The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-01-29
THE HAsKIN Letter
LIGHTING THE COAST LINE

Along 46,S2S miles OF coastline and
river channels, the United States
lighthouse service maintains 14,19S
lights and fog signals for the aid Of
navigation. There are enough Of
these to place one every two miles
around the equator. and 1862 men are
employed In tending them. Yet this
service is constantly growing, and
has much work before II In the safe
|lguarding of dangerous shoals and the
'headAnds. During the last year
there was an increase OF 81 in the
number of aids to navigation main
tanned by the service.
There are few branches of the gov
ernMent service which offer wider
field for mechanical ingenuity, or in
where practicable labor saving devic-
es are more valuable than In the light
house service. II a signal or light
can be made to operate readily with
out tender, either all or part of the
time the greater expense in It's
maintenance Is eliminated. Experi-
ments with automatic aids to nayiga-
ltion are constantly being carried on,
and some very interesting ones have
have been made within the last year.
One OF these is q self-iring gus gun,
which will continue to discharge at
regular intervals as long US the sup
ply Of acetylene gas, by which 1t Is
operated. lasts. Such signals have
been in use along the coast OF the
british Isles for some years, and one
OF them was installed by the United
States service as an experiment. 1t
was found to be reliable in operation,
but the short, sharp noise OF an ex-
plosion was not considered an ade-
quate fog warning by American sea
men, because 1t is not OF sufficient
duration 10 enable them to deter
mine the direction from which it
comes. Naturally, sound Of vague
location In q fog is worse than none.
On the Great Lakes experiments
are being made with unmatched acety-
lene lights, which will be left by the
keeper after the regular navigation
season is over to furnish aid to be-
lated mariners.
A Another labor saving device recent
4 ly put into use is thermostat alarm
by which the keeper is automatical-
Il ly warned when his light burns eth
err too high or too low, the varla-
ton in the heat operating the alarm.
II Several classes of aids to nayiga-
n ton are maintained by the service.
n the first class. light and fog signal
stations, are located upon all OF the
more prominent and dangerous points
along the coastline. The burden that
is placed upon the nations in safe
Il guarding marine commerce Is shown
4 by the fact that we'll light coast
/ must have It's lights close enough to-
X gether so that a vessel may have one
4 in sight all of the time in the clear
h weather.
The smaller lights mark ilarbor en-
frances, river channels, and minor
dangers. New York harbor and its
entrance is protected by 26S aids to
navigation, including shore lights,
light vessels and lighted buoys.
The lighting Of the worlds coast
lines is a task which will never be
complete, for the action Of tides and
currents constantly changes the prob
| lem, as do also variations in the path
of commerce.
gives play for both engineering and
architectural skill. In order to be vis-
ible from the deck of a vessel twenty
nautical miles away, light must
be two hundred feet above the level
of the sea, as the curvature of the
earth's surface would otherwise con-
ceal it. At the same time, the light
house must often be placed upon a
tiny island or a barren cliff where
it will be pounded by the surf and
buffeted by the wind. Strength and
simplicity Of construction, combined
with commanding position, give many
of the lighthouses striking beauty.
i Stannard Rock light, which marks
! the most dangerous reef in Lake SUI
perfor, is farther from shore than any
other American light, being "a nauti-
cal miles out, and situated in eleven
feet OF water. Spectacle Reef light
house in Lake Huron is ten miles from
shore, and stands in water ten feet
deep. Both of these remarkable tow,
!, ers were built by constructing cof-
fer dam. pumping out the water, lev
cling off to bed rock, and building the
lighthouse of solid stone upon that.
PerhaDs the most daringly perched
lighthouse in the world is that on
\ Tlllamook Rock south OF the Column
bia river and about one mile from
shore. Landing on the rock was SO
difficult that man was lost in the
attempt The top of the rock had to
be blasted off in order to make room
for the lighthouse, which, when fin
ally completed after great difficulty
stood 1876 feet above the level Of high
water. Despite this fact, the keepers
reported that in a great storm in
4 1887, the seas broke over tho top OF
the building. The windows were
smashed, the light put out, and q
part Of the rock torn away; but the
tower stood.
On the Florida keys, pyramidal iron
towers are used, the highest Of which
is the one at Sombrera key. which,
lifts its light 142 feet above the wat
GAL UNDERESTIMATE -.
err. The keepers quarters are hung
on the iron framework, and are 81
feet above the water.
Being keeper Of lighthouse must
be ranked as hazardous occupation