The object of these several forms of optical apparatus is not only to produce characteristics or distinctions in lights to enable them to be readily recognized by mariners, but to utilize the light rays in directions above and below the horizontal plane, and also, in the case of revolving or flashing lights, in azimuths not requiring to be illuminated for strengthening the beam in the direction of the mariner. It will be seen that the effective condensation in flashing lights is very much greater than in fixed belts, thus enabling higher intensities to be obtained by the use of flashing lights than with fixed apparatus.
Catoptric System.—Parabolic reflectors, consisting of small facets of silvered glass set in plaster of Paris, were first used about the year 1763 in some of the Mersey lights by Mr Hutchinson, then dock master at Liverpool (fig. 29). Spherical metallic reflectors were introduced in France in 1781, followed by parabolic reflectors on silvered copper in 1790 in England and France, and in Scotland in 1803. The earlier lights were of fixed type, a number of reflectors being arranged on a frame or stand in such a manner that the pencils of emergent rays overlapped and thus illuminated the whole horizon continuously. In 1783 the first revolving light was erected at Marstrand in Sweden. Similar apparatus were installed at Cordouan (1790), Flamborough Head (1806) and at the Bell Rock (1811). To produce a revolving or flashing light the reflectors were fixed on a revolving carriage having several faces. Three or more reflectors in a face were set with their axes parallel.
A type of parabolic reflector now in use is shown in fig. 30. The sizes in general use vary from 21 in. to 24 in. diameter. These instruments are still largely used for light-vessel illumination, and a few important land lights are at the present time of catoptric type, including those at St Agnes (Scilly Islands), Cromer and St Anthony (Falmouth).
| Fig. 22.—Courses of various Lighthouse Towers. |
| Fig. 23.—Perspective drawing of Dovetailed Stone (Wolf Rock). | Fig. 24.—Section of Dovetail. |
Dioptric System.—The first adaptation of dioptric lenses to lighthouses is probably due to T. Rogers, who used lenses at one of the Portland lighthouses between 1786 and 1790. Subsequently lenses by the same maker were used at Howth, Waterford and the North Foreland. Count Buffon had in 1748 proposed to grind out of a solid piece of glass a lens in steps or concentric zones in order to reduce the thickness to a minimum (fig. 31). Condorcet in 1773 and Sir D. Brewster in 1811 designed built-up lenses consisting of stepped annular rings. Neither of these proposals, however, was intended to apply to lighthouse purposes. In 1822 Augustin Fresnel constructed a built-up annular lens in which the centres of curvature of the different rings receded from the axis according to their distances from the centre, so as practically to eliminate spherical aberration; the only spherical surface being the small central part or “bull’s eye” (fig. 32). These lenses were intended for revolving lights only. Fresnel next produced his cylindric refractor or lens belt, consisting of a zone of glass generated by the revolution round a vertical axis of a medial section of the annular lens (fig. 33). The lens belt condensed and parallelized the light rays in the vertical plane only, while the annular lens does so in every plane. The first revolving light constructed from Fresnel’s designs was erected at the Cordouan lighthouse in 1823. It consisted of 8 panels of annular lenses placed round the lamp at a focal distance of 920 mm. To utilize the light, which would otherwise escape above the lenses, Fresnel introduced a series of 8 plain silvered mirrors, on which the light was thrown by a system of lenses. At a subsequent period mirrors were also placed in the lower part of the optic. The apparatus was revolved by clockwork. This optic embodied the first combination of dioptric and catoptric elements in one design (fig. 34). In the following year Fresnel designed a dioptric lens with catoptric mirrors for fixed light, which was the first of its kind installed in a lighthouse. It was erected at the Chassiron lighthouse in 1827 (fig. 35). This combination is geometrically perfect, but not so practically on account of the great loss of light entailed by metallic reflection which is at least 25% greater than the system described under. Before his death in 1827 Fresnel devised his totally reflecting or catadioptric prisms to take the place of the silvered reflectors previously used above and below the lens elements (fig. 28). The ray Fi falling on the prismoidal ring ABC is refracted in the direction i r and meeting the face AB at an angle of incidence greater than the critical, is totally reflected in the direction r e emerging after second refraction in a horizontal direction. Fresnel devised these prisms for use in fixed light apparatus, but the principle was, at a later date, also applied to flashing lights, in the first instance by T. Stevenson. Both the dioptric lens and catadioptric prism invented by Fresnel are still in general use, the mathematical calculations of the great French designer still forming the basis upon which lighthouse opticians work.
| Fig. 25.—Dassen Island Lighthouse (cast iron). | Fig. 26.—Cape San Thomé Lighthouse. |
| Fig. 27.—Dioptric Prism. | Fig. 28.—Catadioptric or Reflecting Prism. |
Fresnel also designed a form of fixed and flashing light in which the distinction of a fixed light, varied by flashes, was produced by placing panels of straight refracting prisms in a vertical position on a revolving carriage outside the fixed light apparatus. The revolution of the upright prisms periodically increased the power of the beam, by condensation of the rays emergent from the fixed apparatus, in the horizontal plane.
The lens segments in Fresnel’s early apparatus were of polygonal form instead of cylindrical, but subsequently manufacturers succeeded in grinding glass in cylindrical rings of the form now used. The first apparatus of this description was made by Messrs Cookson of Newcastle in 1836 at the suggestion of Alan Stevenson and erected at Inchkeith.