If you stand at sea level you can see about 3 miles out to sea because of the curvature of the earth. If you want to see farther out to sea you’ll have to stand on a chair. The goal of the lighthouses was not to see the ships at sea but for the ships at sea to see the lighthouse light. The farther out the ships could see the light the more time they had to adjust their navigation safely. The boys a the Oregon Chapter of the United States Lighthouse Society agreed the lights on the Oregon coast should be seen 12-15 miles out at sea, minimum, in perfect weather. So the minimum height a light should be placed was 90 feet above sea level. But not always.
Once the need for a lighthouse was established a nearby site had to be chosen that had direct visibility to the sea. Once a site was chosen the lighthouse was built. Most were built of brick and cement and built sturdy enough to withstand fierce ocean storms.
The head of a lighthouse was called the Lighthouse Keeper. Sometimes only the keeper was at the lighthouse, sometimes he had helpers, sometimes he had family help. The lighthouse keepers were nicknamed “Wickies” because one of their primary duties was to trim all the wicks required for the oil lamps used for the lighthouse lights to keep the smoke and soot to a minimum.
Early on the lamps used oil from Whales then later the oil lamps used kerosene. Every light house had a store of kerosene and essential supplies and in most cases a back up supply in case one caught fire. Much like the back up systems on airplanes of today. The light must keep shining. After the wicks were trimmed all lamps were checked to be sure they were full of oil and ready for operation. Back up lights were stored inside every lighthouse light in case any failed for any reason. Some lighthouses had as many as ten oil lamps lit and working and many more inside the light for back up.
Oil lamps were required to be lit at dusk and remain lit until dawn unless there was a storm or a ship was in distress, then they had to be lit continually. Since oil lamps provided very low light the lighthouse light lens had to be very large, sometimes weighing several tons. The Fresnel Lens was invented and adopted for use in lighthouses because the multi-sided lens gave the low light of oil lamps a lot of intensity. But still left a lot to be desired compared to todays lights & optics.
The lights sat on brass rollers and rotated using an adapted clockworks. The lenses were arranged so the light would be seen twice every rotation. Most lights rotated once about every 4 minutes, 15 times per hour. In a lot of lighthouses a 200# lead weight was attached to the clockworks by a cable and as the clockworks gears worked, the ight rotated and the weight dropped. Just like grandfather clocks work. And just like grandfather clocks, at a point in time they had to be rewound so the light would keep rotating. The cable for the weight was wrapped around a drum with a crank attached, the lighthouse keeper simply cranked the weights up and kept the light rotating. The time required for “rewinding” varied and was dictated by the height of the lighthouse. Rewinding times seemed to have varied from every 2-1/2 hours for shorter lighthouses to about 4 hours for taller lighthouses. I’m not sure which would be best, lifting a 200# weight a short distance but more often or lifting it farther but less often, a 200# weight would be a chore to lift in any case. The winding drum had gear sets that made the rewinding easier.
So, you start your shift at dusk, lamps are lit, light is rotating, bearings are polished and lubricated, weight is rewound. Now all you have to do is not only keep the oil lamps lit but the wicks trimmed so a minimum amount of smoke and soot collects on the lens. You must clean the lens several times per shift, polish and relubricate the brass roller bearings, rewind the clockworks at regular intervals, clean the windows, inside, several times so little smoke or soot collects, replace any oil lamps that are not operating properly, keep lamp reservoirs filled with kerosene, trim the wicks, clean the lighthouse from bottom to top, keep current records of supplies used for replenishment records, keep a current cost for all those supplies used. You must also take an occasional peek out into the darkness to see if you might see a light on a ship that signals it is in distress. Then begin this routine all over again, many times per night.
Another required duty of the lighthouse keeper was if a ship was in distress, every lighthouse had a row boat. The keeper was to descend the lighthouse, steep, slick, steps as quickly as possible, somehow make your way to sea level in pitch darkness sometimes a hundred feet or so below the lighthouse, launch the row boat, hop in and row at top speed in ten degree weather and gale force winds, rescue the sailors from the ship in distress and row them back to the safety of the lighthouse. Then go rewind the weights, trim the wicks, lubricate and polish the bearing rollers and not miss a beat. All in a nights work. Or, hopefully you had a helper you could either send on the rescue mission or stay to attend to the lighthouse duties.
There is one well documented instance where a woman ran a lighthouse for her permanently injured father and did just that. Striking out three times in one night in her row boat and rescuing sailors from a ship stuck on the rocks in a storm, and not losing a single life. Afterward, they retired the old man, gave him a pension and hired the daughter as the lighthouse keeper. True story. Good decision.
Every lighthouse light was unique. When ships at sea saw the light from the lighthouse they didn’t have to argue or guess which lighthouse it was. The unique pattern of light identified exactly which lighthouse light they were seeing. Quite a unique idea. There are only four operational lights working on the Oregon coast today and the new lights use exactly the same light pattern as the old lights. But today, instead of having multifaced lenses weighing several tons rotating by a weight dropping and lighted by a dim oil lamp the new lights are finely engineered prism lenses rotated by an electric motor with battery back up and lit by an electric lamp exactly like you use in the taillight of your car. There are eight lights on a octogan shaped wheel and if a bulb burns out, a sensor causes the wheel to rotate to the next bulb. And the new lights are many, many times brighter with the newer high-tech lenses.
Lighthouse keepers were given houses to live in since most were in remote areas and many keepers had their families with them. Some of the homes were quite drab but others were quite nice and large. Today several of the updated old houses are rented as vacation rentals. One light house had a single residence for the Keeper and a duplex for the assistants. Each unit could sleep six. Maybe we could get that for our next family reunion, but we might have to double up and some would have to sleep on the floor. The ranger said most of the rental units have a pretty long waiting list. She didn’t say if anyone got to stay overnight in the lighthouse.
We enjoyed learning a little about the days of old and the lighthouse operations. Next time you are on the coast give a visit to one. Then you will learn that different things hurt when you go up stairs than hurt when you go down stairs. Enjoy.
Later.
-Tom