LIGHTSHIPS AND LIGHTHOUSES [Illustration: _By permission of Messrs. Siemens Bros. & Co., Ltd._ THE 43,000,000 CANDLE-POWER BEAMS THROWN FROM THE HELIGOLAND LIGHTHOUSE. Being projected from a height of 272 feet above the sea, the beacon has a range of 23 miles, and on a clear night the rays are seen from Büsun, 35 miles away. _Frontispiece._ ] CONQUESTS OF SCIENCE LIGHTSHIPS AND LIGHTHOUSES BY FREDERICK A. TALBOT AUTHOR OF “MOVING PICTURES,” “RAILWAY CONQUEST OF THE WORLD,” “THE STEAMSHIP CONQUEST OF THE WORLD,” ETC. _ILLUSTRATED_ PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN 1913 _Printed in England._ PREFACE Romances innumerable have been woven around the flaming guardians of the coast, but it is doubtful whether any purely imaginative work is so fascinating and absorbing as the plain unvarnished narrative of how some famous lightship or lighthouse has been brought into existence. And the story of construction is equalled in every way by that relating to the operation and maintenance of the light, against all odds, for the guidance of those who have business upon the ocean. This volume is not a history of lightships and lighthouses; neither is it a technical treatise. Rather my object has been to relate how the difficulties, peculiar and prodigious, have been overcome by the builders in their efforts to mark some terrible danger-spots, both on the mainland and isolated sea-rocks. While the lines of the lightship and lighthouse are familiar to all, popular knowledge concerning the internal apparatus of the building or ship is somewhat hazy. Therefore I have explained, with technicalities simplified as much as possible, the equipment of the tower and vessel, and the methods whereby both visual and audible warnings are given. The very latest developments in this field of engineering and science are incorporated, so as to render the subject as comprehensive as possible within the limits of a single volume. In the compilation of this book I have received the heartiest assistance from those who are prominently associated with the work of providing adequate aids to navigation, and am particularly indebted to the engineers to the Commissioners of Northern Lights, Messrs. D. and C. Stevenson; Lieutenant-Colonel William P. Anderson, the Engineer-in-Chief to the Lighthouse Department of the Canadian Government; the various officials of the Lighthouse Board of the United States of America; the Engineer-in-Chief to the French Service des Phares; the lighthouse authorities of New South Wales and New Zealand; Mr. Gustaf Dalén and his assistants; Messrs. Chance Brothers and Company, Limited, of Birmingham; Messrs. Edmondsons, Limited, of Dublin; Samuel Strain, Esq., the Director of the Lighthouse Literature Mission, Belfast; the _Scientific American_, and the _Syren and Shipping_, etc. FREDERICK A. TALBOT. _June, 1913._ CONTENTS