Abstract
IN 1876, Mr. Julius Pintsch, of Berlin, patented in this country his system of illuminating buoys or other floating bodies by compressed oil gas, and in 1878 one of these buoys was experimentally tried at sea with success by the Trinity House. The system is similar to that previously adopted by Mr. Pintsch with great success in the lighting of railway carriages, but with the addition for buoys of a specially constructed lantern, containing a small cylindrical lens for fixed light. Through the kindness of the Pintsch's Lighting Company, we have here one of these apparatus, producing an intensity in the beam of about twenty candle units. With the charge of gas contained in the buoy, the light is shown continuously, night and day, from two to four months, according to the dimensions of the buoy, without refilling or requiring any other attention except occasional cleaning of the lens and the glazing of the lantern. In 1883, Mr. William B. Rickman patented a very ingenious addition to this apparatus for producing occulting or flashing light. The apparatus is automatically worked by the issuing compressed gas on its way from the buoy to the burner. After passing the regulator where the pressure of the gas is reduced for burning, it enters a cylindrical chamber covered with a diaphragm of very flexible specially prepared leather, this diaphragm, on being slightly raised by the in-flowing gas, communicates motion to a lever, which, assisted by a spiral spring, closes the inlet pipe, and opens at the same time the passage to the burner. As the gas passes on and is consumed at the burner, the diaphragm by its own weight, assisted by the spring, sinks, and touching the lever, closes the outlet aperture to the burner, and at the same moment opens the inlet of the gas from the buoy for another charge. Thus the light is extinguished while the gas is entering the chamber, and until the latter is refilled, when the passage from the buoy is again closed by the rising of the diaphragm. A small pilot jet is constantly burning to insure the re-ignition of the gas when re-admitted to the burner. It is evident that several characteristic distinctions of light may be obtained by modifications of this ingenious apparatus. About 150 buoys lighted on the Pintsch system are already rendering valuable service to mariners in various parts of the world. For the more important stations at sea where light-vessels are now employed the system is considered to be yet wanting in that trustworthiness which should be the leading characteristic of all coast lighting. Very important experiments have lately been made by the Lighthouse Board of the United Stales, at their General Depot at Tompkinsville, New York, with buoys lighted electrically by glow lamps, operated through submarine conductors from the shore. These experiments have proved so successful that an installation for marking the Gedney's Channel entrance of Lower Bay, New York Harbour, with six buoys and 100-candle glow lamps, was lighted on November 7 last. Gas buoys were considered inapplicable for this special case, owing to their form and size rendering them liable to break adrift, particularly when struck by floating ice or passing vessels. The buoy adopted for the service consists of a spar 46 feet long, having its lower end shackled direct to a heavy iron sinker, resting on the bottom. At the upper end the buoy is fitted with an iron cage inclosing a heavy glass jar, in which is placed the glow lamp of 100 candle units intensity. The cable is secured by wire staples in a deep groove cut in the buoy and covered by a strip of wood. For a distance of several feet at the lower end of the buoy the cable is closely served with iron wire, over which is wound spun yarn to prevent injury from chafing on the shackle and sinker. The central station on shore, with steam-engines and dynamos in duplicate, is on Sandy Hook, at a distance from the extreme buoys of about 3 nautical miles. The installation is reported to be working continuously and successfully. For auxiliary or port lights on shore where no collisions can occur, the Pintsch gas system is found to be very perfect. At Broadness, on the Thames, near Gravesend, the Trinity House erected in 1885, an automatic lighthouse illuminated on Pintsch's system, as shown by the diagram. This small lighthouse shows a single flashing light at periods of ten seconds, the flashes having an intensity of 500 candle units. The flashes and eclipses are produced with perfect regularity by special clockwork, which also turns on the gas supply to the burner at sunset and off again at sunrise. It is also arranged for periodic adjustment for the lengthening and shortening of the nights throughout the year. This automatic light is in the charge of a boatman, who visits it once a week, when he cleans and adjusts the apparatus, and cleans the glazing of the lantern. An automatic lighthouse similar to that at Broadness has been lately installed at Sunderland by the River Wear Commissioners, on a pier which is inaccessible during stormy weather. In 1881–82 several beacons automatically lighted by petroleum spirit, on the system of Herr Lindberg and Herr Lyth, of Stockholm, were established by the Swedish lighthouse authorities, and are reported to be working efficiently. In 1885 a beacon or automatic iighthouse on this system was installed by the Trinity House on the Thames, near Gravesend, and has been found to work efficiently. The light is occulting at periods of about two seconds; the occultations are produced by an opaque screen, rotated around the light by the ascending currents of heated air from the lamp acting on a horizontal fan. As there is no governor to the apparatus, the periods of the occultations are subject to slight errors compared with those of the gas light controlled by clockwork. In 1844 an iron beacon lighted by a glow lamp and the current from a secondary battery was erected on a tidal rock near Cadiz. Contact is made and broken by a small clock, which runs for twenty-eight days, and causes the light to flash for five seconds at periods of half a minute. The clock is also arranged for eclipsing the light between sunrise and sunset. The apparatus is the invention of Don Isaas Lavaden, of Cadiz, to whom I am indebted for kindly showing me the light in action when on a visit to Cadiz in 1885. There is every probability that automatic beacons lighted either by electricity, gas, or petroleum spirit, will in consequence of their economy in maintenance be extensively adopted in the future.
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Beacon Lights and Fog Signals1. Nature 40, 110–114 (1889). https://doi.org/10.1038/040110b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/040110b0