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

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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

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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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'Ks-'EB JKINTHSQJ It is also interesting to note that all lights are not exactly alike. There is a making light which warns the mariner when he is nearing landg a warning light which points out dangerous spots: a leading light which does just that, leads the ship to landg a coasting light which marks out a coast: and port light which indicates the final port. Each light is different. The making light is a blinking one, the coast light is a steady one, and the others differ just as much. Now let us see just what lighthouses mean to man at the present time. Suppose we are coming to New York. Two hundred miles out we see the Nantucket Lighthouse encouragingly beckoning us onwardg then we see the Block lsland light. As we leave its protecting beam, we see the old and picturesque house on Montauk Point. We safely round the point to intercept the rays of Shinnecock light. Our next protector is the famous Fire lsland light-ship and we barely leave it when we enter the glare of the shore-lights which overlap for miles along the coast. Our next guide is the Navesink, and we then enter Ambrose Channel brilliantly illuminated by two lights. Our port lights now come in pairs, the West Bank and the Staten lsland lights, and the North Hook and Sandy Hook lights. Craven Shoals is marked by yet another light, and now as we swing into view of Manhattan, we see the greatest lighthouse of them all-the STATUE OF LIBERTY. We have come in to the city on a brilliantly lighted waterway, the White Way of the Atlantic. We have been guided and protected by the guiding lights of the sea at every step, or should l say knot? We have profited by the work of ages, the most beneficient of all maritime inventions-the SENTINELS OF THE SEA. ARTHUR KUHL THE LIGHTHOUSE The lighthouse Stands so far away: It seems so strong, so dark, so cold: But, without the friendly, guiding ray, The ships would not be quite so hold. The lighthouse Sends forth such a beam It covers all the dark, blue sea. The ships search anxiously for the gleam That seems to warn or makes cz plea. The lighthouse Stands alone, ne'er dark: And 'tis in every sailor's thoughtg For, without the light, the little spark, The sea with its mysteries would not be fought. --Sally Chase Term 3 Twenty-seven mm