Thomas A. Tag

Most lighthouse enthusiasts think that the Fresnel lens was the first lens used in lighthouses. However, that assumption is incorrect in that a number of lenses were proposed and put into use in the years before Augustin Fresnel designed his famous lens. This story will give you information about these early attempts to use lenses to augment the power of lighthouse optics.

We all know that the Smithsonian Institution and its 19 museums and many storage centers houses a number of lighthouse-related artifacts. Most lighthouse enthusiasts think that the Smithsonian must have one or more of nearly every type of lighthouse artifact somewhere either on display or in storage. We recently decided that it was time to try to find out just what artifacts the Smithsonian owns and where they are located. Your Society contacted the Smithsonian National Museum of American History to begin the process of determining what lighthouse-related artifacts were located there.

The United States Lighthouse Society became aware in early 2011 that some lighthouse-related patent models existed within the Smithsonian National Museum of American History (NMAH). We decided to produce a document identifying and defining these models and set plans in motion for the project in early 2012. This document is the result of that effort. It was produced with the help of a number of curators working at the NMAH. Involved were Fath Davis Ruffins, Barbara Janssen, Bill Yeingst, and Jennifer Strobel.

This is the story of one of the most magnificent Fresnel lenses ever proposed and the man who proposed it. The giant in our story is the giant lens proposed in 1892, and our leprechaun is the great Irish inventor John Richardson Wigham. This story deals with Wigham's composite gas burner, his proposal for the hyper-radial lens, and his later development of the giant lens and its associated intensity burner.

In the very southeastern corner of Michigan is where the second lighthouse in that state stood. It was one of the earliest lighthouses built on Lake Erie. I ran across a mention of this lighthouse some years back and wondered just where it was located and why it was built. I found that the lighthouse stood for a little less than 20 years and very little was known about it. So, I decided to see if I could discover some of its history. The story you are about to read will give you all I have been able to find about the lost Otter Creek Point Lighthouse.

Along the far north coast of Scotland, you will find the small town of Wick, population about 8,000. The town is very old and forms a part of the land originally owned by the Clan Sinclair one of the oldest Scottish Clans. This area is also steeped in the history of the Stevenson family lightbouse engineers. Robert visited the area many times and was the first to look at the possibility of erecting a lighthouse there. It was left to his son Alan to construct the first lighthouse in the area.

In May 1918, the United States government decided to set up an Air Mail Service. The U.S. Department of Commerce created an Aeronautics Branch and daytime only flights began. By the early 1920s the Department of Commerce decided that the best way to establish nighttime air routes across the country was through the use of lighted airway beacons. Each airway beacon consisted of a tower that supported a white rotating beacon searchlight with a 1,000- watt lamp and a 24-inch diameter mirror.

In August 2009, I was privileged to attend one of the USLHS's 25th Anniversary dinners that were held around the country, this one in Saint Joseph, Michigan. We toured the old Saint Joseph Supply and Buoy Depot and had several long discussions about the depots and the fact that there was very little information about how they worked, who manned them, and their general history. After the dinner, I resolved to learn what could about the history of these depots.

In August 2009, I was privileged to attend one of the USLHS's 25th Anniversary g dinners that were held aroundt the country, this one in Saint Joseph, Michigan. We toured the old Saint Joseph Supply and Buoy Depot and had several long discussions about the depots and the fact that there was very little information about how they worked, who manned them, and their general history. After the dinner, I resolved to learn what I could about the history of these depots.

Several years ago I was looking through some old drawings at the National Archives when I came upon a drawing of a strange lighthouse that was labeled "Cedar Point Ohio Front Range - 1864." Later still, I found photographs of this unusual design in the Toledo Blade newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. The story in the paper told of this building's use at Manhattan. I have been to Manhattan, New York, many times, but Manhattan, Ohio - that was a new one for me.