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This column continues to provide excerpts from the Lighthouse Service Bulletin, a monthly publication of the Bureau of Lighthouses, U.S. Department of Commerce. The first was issued in January 1912, and it continued throughout the existence of the Bureau. Unedited quotes from Issue number 42, dated June 1915, follow. The Bulletin had as its object “supplying information that will be immediately useful in maintaining or improving the standards of the Lighthouse Service, and of keeping the personnel advised of the progress of work and matters of general interest in the service and in lighthouse work in general.”
Exhibit of the United States Lighthouse Service – The exhibit of the United States Lighthouse Service at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, is located in the north end of the Palace of Machinery, and is of interest both from a historical and practical point of view. Historically, the exhibit includes seven water colors, painted in 1859, of certain old light stations on the Pacific coast, established in the five years preceding, the lights being the first to be established on the Pacific coast by the United States government. The old 10-pounder cannon borrowed from the Benicia Arsenal in July 1855, and used until the fall of 1857 at Point Bonita Light Station, Cal., is also on exhibit. It was fired at 30-minute intervals during fog, and was the first fog signal on the Pacific coast. The old first-order lens, built in Paris, and installed at Navesink Light Station, N.Y., in 1841, is of great interest, as it was the first lighthouse lens of the Fresnel system used in the United States. It continued in service until 1898. Of no less interest is the old third-order lens of the same system, the first to be installed on the Pacific coast, at Alcatraz Light Station in 1854, and used constantly until 1902 when it was replaced by the present modern fourth-order lens. As illustrating the advance in the lighthouse lamp itself, after passing beyond the crude lamps of the early years of the last century, and the earlier candles, braziers, etc., of the colonial days, there are exhibited in order of time, a first-order mechanical sperm-oil lamp, one of the same order using lard oil, a plunger lamp using kerosene, and a second-order kerosene lamp operated by air pressure.
Sanitary Inspection of Seventh Lighthouse District – In accordance with the plan for cooperation of the Public Health Service in connection with sanitation problems affecting the Lighthouse Service, a sanitary inspection of the seventh district was made in April by Surg. G. M. Guiteras, of the Public Health Service. While the general sanitary conditions at light stations and on vessels are found to be excellent, the report gives valuable suggestions as to improving certain conditions.
Line-Throwing Guns At Alaska Light Stations – Great difficulty has been experienced in the past in landing supplies and mail at the Scotch Cap and Cape Sarichef Light Stations, Alaska. Owing to the situation of the stations, the conditions of the sea is often unfavorable to make landing through the surf for days at a time. Measures have therefore been taken recently for the purchase of line-throwing guns for these stations, and also for the Cape St. Elias Light Station, now in the course of construction, which, it is believed, will be very useful in landing mail and in connection with landing supplies and transferring the keepers to and from the stations during unfavorable weather.
New Fog Signal Installation - An interesting fog-signal installation, which has been in successful operation for more than a year, has been developed by the eighteenth inspector. The installation, which is located at Carquinez Strait Light Station, Cal., consists of a duplicate air-compressing plant, blowing the standard 6-inch automatic sirens which are located in a small siren-house about 900 feet from the powerhouse. There are two air receivers – one at the siren-house and one at the powerhouse – connected by a 2-inch air line. Blasts on the sirens are controlled by means of pneumatic valves, operated by old-style Crosby balanced valves, which latter valves are controlled by solenoids. The solenoids are energized by a primary battery, the time intervals being controlled by a Crosby timing device at the powerhouse. The entire installation is in duplicate, and so arranged that either siren may be operated at will by means of switches in the powerhouse.
Reforestation of Lighthouse Reservations – . . . . Arrangements have been made with the Forest Service for the reforestation of certain lighthouse reservations in the eleventh district, where conditions are favorable for this purpose. In the spring of 1916 about 20 acres will be planted under the direction of a Forest Service officer, and beginning in 1917 the planting will be carried on at the rate of 100 acres per year . . .
Storm On California Coast – On April 29 and 30, 1915, the California portion of the Pacific coast experienced a windstorm of hurricane force, the velocity of the wind at the Point Reyes Light Station registered 110 miles. Reports have been received of damages of a minor character at nearly all of the California coast light stations, none of them being serious however. Bluntsz Reef Light Vessel No. 83, Cal., dragged about 2 miles off station during the storm, and returned to her station position as soon as the weather permitted.
This story appeared in the
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