Lighthouse Lamps & Equipment
First Order Fresnel Lens with Mercury float rotating mechanism. The image shows the relative size of the 1st order lens, about 8 feet, to an average man
One type of lamp used with a “beehive” 4th, 5th, 6th order Fresnel lens.
First Order Fresnel Lens Diagram, showing details of the various pats.
This drawing shows a one day and eight day post lantern. These lanterns were widely used throughout the Chesapeake Bay and North Carolina sounds. They were used just as the name implies, mounted on a post at the entrance to creeks and small rivers and to mark shoal waters.
This is Augustine Fresnel’s first First Order lens, completed in 1823 and used at the Cordouan Lighthouse. The lens is now at the Musee des Phares at Balises, Ouessant, France.
This is a depiction of a kettle lamp, used in some lighthouses before the advent of the more efficient Argand style lamp.
This is a pan lamp of about 1760, another type of lamp used before the Argand style lamp was adopted. These lamps were very inefficient, requiring large amounts of oil and they generated too much soot. The amount of light they generated was very poor.
Maine Lighthouse Museum
Depiction of a spider lamp used in some lighthouses prior to the more efficient Argand lamps.
Fresnel Lens used at Skerryvore Lighthouse 1844. Skerryvore is a remote island on the West Coast of Scotland.
This is a depiction of a “beehive” Fresnel lens by Thomas Tagg of the United States Lighthouse Society.
This shows how light from a single source of light is captured, concentrated and flattened to a single plain.
Stevens fog fell mechanism. This was used in all the James River lighthouses. The mechanism was fitted with a cam, with one unique configuration for each lighthouse. This allowed the bell strike to operate at a specific pattern. The number of bell strikes per minute was published on navigational charts, allowing mariners to determine their location by the sound of the fog bell when visibility was limited.