Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-08-25
LIGHTHOUSE WORK
DESCRIBED BY KING
Broadcast Reveals KnoWl-
edge Required of Modern
/ Keepers.

The modern lighthouse keeper must
be more of a technician than his pre-.
decessor of 80 years ago, whose chief
duties were to keep the wickS OF his
kerosene lamps trimmed and to set
his steam foghorn going In thick
weather, according to recent radio
address by Harold D. King, deputy
commissioner of the Bureau OF Light
houses. Department of Commerce.
Now a knowledge is required OF Diesel
engine electric generators, motor driven
air compressors, rotary converters, raolo
beacon transmitters, and other me-
chanical devices which have kept pace
with the increased use of the seas and
the growing need of safety.
Mr.. Kings's address was broadcast
by WMAL and affllated stations OF the
Columbia Broadcasting System.
Text of Address.
The text follows:
1t seems especially appropriate that
the radio should be the agency through
which the opportunity is given me
to bring to you a message OF the serv-
Ice of science to the mariner. For OF the
countless contributions of science to the
work of the Lighthouse Service of the
Department of Commerce during. our
present generation, the adoption OF the
radio to the safeguarding OF life and
property on the sea is easily the most
outstanding.
To many of you the stately towers
marking the rocky headlands or Turk
ing sandbars of our coasts are IA
niliar and striking features OF the
landscape, especially during these va
cation months. To others they are
known only from picture or romantic
tale, but to all of you, I'm sure, the
very word Lighthouse" will at once
suggest the ideals of reliability and
service. Not one of you but has heard
stories of the devotion to duty OF the
lighthouse keeper, of his faithfulness
to trust in the face OF isolation, storm,
and oftimes illness and suffering. DID
time permit, might recount from the
annals of the service many incidents
touched with the real hun1or or pathos
of those whose lives are close to nature
in her sternest as well as her lovelest
moods.
Not alone did the traditions of the
service instill into the lives of the per-
sonnet the compelling ideal OF reliability.
but they engender a spirit of service to
all mankind For the keeper standing
his lonely watch, or the crew OF the
lightship tossed in the hurricane seas.
asks not the name or nation of those
to whom their signals may often mean
the difference between disaster and
the safe and happy ending OF the
voyage.
Development Of Equipment.
These two ideals Of reliability and
service I would emphasize as the
cilangeless principles which always
have and always must guide the work
of the men of such q calling in al
lands and all times. But ! would also
tell YOU of the constant changes and
improvements in the assistance rendered
TO the mariner by the adaptation OF
the rapid and ever accelerating advance
in applied science to the purposes OF
marine signaling.
The First Congress of the United
States at its first session passed an act
providing that all expenses in the nee
essary support. maintenance, and re-
pairs of all lighthouses, beacons, buoys,
and @hblic piers erected. placed or sunk
before the passing of this act, at the
entrance of, or within any bay, inlet,
harbor, or port of the United States
for rendering the navigation thereof
easy and safe, shall be betrayed Out
Of the Treasury of the United States. "
The function of the Lighthouse Serv-
Zee is thus one Of those which received
earliest recognition by the Federal Gov
eminent, as an essential necessity to the
conduct of shipping, and has been con-
tinously performed ever since, though
not without several changes in the
forms of administration. This function
is, moreover, very definite one, with
its limitations so naturally well fixed
that but little needs TO be added to OF
substracted from the definition implied
in that earlier act of 1889, except for
the extension Of navigation from the
waters roundabout our land to the air
above it.
Administration Of Lighthouses.
This very definiteness Of the duties
Of the Lighthouse Service, through the
vicissitudes of changes in the form OF
administration, has been advantageous
both to the preservation of the ideals OF
reliability and service, and to the CONT
nuity of development Of apparatus anC
methods. From 1882 to 1910 lighthouse
work in this country was administered
by board consisting OF officers OF thu
Corps of Engineers of the Army, O
naval officers, and of civilians of Scien.
tific distinction. Many notable works o.
engineering construction were accom-
plished during this period, such as thu
building of the famous Sea-Swept towe
on Minots Ledge, in Massachusetts, Bay
and many other notable towers. Fresno
lenses, the invention of which Is withou
doubt the greatest single advance II
uRIlbIOuSe JcCHnOlOBy OF bL1c pICCcuIIll
century, were extensively introduced
During the first decade of the presen
century the use of gas-lighted buoys wa!
begun, and vaporized kerosene burnet
under mantle began to superSede tn
kersene wick lamp, giving four to eigh
times the candlepower without tncPeas
in oil consumption.
Twenty years ago last month Their
was organized the present Bureau o
Lighthouses in the Department of Com
merce, and these last 20 years l1av
been coincident with the magic de
velopment of the so-called machin
age. The ever-increasing size and spec,
of vessels, the change from sail to steam
and oil or electric propulsion, con
tinually alters the character and route
of traflc and speeds up the move
ment of shipping by night, requirin
ever more and better lights and TO
signals, where formerly few buoy
served the needs.
AS the changing character of shippin
brings need of more and better aids