Each of the two (or three) light-keepers has a house for himself and family, both being under a common roof, but entering by separate doors. The principal keeper’s house consists of six rooms, two of which are at the disposal of the visiting officers of the Board, whose duty in inspecting the lighthouse or superintending repairs may call them to the station; and the assistant has four rooms, one of which is used as a barrack-room for the workmen who, under the direction of the foreman of the light-room works, execute the annual repairs of the apparatus.
The greatest care must be bestowed on securing the utmost cleanliness in every detail connected with a lighthouse, whose optical apparatus is peculiarly sensitive to the effect of dust. For this purpose covered ash-pits are provided at all the dwelling-houses, in order that the refuse of the fireplaces may not be carried on “the wings of the wind” to the light-room; and, for similar reasons, iron floors are used in the light-rooms instead of stone, which is often liable to abrasion, and all the stonework near the lantern is regularly painted in oil.
If, in all that belongs to a lighthouse, the greatest cleanliness is desirable, it is in a still higher degree necessary in every part of the light-room apparatus, without which the optical instruments and the machinery will neither last long nor work well. Every part of the apparatus, whether lenses or reflectors, should be carefully freed from dust before being either washed or burnished; and without such a precaution the cleansing process would only serve to scratch them.
For burnishing the reflectors, prepared rouge (tritoxide of iron) of the finest description, which should be prepared in the state of an impalpable powder of a deep orange-red colour, is applied by means of soft chamois skins, as occasion may require; but the great art of keeping reflectors clean consists in the daily patient and skilful application of manual labour in rubbing the surface of the instrument with a perfectly dry, soft, and clean skin, without rouge. The form of the hollow paraboloid is such that some practice is necessary in order to acquire a free movement of the hand in rubbing reflectors; and its attainment forms one of the principal lessons in the course of the preliminary instruction to which candidates for the situation of a lighthouse-keeper are subjected. For cleansing the lenses and glass-mirrors spirit of wine is used. Having washed the surface of the instrument with a linen cloth steeped in spirit of wine, it is carefully dried with a soft and dry linen rubber, and finally rubbed with a fine chamois skin free from any dust, which would injure the polish of the glass, as well as from grease. It is sometimes necessary to use a little fine rouge with a chamois skin for restoring any deficiency of polish which may occur from time to time; but in a well-managed lighthouse this application will seldom, if ever, be required.
Before we quit this subject, it may interest the reader to be informed that the glass of the lantern is frequently broken, not by wind and wave, but by the sea-birds which dash violently against it. In a single night at Cape de Bréhat nine panes were shattered from this cause. At the lighthouse of Bréhat a wild duck forced its way through two rows of mirrors and fell upon the lamp. A thousand of these birds were on one occasion caught by the crew of a British lightship, who made them into a gigantic pie. It is necessary to defend with trellis-work the lights most exposed to visits of this kind.
SEA-BIRDS ATTRACTED BY THE RAYS OF A LIGHTHOUSE.
Fortunately, all sea-birds are not so dangerous. Some of them even render to the navigator a service like that which the goose of the capitol, according to Livy, once rendered to the Romans. At the South Stock lighthouse, near Holyhead, which is situated in the middle of an islet, tamed sea-birds are made use of as signals. The gulls perch on the lighthouse walls and utter loud cries, which wave off approaching seamen. This lighthouse possesses a bell and a cannon, but the natural signal has been esteemed so superior that the cannon has been removed to a distance from the rock, lest its discharge should alarm the birds. The young gulls roam about the island among the white rabbits, living in perfect harmony with them, and providing the keepers with society; a pleasanter society than that of the wind and waves which incessantly vent their fury on the solitary pharos.