On a windswept point of land which stretches seaward from the rugged, verdant north shore of Kauai, Hawaii's westernmost inhabited island, there stands a stalwart member of the society of venerable lighthouses whose history is now characterized as near legendary in nature. This station, the Kilauea Point lighthouse, marked its 75th anniversary last May with a day long celebration honorng its former keepers who are still alive and commemorating the remarkable milestone in the life of Hawaii's "landfall light."
The Bosphorus is one of the world's most commercially and militarily strategic waterways. For centuries, every type of watercraft from canoes and caiques to mega-freighters, warships, and supertankers has plied this 20-mile long, twisting artery between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. Coupled with the Dardanelles, known in antiquity as the Hellespont, the Bosphorus provides crucial access from the Mediterranean region to ports in Eastern Europe and Asia.
The most beautiful lighthouse in the world.
“The Gulf of Gascony, from Cordouan to Biarritz, is a sea of contradictions; an enigma of a strife and struggle. As it stretches southward it suddenly acquires an extraordinary depth and becomes an abyss in which the waters are swallowed up. An ingenious naturalist has compared it to a gigantic funnel, which abruptly absorbs all that pours into it. The flood, escaping from it under an awful pressure, [mounts] to a height of which our seas afford no other example.” — Jules Michelet; French historian (1798 -1874)
The origins of the lighthouse of Genoa are uncertain and half legendary, but some sources say the first tower was built around 1129 on a rock called Capo di Faro (Lighthouse Cape). By a decree called delle prestazioni (about services), responsibility for the light was entrusted to the surrounding inhabitants “Habent facere guardiam ad turrem capiti fari” which, in Latin, simply means “to keep the light on.”
Standing on a 25-foot bluff overlooking Lake Michigan in Evanston, Illinois, the Grosse Point Light Station has served as a guidepost to the lake's traffic in and out of Chicago for over 116 years. Its history reflects the triumphs and tragedies of discovery, trade, and progress which marks the development of our nation's interior.
Landing on Minot's Ledge is easy enough in summer time when the sea is smooth; but in winter there is hardly a time when the ladder that runs from the foot of the tower to the door forty feet above is of any service. Owing to the particular wash of the waves around the base, it is only on very rare occasions that a boat can tie near the ladder without danger of being swamped or dashed to pieces.
The decade of the 1850s could well be called the"Age of the Clipper." They were the sleekest and swiftest of merchant sailing vessels. The Carrier Pigeon measured 175 feet long and just 34 feet wide. She was rated at about 845 tons burden and had a beautiful gilded pigeon as a figurehead. Launched from the shipyards at Bath, Maine, in the fall of 1852, the Carrier Pigeon departed Boston on her maiden voyage January 28, 1853. The ship took the waves with ease as she rounded Cape Horn and sailed north along the western edge of the Americas toward San Francisco.
Advances in technology brought further automation in the early 1980s; solarization. At solarized lights, a solar panel charges a bank of long-life batteries by day. At night the batteries power a small lamp with an acrylic lens. The lens, though made of plastic, is a precision optic that uses Fresnel's principles. Where necessary, these lights can be fitted with flash panels and rotated by small electric motors. In most cases the effective range or distance from which the light can be seen is the same or greater than with previous systems.
Not all lighthouse Keepers were the heroic, resourceful and dedicated workers you've heard about before. Neglect of duty, drunkenness and conflicts with co-workers were common and often provided the basis for dismissal. These weren't the only problems experience by those tending lighthouses. Here's a sprinkling of reports from National Archives records:
In early times, an open flame produced by different materials provided the light in lighthouses. Bales of cotton soaked in oil worked for Egyptians and the Pharos of Alexandria. Oakum and pitch was another early illuminant. Coal was recorded as an illuminant in the mid 900s, but was probably used prior to that date. Wood was introduced as an illuminant after 1500. After 1780 the preference for coal fires waned, but it wasn't until 1858 that the last coal fire was extinguished in a European lighthouse. These early fires left a great deal to be desired.