Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthousesStevenson, Alan
History
Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthouses
Stevenson, Alan
Skerryvore Lighthouse (Hebrides, Scotland)
For intercepting the upper portion of the light, FRESNEL employed
eight smaller lenses of 500 mm. focal distance (19·68 inches) inclined
inwards towards the lamp, which is also their common focus and thus
forming, by their union, a frustum of a hollow octagonal pyramid of
50° of inclination. The light falling on those lenses is formed into
eight beams parallel to the axis of the smaller lenses, and rising
upwards at an angle of 50° inclination. Above them are ranged eight
plane mirrors, so inclined (see Plates XIII. and XIV.) as to project
the beams transmitted by the small lenses in the horizontal direction,
so as finally to increase the effect of the light. In placing those
upper lenses, it is generally thought advisable to give their axis an
horizontal deviation of 7° or 8° from that of the great lenses and in
the direction contrary to that of the revolution of the frame which
carries the lenticular apparatus. By this arrangement, the flashes of
the smaller lenses precede that of the large ones, and thus tend to
correct the chief practical defect of revolving lenticular lights by
prolonging the bright periods. The elements of the subsidiary lenses
depend upon the very same principles, and are calculated by the same
formulæ as those given for the great lenses. In fixing the focal
distance and inclination of those subsidiary lenses, FRESNEL was guided
by a consideration of the necessity for keeping them sufficiently
high to prevent interference with the free access to the lamp. He also
restricted their dimensions within very moderate limits, so as to avoid
too great weight. The focal distance is the same as that for lenses of
the third order of lights.
~Curved Mirrors.~
[Illustration: Fig. 65.]
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