LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE
The 43,000,000 Candle-Power Beams thrown from the Heligoland Lighthouse[Frontispiece]
How the Beachy Head Lighthouse was built[6]
Workmen returning by the Aerial Cableway to the Top of Beachy Head[7]
The Sanganeb Reef Lighthouse in the Red Sea[14]
The Alcatraz Lighthouse under Construction[15]
The Alcatraz Lighthouse completed[15]
The Thimble Shoals Light[22]
Setting the Last Stone of the Beachy Head Lighthouse[23]
The Hyperradial Apparatus for the Manora Point Light, Karachi, India[48]
First Order Triple Flashing Light of 920 Millimetres Focal Distance for Chilang Lighthouse, China[49]
Looking up the Lantern of the Needles Lighthouse[52]
Fixed Apparatus of the Fourth Order for Sarawak[53]
A Modern Lighthouse Siren Plant[58]
The Sirens of the Lizard[59]
The Acetylene Fog-Gun[64]
The Rattray Head Lighthouse[65]
Sule Skerry Light[65]
The Eddystone, the Most Famous Lighthouse of England[76]
A Thrilling Experience[77]
The “Bishop,” the Western Outpost of England[82]
The Wolf Rock Lighthouse[83]
The Longships Light[88]
The Godrevy Light, Scilly Islands[89]
The Chicken Rock Lighthouse, off the Isle of Man[92]
How the Skerryvore is built[93]
The Skerryvore, Scotland’s Most Famous Lighthouse[102]
Barra Head Lighthouse, Scotland[103]
The Homes of the Keepers of the Skerryvore and Dhu-Heartach Lights[103]
The Dhu-Heartach Lighthouse[110]
The North Unst, Britain’s most Northerly Lighthouse[111]
The North Unst Light[116]
Landing Water at the North Unst[116]
The Flannen Islands Light-Station[117]
Building the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse[122]
Building the Fastnet Tower[123]
Erecting the Fastnet Lantern[123]
The Fastnet, the Outpost of Europe[128]
The Lantern of the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse[129]
The Rothersand Lighthouse[136]
The Fourteen-Foot Bank Lighthouse, built on Sand[137]
The Heaux de Bréhat Light[150]
Fitting the Lantern of La Jument Light[151]
Preparing the Foundations of the Jument Tower[154]
The Jument Light recently erected off Ushant[155]
The Cape Race Lighthouse, Newfoundland[162]
Cann Island Lighthouse, on the East Coast of Newfoundland[163]
The Light at the Southern End of Belle Ile[166]
The North Belle Ile Lighthouse[167]
A Magnificent Canadian Light on the Pacific Coast[168]
The West End Guardian of Sable Island[168]
St. Esprit Island Light, Nova Scotia[169]
The Gull Island Light, Newfoundland[169]
The Batiscan Front Range Lighthouse, River St. Lawrence[170]
Isle St. Thérèse Upper Range Back Lighthouse, River St. Lawrence[170]
Upper Traverse Lighthouse in the River St. Lawrence[171]
An “Ice Shove” upon the Back Range Light in Lake St. Peter[171]
The Minot’s Ledge Light[178]
Tender landing Building Material upon the Tillamook Rock[179]
The Tillamook Rock Light-Station from the South[186]
The Conquest of the Tillamook[187]
The Terrible Tillamook Rock[187]
Famous United States Lighthouses of Two Centuries[192]
The Race Rock Light[193]
The Carquinez Strait Light[198]
A Church as a Lighthouse[199]
The Bonita Point Lighthouse off the Californian Coast[202]
Point Pinos Light-Station, California[203]
The Farallon Rock and Light[204]
The Farallon Lighthouse off San Francisco[204]
The Punta Gorda Light-Station, California[205]
A Lighthouse on the Great Lakes in the Grip of Winter[210]
Building the Barre à Boulard Light in the River St. Lawrence[211]
Colchester Reef Lighthouse, Lake Erie[214]
The Latest Development in Lighthouse Engineering[215]
The Electric Searchlights of the Heligoland Lighthouse[222]
The Heligoland Lighthouse[223]
Green Cape Lighthouse, New South Wales[232]
The Sentinel of Sugar Loaf Point, New South Wales[232]
“Bungaree Norah” Station, New South Wales[232]
The Cape Byron Lighthouse, New South Wales[233]
The Macquarie Lighthouse, South Head of Sydney Harbour[233]
Painting the Troubridge Lighthouse, South Australia[234]
Green Point Lighthouse, Natal[235]
The Pacific Outpost of the United States of America[235]
The Seven Stones Lightship[242]
The San Francisco Lightship[243]
The Norderney Lightship[250]
The Fire Island Lightship, the Atlantic Outpost of the United States[251]
Completing the One-Fathom Bank Lighthouse in the Malacca Straits[262]
The One-Fathom Bank Lighthouse, Malacca Straits, in Course of Erection[263]
The Platte Fougère Lighthouse under Construction[268]
The Platte Fougère Lighthouse[269]
Setting the Compressed-Air Reservoir at Fort Doyle[270]
The Fort Doyle Siren[271]
An Unattended Beacon Light placed upon a Wild Part of the Scottish Coast[272]
The Gasfeten Light: a Lonely Beacon in Swedish Waters[273]
The Dalén “Sun-Valve,” the Most Wonderful Invention of Modern Lighthouse Engineering[274]
The Gas Accumulators Employed with the Dalén Automatic System[275]
The Lagerholmen Lighthouse[278]
An Unattended Beacon Light in the Straits of Magellan[279]
An Automatic Lightboat[279]
The Wigham Thirty-One Day Unattended Petroleum Light[280]
Willson Automatic Gas and Whistling Light off Egg Island, Nova Scotia[281]
The “Outer Automatic” Combined Gas and Whistling Light, Halifax, Nova Scotia[281]
The Kalkgrundet, Sweden’s Latest Automatic Lightship[293]
The Svinbādan Unattended Lightship in Swedish Waters[292]
The Lantern used in the Wigham Automatic Petroleum Beacon[298]
The “6-Bar” Floating Wigham Light in Portsmouth Harbour[299]
The Pumps whereby the Oil is lifted from the Lowest Floor to the Lantern Room[306]
Combined Kitchen and Living-Room in the Lighthouse[307]
Keeper cleaning the Lamp after it has cooled down[312]
A Lighthouse Bedroom[313]

CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF THE LIGHTHOUSE

The mariner, in pursuit of his daily business, is exposed to dangers innumerable. In mid-ocean, for the most part, he need not fear them particularly, because he has plenty of sea-room in which to navigate his ship, and in case of thick fog he can ease up until this dreaded enemy lifts or disperses. But in crowded coastal waters his position is often precarious, for he may be menaced by lurking shoals or hidden reefs, which betray little or no indication of their whereabouts, and which may be crossed with apparent safety. If the ship blunders on in ignorance, it is brought up with a thud as it buries its nose in the sucking sand, or gives a mighty shiver as it scrapes over the rocky teeth, perhaps to be clasped as in a vice, or to be battered and broken so fearfully that, when at last it tears itself free and slips off into deep water, it can only founder immediately. Here, if fog blots out the scene, the ship is in danger of being lured to certain destruction by currents and other natural forces, since the captain is condemned to a helplessness as complete as of a blind man in a busy street.

It is not surprising, then, that the captain, as he approaches or wanders along a tortuous shoreline, scans the waters eagerly for a glimpse of the guardian monitor, which, as he knows from his reckonings and chart, should come within sight to guide him on his way. The danger-signal may be one of many kinds—a misty, star-like glimmer thrown from a buoy dancing on the waves, the radiant orb from a lightship bobbing up and down and swinging rhythmically to and fro, a fixed flare-light, or dazzling, spoke-like rays revolving across the sky. If sight be impossible owing to fog, he must depend upon his ear for the measured tolling of a bell, the shriek of a whistle, the deep blare of a siren, or the sharp report of an explosive. When he has picked up one or other of these warnings, he feels more at ease, and proceeds upon his way, eyes and ears keenly strained for warning of the next danger ahead.

The lighthouse is the greatest blessing that has been bestowed upon navigation. It renders advance through the waters at night as safe and as simple as in the brilliancy of the midday sun. But for these beacons the safe movement of ships at night or during fog along the crowded steamship highways which surround the serrated shores of the five continents would be impossible. It is only natural, therefore, that the various nations of the world should strenuously endeavour to light their coasts so adequately that the ship may proceed at night as safely and as comfortably as a man may walk down an illuminated city thoroughfare.

Whence came the idea of lighting the coastline with flaring beacons? It is impossible to say. They have been handed down to modern civilization through the mists of time. The first authentic lighthouse was Sigeum, on the Hellespont, which undoubtedly antedates the famous Pharos of Alexandria. The latter was a massive square tower, 400 feet high, and was known as one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It was built about 331 B.C. The warning light was emitted from a huge wood fire, which was kept burning at the summit continuously during the night; the illumination is stated to have been visible for a distance of forty miles, but modern knowledge disputes this range. The precise design of this wonderful tower is unknown, but it must have been a huge structure, inasmuch as it is computed to have cost the equivalent in modern money of over £200,000, or $1,000,000.