Transcriber’s Note
Cover created by Transcriber, using an illustration from theoriginal book, and placed in the Public Domain.
LIGHTSHIPS AND LIGHTHOUSES
By permission of Messrs. Siemens Bros. & Co., Ltd.
THE 43,000,000 CANDLE-POWER BEAMS THROWN FROM THE HELIGOLANDLIGHTHOUSE.
Being projected from a height of 272 feet above the sea, the beacon has a range of 23 miles, and on aclear night the rays are seen from Büsun, 35 miles away.
Frontispiece.
CONQUESTS OF SCIENCE
LIGHTSHIPS AND
LIGHTHOUSES
BY
FREDERICK A. TALBOT
AUTHOR OF
“MOVING PICTURES,” “RAILWAY CONQUEST OF THE WORLD,”
“THE STEAMSHIP CONQUEST OF THE WORLD,” ETC.
ILLUSTRATED
PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY
LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN
1913
Printed in England.
Romances innumerable have been woven around the flamingguardians of the coast, but it is doubtful whether any purelyimaginative work is so fascinating and absorbing as the plainunvarnished narrative of how some famous lightship orlighthouse has been brought into existence. And the storyof construction is equalled in every way by that relating tothe operation and maintenance of the light, against all odds,for the guidance of those who have business upon the ocean.
This volume is not a history of lightships and lighthouses;neither is it a technical treatise. Rather my object has beento relate how the difficulties, peculiar and prodigious, havebeen overcome by the builders in their efforts to mark someterrible danger-spots, both on the mainland and isolatedsea-rocks.
While the lines of the lightship and lighthouse are familiarto all, popular knowledge concerning the internal apparatusof the building or ship is somewhat hazy. Therefore I haveexplained, with technicalities simplified as much as possible,the equipment of the tower and vessel, and the methodswhereby both visual and audible warnings are given. Thevery latest developments in this field of engineering andscience are incorporated, so as to render the subject as comprehensiveas possible within the limits of a single volume.
In the compilation of this book I have received theheartiest assistance from those who are prominently associatedwith the work of providing adequate aids to navigation,and am particularly indebted to the engineers to the Commissionersof Northern Lights, Messrs. D. and C. Stevenson;viLieutenant-Colonel William P. Anderson, the Engineer-in-Chiefto the Lighthouse Department of the CanadianGovernment; the various officials of the Lighthouse Boardof the United States of America; the Engineer-in-Chief tothe French Service des Phares; the lighthouse authorities ofNew South Wales and New Zealand; Mr. Gustaf Dalén andhis assistants; Messrs. Chance Brothers and Company,Limited, of Birmingham; Messrs. Edmondsons, Limited, ofDublin; Samuel Strain, Esq., t