The third order (larger diameter) contains common fixed lights, and fixed lights varied by flashes once in every four minutes.
The third order (smaller diameter) contains fixed lights, varied by flashes once in three minutes.
The fourth order has fixed lights varied by flashes once in every three minutes, and fixed lights of the common kind. It has been thought necessary to change the term “fixed lights varied by flashes,” for “fixed light with short eclipses,” because it has been found that, at certain distances, a momentary eclipse precedes the flash.
These distinctions depend upon the periods of revolution, rather than upon the characteristic appearance of the light; and therefore seems less calculated to strike the eye of a seaman, than those employed on the coasts of Great Britain and Ireland. In conformity with this system, and in consideration of the great loss of light which results from the application of coloured media, all distinctions based upon colour have been discarded in the French lights.
The distinctions are, in fact, only four in number, viz.: Fixed; Fixed, varied by flashes;[74] Revolving, with flashes once a minute; and Revolving, with flashes every half minute. To those might be added, Revolving, with bright periods once in two minutes, and perhaps Flashing once in five seconds (as introduced by me at the Little Ross, but I cannot say with such complete success as would induce me to recommend its general adoption). My own experience would also lead me to reject the distinction called “Fixed, varied by flashes,” which I do not consider as possessing a marked or efficient character.
[74] The “Feu fixe, varié par des éclats,” or “Feu fixe, à courtes éclipses,” of Fresnel.
Comparison of Dioptric and Catoptric Apparatus for Revolving Lights. Having thus fully described the nature of the catoptric and dioptric modes of illuminating lighthouses, I shall next compare the merits of both systems, with a view to determine their eligibility in revolving or in fixed lights.
Repeated experiments were made at Gullan-hill, which is distant from Edinburgh about fifteen miles, during the winters of 1832 and 1833, under the inspection of the Commissioners of Northern Lights, the result of which was, that the light of one of the great annular lenses used in the revolving lights of the first order, was equal to the united effect of about eight of the large reflectors employed in the revolving lights on the Scotch coast. It may be said, however, that the dia-catoptric[75] combination of pyramidal lenses and plane mirrors of Corduan, adds the power of more than two reflectors to the effect of the great lens; but it ought to be remembered that in the French lights, this additional power is used only to compensate for one of the defects of the system by lengthening the duration of the flash, and therefore contributes, if at all, only in a very indirect manner, to render the light visible to the mariner at a greater distance. M. Fresnel found, from the smaller divergence of the lens, that the eclipses were too long and the bright periods of the revolution too short; and he therefore determined to adopt the horizontal deviation of 7° for the upper lenses, with a view to remedy this defect. Assuming, therefore, that it were required to increase the number of reflectors in a revolving light of three sides, so as to render it equal in power to a dioptric revolving light of the first order, it would be necessary to place eight reflectors on each face, so that the greatest number of reflectors required for this purpose may be taken at twenty-four. M. Fresnel has stated the expenditure of oil in the lamp of four concentric wicks at 750 grammes of colza oil per hour; and it is found by experience at the Isle of May and Inchkeith, that the quantity of spermaceti oil consumed by the great lamp, is equal to that burned by from fourteen to sixteen of the Argand lamps used in the Scotch lights. It therefore follows that, by dioptric means, the consumption of oil necessary for between fourteen and sixteen reflectors, will produce a light as powerful as that which would require the oil of twenty-four reflectors in the catoptric system of Scotland; and, consequently, that there is an excess of oil equal to that consumed by ten reflectors, or 400 gallons in the year, against the Scotch system. But in order fully to compare the economy of producing two revolving lights of equal power by those two methods, it will be necessary to take into the calculation the interest of the first outlay in establishing them.
[75] I use this word to designate the arrangement of pyramidal lenses and plane mirrors, by which the light is first refracted, and then reflected.
The expense of fitting up a revolving light with twenty-four reflectors, ranged on three faces, may be estimated at L.1298, and the annual maintenance, including the interest of the first cost of the apparatus, may be calculated at L.418, 8s. 4d. The fitting up a revolving light with eight lenses and the dia-catoptric accessory apparatus, may be estimated at L.1459, and the annual maintenance at L.354, 10s. 4d. It therefore follows, that to establish and afterwards maintain a catoptric light of the kind called revolving white, with a frame of three faces, each equal in power to a face of the dioptric light of Corduan, an annual outlay of L.63, 18s. more would be required for the reflecting light than for the lens light; while for a light of the kind called revolving red and white, whose frame has four faces, at least thirty-six reflectors would be required in order to make the light even approach an equality to that of Corduan; and the catoptric light would in that case cost L.225 more than the dioptric light.