This volume is not a history of lightships and lighthouses; neither is it a technical treatise. Rather my object has been to relate how the difficulties, peculiar and prodigious, have been overcome by the builders in their efforts to mark some terrible danger-spots, both on the mainland and isolated sea-rocks.
While the lines of the lightship and lighthouse are familiar to all, popular knowledge concerning the internal apparatus of the building or ship is somewhat hazy. Therefore I have explained, with technicalities simplified as much as possible, the equipment of the tower and vessel, and the methods whereby both visual and audible warnings are given. The very latest developments in this field of engineering and science are incorporated, so as to render the subject as comprehensive as possible within the limits of a single volume.
In the compilation of this book I have received the heartiest assistance from those who are prominently associated with the work of providing adequate aids to navigation, and am particularly indebted to the engineers to the Commissioners of Northern Lights, Messrs. D. and C. Stevenson; Lieutenant-Colonel William P. Anderson, the Engineer-in-Chief to the Lighthouse Department of the Canadian Government; the various officials of the Lighthouse Board of the United States of America; the Engineer-in-Chief to the French Service des Phares; the lighthouse authorities of New South Wales and New Zealand; Mr. Gustaf Dalén and his assistants; Messrs. Chance Brothers and Company, Limited, of Birmingham; Messrs. Edmondsons, Limited, of Dublin; Samuel Strain, Esq., the Director of the Lighthouse Literature Mission, Belfast; the Scientific American, and the Syren and Shipping, etc.
FREDERICK A. TALBOT.
June, 1913.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | THE ORIGIN OF THE LIGHTHOUSE | [1] |
| II. | BUILDING A LIGHTHOUSE | [11] |
| III. | THE LIGHT AND ILLUMINANTS | [28] |
| IV. | FOG-SIGNALS | [57] |
| V. | THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE | [72] |
| VI. | SOME FAMOUS LIGHTS OF ENGLAND | [81] |
| VII. | THE BELL ROCK AND SKERRYVORE LIGHTS | [96] |
| VIII. | THE LONELY LIGHTS OF SCOTLAND | [108] |
| IX. | THE FASTNET, THE OUTPOST OF EUROPE | [121] |
| X. | LIGHTHOUSES BUILT ON SAND | [132] |
| XI. | SOME LIGHT PATROLS OF THE FRENCH COAST | [148] |
| XII. | THE GUARDIAN LIGHTS OF CANADA’S COAST | [161] |
| XIII. | THE MINOT’S LEDGE LIGHT | [176] |
| XIV. | THE TILLAMOOK ROCK LIGHT-STATION | [183] |
| XV. | THE COAST LIGHTS OF THE UNITED STATES | [196] |
| XVI. | THE LAMP-POSTS OF THE GREAT LAKES OF NORTH AMERICA | [208] |
| XVII. | THE MOST POWERFUL ELECTRIC LIGHTHOUSES OF THE WORLD | [218] |
| XVIII. | SOME LIGHTHOUSES IN AUSTRALIAN WATERS | [229] |
| XIX. | THE SIGNPOSTS OF THE SANDBANKS | [240] |
| XX. | A FLAMING SENTINEL OF THE MALACCA STRAITS | [257] |
| XXI. | UNATTENDED LIGHTHOUSES | [267] |
| XXII. | FLOATING LIGHTHOUSES | [284] |
| XXIII. | THE LIGHT-KEEPER AND HIS LIFE | [301] |
| INDEX | [318] |