 where tallow candles we're used as ar
9 illuminant. The tower was polygona
: in form, which the ornamentatior
! above offered great resistance to the
!. wind. This lighthouse, however, stood
till 1903, when it was knocked dowr
q by the sea, and Winstanley himself
. and all the occupants persisted Tn,
p next Eddystone was completed II
) 17OS by Rudyard, and this was com
. pletely destroyed by fire in December
: 1855. IL had been constructed o
= wood. and the next tower, OF granite
. was erected by John Smeaton ant
: stood from 1858 TO 1881. In 1879
however, it was discovered that tn,
+, rock on which it stood was being un
4 dermined by the action OF the waite
= and this necessitated the building o
!. a new tower on a neighboring rocl
!. with more secure foundations. Thi
!. tower was completed in 1881, whel
a the old Smeaton lighthouse was re
Is moved to the Hoe at Plymouth, wher
d II now stands.