Roosevelt High School - Bwana Yearbook (St Louis, MO)

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kt is 2 'Feed Plane. '+ Service. Room 'TZ' -Bed R..,,. Living Roof: 'Stow-gin, Bo.,-,, - ' ' Room 'S C oncrmu. HelYfIvxZ THE INTERIOR OF A LIGHTHOUSE. ly-five

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my-.f is VSCKN e SENTINELS OF THE SEA BOARD our Vessel all is confusion. The captain, the mate, all of the crew are running wildly from deck to deck, no one knowing just what to do. Upon inquiry we find that we are nearing the dreaded Shinnecock Shoals. The second mate knows the approxi- mate position of the ship, but an error of even one degree is sufficient to send us to destruction on those rocks, and now, to top it all, this fog has settled down on us. Life-preservers are distributed. Anxious fathers and half-crazed mothers dash to and fro gathering their family. Little children and babies, frightened by this unnatural bustle, cry-they know not just why they should, but they do. Suddenly there is a grating, scraping noise, a terrific bolt-the ship has gone aground. ln the sudden, momentary silence that hangs like a pall over the boat, we can hear the crash of waves as they break on the rocks, and we begin to wonder if life-boats can be of any use on such a sea: the answer is: they can't. Tomorrow on the second page we will at last make the headlines: St. Louisans Lost as Ship Grounds on Shoal. That might well be a true picture but for one thing-it wouldn't happen. lnstead, as we neared the shoals, we should see a light seemingly floating in space, blink, blink, blinking assuredly as we calmly and safely sailed on. The lighthouse would prevent any such catastrophe. Lighthouses have prevented such occurrences for thousands of years, until now we take them as a mere matter of course. Guiding lights for ships at sea have been known ever since the discovery of ships, it is even possible that Noah saw a lighthouse or two on his noted voyage. The ancestor of all modern lighthouses, however, is the Egyptian lighthouse at Pharos. This was a 460 foot pyramid constructed about 250 B. C. its illumination was furnished by an oak-log bonfire at the peak, and its light is reported to have been visible forty miles at sea. Because of this first great beacon, the science of lighthouses is today known as pharology, and a light is known as a pharos. Another old lighthouse was the world- famed Colossus of Rhodes, a huge, IO5-foot high representation of Apollo holding aloft a brazier in which the light for the beacon was kept burning. Colossus is reported to have stood with one foot on one side of the harbor and the other on the opposite side, and, although many doubt the story, it is known that this was a huge and unique lighthouse. Down through the ages man has constructed lighthouses, always on the tower motif, but it was not until the construction of the Eddystone light that modern lighthouses came into existence. Perhaps it would be well to recount the building of this house, for the construction demonstrates the perseverance necessary to construct a tower. ln I695 the first lighthouse was built of stone on Edclystone point off the coast of England, but this was destroyed by a gale. ln 1706 a second tower of oak timbers was constructed, and, just to show Twenty-four

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-m3-.,.-E?..-,,f- ki-Q-213 iKlNIHsSjJ natureis perverseness, when water couldn't destroy it, fire did. The next attempt was made in cast iron, but a gale completely ruined the work just before the lantern was installed. Undaunted, in 1806 the English raised another entirely new and distinctive tower of granite 1 10 feet highg it endured. ln 1858 the beacon was raised 146 feet above the sea, and there it stands today, a monument to man's ingenuity, and pure stubbornness. The first light in America was raised in ISI 7 and was placed just outside Boston. This light had its troubles toog it was burned in 1775, blown up in 1776, reconstructed in 1783, and extinguished in I8I2g but today it is still guiding ships into Boston. This Boston light was one of the first to use oil, a primitive method, but vastly superior to the tallow candles then in use. imagine a lighthouse with a candle as its only beacon! Since then gas has displaced oil, acetylene has displaced gas, and electricity has displaced acety- lene, oil, gas, and candles. We certainly have made advances in lighting. So much for the history of the lighthouses, now for their mechanics and some interesting facts about them. As you can see in the accompanying illustration, a lighthouse is built of dovetailed stones, a principle developed on the Ecldystone light by Mr. Stevenson, father of Robert Louis Stevenson. It is this dovetailing that makes a lighthouse so durable. Lighthouses are beautifully shaped and extremely symmetrical for a practical reason. The sides are curved to reduce wind pressure, the towers are stately to keep the light above the spray, the markings are distinctive to make the lighthouse a landmark by day as well as by night, in fact, every portion is utilitarian Hrst, beautiful later. Even the light has a Ucharacterf' Each light is distinctive, different from its fellows, and the experienced navigator recognizes each. Suppose he is cruising along on an inky black night, he is-heaven knows where. Then he sees a light in the distance. A white Hash, thirty secondsg a white Hash, thirty secondsg a third Hashg immediately he knows that this is the Boston light. Perhaps a little later he again begins to wonder about his location. Another light-a white Hash, ten secondsg a white Hash, ten seconds, a white Hash, ten secondsg a red Hash-lVlartha's Vineyard. You could set a sea captain down in an ocean ftry it some timeb, forget to tell him what ocean it is, let him see one light, and he'll tell you his approximate position, let him see two, and he'll tell you his exact position. All of these Hashes are accom- plished by a complicated arrangement of lenses that allow not a ray to escape uselessly or be wasted. Another interesting automatic device is found in unattended lighthouses, some of which are visited about once in two years. This is an acetylene burner using a gas which is a product of the reaction of water and calcium carbide. Once in a great while, someone visits the house with some of the compound, adds water, and leaves it alone. The gas regulates its own How by its pressure, and turns itself up and down at appropriate times. Twenty -six