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Twin Lights Historic Site Highlands, NJ 07732

732-872-1814

www.twinlightshighthouse.com

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Table of Contents

History of the Navesink Twin Lights

Navesink Light Station Page 3

The Highlands of Navesink Timeline Page 6

The Fresnel Lens at Navesink Lightstation Page 8

1893 Event Marked Official Start of Pledge of Allegiance Page 10

in the U.S.

Marconi Wireless Telegraph Page 12

Information about Twin Lights

Did You Know… Little Known Facts About Twin Lights Page 15

Questions Most Often Asked About Navesink Twin Lights Page 17

Lighthouse Facts

Piloting and Navigation Page 19

Why are Some Lighthouses… Round, Square, Striped, Page 22

or Solid?

New Jersey’s Lighthouses Page 25

Why are Lighthouses so Tall? Page 28

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The Navesink Light Station (Twin Lights of Highlands)

In colonial America, lighthouses initially were built at busy harbors. The New World’s first lighthouses were located at busy ports and other places on prominent headlands or dangerous stretches of the Atlantic coast. The Highlands of Navesink was one such headland. Rising 200 feet above sea level, the heights were observed by all the early navigators. Henry Hudson sailed his ship Half-Moon into Sandy Hook Bay in 1609. Robert Juet, a ship’s officer, kept a detailed log of the sailing. On September 2nd he wrote “far to the Northward of us wee saw high hills. This is a very good land to fall with and a pleasant land to see.” The next day Juet noted “The morning mystied until ten of the clocke, then it cleared and the wind came out of the Southwest so wee weighed anchor and stood to the Northward. The land is very pleasant and high and bold to fall withall.” And for a mariner approaching the Jersey coast, it was indeed a very good land to fall with. The commanding heights of the Highlands of Navesink made it a welcome daymark. That was not so at night, or in fog. So in the early 18th century, a beacon and fog signal cannon were placed at the site. In the mid-1700’s, New York merchants erected there “a commodious lighthouse for the security of navigation”. Little is known of that light, but it probably was a tower lit by burning pots of oil, raised at night. The Highlands light was mentioned in a 1765 history of New Jersey and is believed to have been constructed in 1756. A British document written in 1776 stated three Loyalists “found means to pass the guard at the Highlands near the Lighthouse.” Construction of the Twin Lights was completed in 1828. The Light station consisted of identical, but unconnected, octagonal towers and a

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keepers dwelling. The towers were made of blue split stone and stood 320 feet apart. The focal place of the north tower was 246 feet above sea level. The beginning of a series of “firsts” associated with Twin Lights occurred in 1841. Some years earlier, the French physicist Augustine Fresnel revolutionized the lighting of lighthouses with his development of the lens bearing his name. They resembled huge bee hives of glass surrounding a lamp. Prisms at the top and bottom refracted, or bent, the lamp’s light so that its rays were focused at the center and intensified by a magnifying glass. The refraction and magnification produced a bright, narrow sheet of concentrated light. Developed in 1822 and adopted by most European nations, the Fresnel lens was slowly recognized by American authorities as the ultimate of maritime lighting devices. In 1838, Congress sent US Navy Commodore Mathew C. Perry to the European continent to study its lighthouses. He purchased a first-order and second-order lens, and in 1841 they were installed in the Navesink Light Station. It was America’s first use of the Fresnel lens. In 1841, the Lighthouse Board reported the Twin Lights as the “best on the coast of the United States”. But, the Lighthouse Board also found the dwellings and outbuildings in serious need of repair. Rather than rehabilitate the 1828 station, the Board decided to construct the towers. Work began in 1861 and was completed on May 1st the following year. Strangely enough, architect Joseph Lederle chose to make the south tower square and the north tower octagonal. The lighthouse was built of brownstone quarried at Belleville, New Jersey. The total coast of construction was $74,000. The fortress-like Twin Lights continued to add to the list of “firsts” for U.S. lighthouses. In 1883 it became the initial first order light station to use mineral oil (kerosene). Twin Lights was the first primary seacoast light to be electrically powered with the installation of an electric arc bivalve lens in the south tower. Its nine-foot diameter produced $25,000,000 candlepower. It can be seen on display in the lens exhibit building adjacent to the south tower. The beam of the lights was visible for 22 miles and its “glooming” reflection in the night sky could be seen from 70 miles at sea. Local residents complained the powerful light kept their cows awake at night

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and the animals refused to give milk in the morning. A happy compromise was reached with the installation of blackout panels on the landward sides of both towers. For those approaching the Jersey coast, the brilliance of the lights was a most welcome sight. One contemporary author wrote: “On those magnificent bluffs bordering the Shrewsbury River are the two beacons that have filled many and many a heart with joy… the Highland lights of the Navesink.” The beauty that was the south tower’s Fresnel lens was extinguished in 1949 when the light station was decommissioned by the US Coast Guard. For the first time in nearly two centuries, the Highlands of Navesink were darkened. Why did this have to occur? The development of modern navigational aids made Twin Lights (and many other light houses as well) obsolete. Shipping in and out of New York Harbor is guided now by highly sophisticated nautical aids. In 1960, the Navesink Attendant Light Station became a New Jersey State Historic Site. It is administered by the Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Parks and Forestry, and the State Park Service. With Coast Guard permission, one thousand watt blinker light in the north tower flashed from dusk to dawn telling seamen…YOU ARE HERE, OFF THE HIGHLANDS OF NAVESINK.

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1826- 2 ¾ acres of land are purchased to build Twin Lights on the Highlands. 1828- The first Twin Lights is built. 1841- Two Fresnel lenses are installed at Twin Lights. (a first- order fixed lens in the South Tower and a second-order revolving lens in the North Tower) 1851- Lighthouse Board inspectors find Twin Lights to be in general disrepair. 1861- The Foundation is laid for the new Twin Lights. Joseph Lederle is the architect. 1862- The present Twin Lights is completed. The North Tower light is upgrade from second to first order. 1883- Kerosene replaces animal and vegetable oils as the fuel for Twin Lights lamps (This is the first use in a first-order lamp in the United States) 1898- An electric generator building is constructed at Twin Lights, making it the first lighthouse in the country to produce its own electricity. Twin Light also becomes the most powerful light in the United States.

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1899- Guglielmo Marconi sets up a receiver on the Highlands for the first demonstration of his wireless telegraph in the United States. 1899- The Twin Lights wireless station becomes the first in the country capable of sending and receiving messages on a regular commercial basis. 1917- Economical incandescent oil-vapor lamps replace the electrically powered light in the South Tower. 1924- Electricity is re-introduced with the installation of electric incandescent lamps. 1931- Murphy Rockette becomes principle keeps at Twin Lights. He will be the last keeper. 1942- The South Tower electric light at Twin Lights is turned off except when important ships enter the area, due to the threat to New York Harbor from German U-boats. 1949- Twin Lights is decommissioned. An automated blinking light remains in use in the South Tower. 1952- The last light is extinguished at the Twin Lights. The Lighthouse is renamed Navesink Day Beacon. 1954- The Highlands Borough takes over th4e administration of Twin Lights and established a park and museum in conjunction with the Twin Lights Historical Society. 1960- A small sixth-order light is re-established in the North Tower of Twin Lights. 1962- Twin Lights becomes a New Jersey Historic Site. 1970’s- Present- Twin Lights continues to draw visitors in all seasons.

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The first Fresnel Lenses used in the United States were brought from France by U.S. Navy Commodore Matthew C. Perry and installed in Navesink Twin Lights in 1841. The inventor, Augustine Fresnel, had revolutionized the lighting of lighthouses with the development of the lens bearing his name. The lenses resembled huge bee hives of glass surrounding a light source, and worked on the principle of physics. The ray of the source was reflected and refracted (bent) into an intense beam drawn to the bull’s-eye in the center of the lens. That process made it capable of producing a brilliant beam that could be seen for 22 miles. To create a flashing affect, the entire lens rotated by a clockwork mechanism, that resembled the innerworkings of a regular clock. It had to be wound up every 4 hours by the lighthouse keeper. In 1899, the original south tower lens was replaced with one of the brightest bivalve lenses ever used in America. It was powered by electricity generated in a power plant on the grounds of the lighthouse. The brilliant electric beam produced 25,000,000 candlepower. Sailors reported seeing the light’s glow in the night sky as far as 70 miles at sea. The lens made one complete revolution in ten seconds and gave a flash every five. After the installation of the light in the South Tower, many residents complained of about the brilliance. Local folklore has it that cows grazing on the landward side of the lighthouse were kept awake at night and would

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refuse to give milk in the morning. The problem was corrected with the installation of black-out panels on that side of the tower. In 1917 it was necessary to replace the electric arc light because it was so costly to operate. The decision was made to install an incandescent oil vapor light, which resulted in a decrease of candlepower to 710,000, still powerful enough to guide shipping in and out of New York Harbor. In 1931 bulletins of the United States Lighthouse Service reported that the light was converted back to electricity and its candlepower increased to 9,000,000 thus making it again America’s most powerful light. Three 500 watt bulbs served as the light source for the lens. As modern methods of warning ships, such as radar and radio beacons, were developed, the Navesink Twin Lights became obsolete and the light station was decommissioned in 1949. The Boston Museum of Science acquired the south tower Fresnel lens from the US Coast Guard in 1951 and placed it on exhibit. With the cooperation of the Twin Lights Historical Society, the Rumson Garden Club and the NJ Division of Parks and Forestry, the lens was safely returned home in March 1979. It is now exhibited in the building that housed the original generating equipment for lighting the lens. Lighthouse engineer Alan Stevenson once wrote: “Nothing can be more beautiful than an entire apparatus for a fixed light of the

first order. I know of no work of art more beautifully credible to the boldness, ardor, intelligence and zeal of the artist”.

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“I pledge allegiance to the flag…” On April 25th, 1893, these words were proudly spoken as the nation’s official Pledge of Allegiance for the very first time. The site was the Navesink Light Attendants’ Station-better known today as the Twin Lights-and the occasion was the most eagerly anticipated Flag Raising Ceremony in American history. Under an overcast sky high above the Atlantic, a robust crowd peppered with national and local dignitaries stood hand-in-hand as the stars and strips climbed toward the top of the “Liberty Pole”, an impossibly massive 135-foot flagpole that seemed to dwarf the flanking light towers by a factor or two. A review of naval vessels from all over the World, invited by President Grover Cleveland, filled the horizon as it joined the United States Navy in providing a glorious backdrop to the proceedings. Two years earlier, the event was dreamt up by a Newark businessman named William Osborne McDowell in anticipation of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus and an anniversary of the Columbian Exchange in Chicago. McDowell wanted to erect a flagpole of unusual height at the highest point of land on the Atlantic coast in the continental United States. That’s where the Twin Lights entered the equation.

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McDowell, the founder of Sons of the American Revolution, wanted the Liberty Pole to be the first sight to greet immigrants and travelers as they approached New York harbor. In his two-year effort to achieve his goal, he joined forces with a highly respected and popular magazine called The Youth’s Companion. The magazine’s staff authored the pledge and first published it in July of 1892. Using “The Companion’s” considerable influence with the nation’s public schools, and capitalizing on the rising tide of patriotism in the run-up to Chicago World’s Fair, the publisher’s nephew, James Bailey Upham, was able to introduce the American Flag along with the pledge itself, into countless classrooms from coast to coast. At the Twin Lights Flag Raising Ceremony in the Spring of 1893, Upham was one of the featured speakers. An organization he had recently started, the Lyceum League, furnished the Twin Lights with flags of many nations, which were displayed around the grounds during the event. Offshore, the battleship Miantonomah saluted this moment with a roar of its guns. The Jones flag was then lowered and replaced by a standard-size American flag. The Pledge of Allegiance recitation followed. At the end of the day, the flotilla of ships swung around Sandy Hook and anchored in the bay. At 3:00 p.m. the multinational fleet exchanged salutary shots with the cannons at Ft. Hancock on Sandy Hook. This was the most elaborate patriotic event on the East Coast during the 1890’s, and probably the largest prior to all tall ships in 1976.

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The following is a transcript of the recording that may be played at the audio station near the site where Marconi’s 1899 receiving

mast was emplaced beside the North Tower. My name is Gioia Marconi Braga and Guglielmo Marconi, the inventor of the wireless telegraph, was my father. I would like to take you back to the events of September and October 1899 and tell you the story of the first demonstration of practical wireless telegraphy to take place in America. My father was invited to America by James Grodon Bennett, the publisher of the New York Herald newspaper, to publicize the 1899 America’s Cup races and to demonstrate the wireless telegraph. The contenders in the race were the British yacht Shamrock owned by Sir Thomas Lipton of Lipton Tea fame and the American yacht Columbia II owned by financier J.P. Morgan. Marconi traveled from England on the Cunard liner Aurania and arrived in New York on September 21, 1899. To the reporters sent to meet him at the dock, he had a prepared statement, half confident, half defiant. It said, “We will be able to send the details of the yacht racing to New York as accurately and as quickly as if you could telephone them. The distance is nothing.”

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At the Twins Lights beacon on the bluff of the Navesink Highlands, Marconi’s assistant, William Bradfield, got the receiving mast in position and explained patiently its purpose to the lighthouse keepers and signal servicemen on the reservation. They listened silently, spat meditatively and looked at him as if he had lost his mind. When Bradfield installed sending instruments on the Ponce and sea-going steamer Grand Duchesse chartered to follow the races, the crews accepted his intrusion with the solidity of seamen everywhere.

Before the America’s Cup Races cup Races could begin however, Commodore George Dewey returned victorious from the Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish American War and a great naval review was planned by President Theodore Roosevelt to celebrate the victory. The yacht races were temporarily postponed, and on September 30, 1899, the first wireless messages were set to report on the progress of Commodore Dewey on the flagship Olympia and the United States Navy’s Great White Fleet of cruisers and battleships as they streamed up the Hudson River. These transmissions were the first demonstrations of practical wireless telegraphy in our history.

In the middle of October, the naval review over the America’s Cup was

moved into the news. Marconi’s first message served no nautical and was sent only to silence scoffers. It proved that the racecourse off the spit of Sandy Hook was one minute by wireless from Herald Square in New York.

On October 16th, the raves and the transmitting began in earnest. At a rate

of 50 words per minute, still considered miraculously rapid, he sent 2500 words from the Grande Duchesse as she trailed the Shamrock and the Columbia on their course 15 miles out from the Sandy Hook Lightship and 15 miles back.

By the end of the second day when they American yacht Columbia beat the

British yacht Shamrock roundly, in a period of less than five hours, more than 5000 words had been consigned to the air and received by telegraph at the Herald office in New York City where they reprinted in the paper and posted on bulletins in the windows. Bennett was moved to editorialize, “The possibilities contained in the development of telegraphy without wires are so important that any step tending to bring this system before the public must be of interest not only to those interested in science but also to anyone who wants to send a telegram.” Within a few years, a wireless telegraph, known simply as a “Marconi” was required on all seagoing ships and was responsible for saving many lives at sea, including 705 survivors of the Titanic. For Sir Thomas Lipton in that October, there was failure and popularity; for Dewy a house in Washington presented by a grateful country; for Marconi a newspaper accolade. Marconi was a national hero! Barely two and a half years later, father reached perhaps the crowning point of his career, the successful transmission of a wireless signal from England to America. The feat

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prompted Thomas Edison to remark: “I would like to meet that young man who had the monumental audacity to attempt and to succeed in jumping an electrical wave across the Atlantic.”

What other men had been content to prove impossible, he accomplished,

and this is truly greatness. The history of wireless communication has been a history of miracles. To Marconi’s vision and perseverance we owe the innumerable benefits of radio and all that stems from it.

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The Pledge of Allegiance was recited for the first time, as our National Oath of Loyalty, at Twin Lights on April 25, 1893. Francis Bellamy, author of the Pledge, was chairman of a committee of state superintendents of education with the National Education Association. The pledge was being used as part of ceremonies to celebrate the Public School Systems quadricentennial.

The United States Army conducted experiments with radar at Twin Lights in the 1930’s. In 1933 the Army Signal Corps experimented with a 400 megacycle radio transmitter, sending wireless telegraph messages to a tug boat one hundred miles at sea. The “Mystery Ray”, a heat detector capable of spotting ships at night also tested in 1935. In 1939 the Army was back on site to test early radar units SCR-268 and SCR-270.

Both the North Tower and the South Tower have their own latitude and longitude. The North Tower is located Lat 40 23’ 8” N. and 73 59’ 1” W. The South Tower is located Lat 40 19’ 9” N. and 74 04’ 5” W.

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The Navesink Highlands is the highest natural point on the mainland of the Atlantic Coast. There is often much dispute over which state or area claims to be the highest point. The main contenders for this title are Maine’s Cadillac Mountain and New Jersey’s Navesink Highlands. Cadillac Mountain is clearly the taller by altitude at 1,530 feet. But it is found on Mount Desert Island in the Atlantic Ocean. The Navesink Highlands rises to an elevation of only 266 feet above sea level, but it is on the mainland of the United States Atlantic coast – a small technicality, but an honest explanation for the reasoning to determine the highest point on the Atlantic seaboard.

The Army Corps of Engineers Insignia and Twin Lights are NOT one and the same. The Castle Insignia was being used as early as the late 1830’s on the uniforms of the West Point Corps of Cadets. In 1841 it was used as the cap plate ornament and in 1857 as the hat ornament. Joseph Lederle, the architect who designed Navesink Lightstation in 1861 was the Superintendent of Construction with the Lighthouse Board.

There were 17 Principal Keepers at Twin Lights between 1828 when the light station was originally built and 1949 when it was decommissioned. There were approximately 68 Assistant Keepers during this time. Some of the more recognizable local names were Mullen, Tilton, Conover, Lufburrow, Thompson, Caulkins and Anderson.

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Why are there two towers? The first Navesink Light Station was built in 1828 and consisted of two identical towers. Those “Twin Lights” gave the station a definite and decided character that helped distinguish it form the nearby Sandy Hook Lighthouse and the Sandy Hook Lightship stationed offshore. When the present station was commissioned on May 1st 1862, the south tower contained a first-order Fresnel lens that gave ships a warning of their approach to land. The north tower was lit by a lens of the second-order, an indication to vessels they were coming up on a headland along the seacoast and the approach to a bay. Why are the towers different shapes? We really do not know. What we do know is that several men who sat on the Lighthouse Board were also Regents at the Smithsonian during the construction of the Castle Building. Perhaps they influenced the design at Highlands. How many steps are there in the towers? There are sixty-four steps to the observation deck in the north tower and sixty-five in the south tower. How high is Twin Lights? The focal plane (center) of the north tower is 246 feet above sea level.

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Will the Fresnel lens ever be put back in the south tower? No. To do so would exclude some visitors from viewing the lens. It will remain on display in the original power Generating Station where it can be viewed by all. Can New York and Long Island be seen from Twin Lights? Yes. Both are visible from the tower and overlook patio area. On exceptionally clear days, the upper portion (flame) of the Statue of Liberty may be seen with binoculars. What are the portholes in the towers for? For ventilation. When the lenses were illuminated by whale oil, lard or kerosene, the lamps smoked a great deal and it was necessary to vent, or air out, the towers regularly. Was all of the Twin Lights built at the same time? Yes. Construction began in 1861 and was completed on May 1st, 1862. What were the galleries used for originally? Each gallery contained a parlor and two bedrooms for the 2nd and 3rd Assistant Keepers and an oil room and workshop. Housing for the Principle Keeper and 1st assistant Keeper was in the central portion of the building between the galleries and consisted of a sitting room, kitchen and two bedrooms for each. The original floor plan is outlined with moldings on ceiling of the Museum. Does the lighthouse work? Yes. The north tower is lit from dawn to dusk wit a 500 watt bulb. This light can be seen between eight to ten miles at sea. Are you a part of Sandy Hook? No. Twin Lights is a State Historic Site administered by the New Jersey State Park Service, Division of Parks and Forestry, Department of Environmental Protection. Sandy Hook is a unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, United States Park Service. We are neighbors and partake in many mutually supportive programs.

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Piloting and

Navigation Thousands of years ago people realized the importance of navigation

as they explored for food and shelter. Seafarers from Greece and China relied on wind, sun and stars to guide them. The Chinese developed the compass as an aid for finding their way. Later it was discovered that a grid system used on maps could be a valuable navigational aid. The grid would have lined going north and south called longitude and the lines east to west were latitude. In the 16th century the cross staff was invented to determine the latitude of a position. In 1731 the quadrant was invented which made an arc that measured 1/8 of a circle and had two mirrors allowing the sun and the sea horizon to be seen

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simultaneously. The quadrant was further advanced in 1757 when John Bird invented the sextant. The sextant measures the height of the midday sun from the horizon. Then the captain would use the navigational tables in a nautical almanac to match the angle with the time and date. The telescope, invented in 1608, was used to measure the longitude. One of the most important inventions in navigation was in the 1820’s, with the chronometer. A chronometer keeps the time of Greenwich, England with extreme accuracy while withstanding the movements of the seas and the variations in temperature that is subjected to aboard a ship.

Lighthouses became an extremely important navigational tool, as well.

The Egyptians built the first known lighthouse in the port of Alexandria in 280 BC to help seafarers find their way home. Sailing ships approaching land could easily be blown into land or against rocks causing them to wreck. Lighthouses let mariners know they were approaching land and the different shapes, heights, colors, and number of towers prevented them for mistaking one for another.

Soon, advancements in technology made lighthouses obsolete.

Automated beacons, buoys, and electronic navigation replaced the need for many lighthouses. Radar, which uses radio waves to detect the presence of an object as at a distance, detecting speed of an object and used for mapping, has become an extremely useful navigational tool. It is great for ship traffic control, direction finding, locating positions or even tracking storms. Ironically in the 1930’s the U.S. army held their experiments of radar units SCR-268 and SCR-270 on site at Twin Lights. Global Positioning System or GPS, developed by the U.S. Department of Defense for military use, can pinpoint your location with extreme accuracy. Its primary use is for navigation. GPS provides specially coded satellite signals that can be processed in a GPS receiver, enabling the receiver to compute position and time. Four GPS satellite signals are used to compute positions in three dimensions and the time offset in the receiver clock. GPS units are made for aircraft, ships, and nowadays most newer cars can be equipped with a unit. There are also hand held units for Geo-cacheting hobbyists.

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Navigation is finding one’s position when out of sight of land.

Piloting is finding one’s location in sight of land. Viking vessels and late medical boats did not carry a

rudder. Instead they were stered by a large oar, attached to one side of the stern. Steer-board became “star-board”.

Since starboard was not convenient for mooring,s the other side became the mooring side. Which became known as

“port side” or port.

As navigational technology continues to advance, the objective to bring people safely to shore is still the same. Even though technology is so heavily relied upon today, mariners still need to know how to manually guide their ships into a harbor in case of mechanical failure. The single most important navigational tool is still the same as it was over 2000 years ago, the compass. With the right direction a person can always navigate a safe way home.

Why Are Some Lighthouses…

Round ,  SQUARE,  Striped ,

or  SOLID?  

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Why are some painted white and others red? Think a moment. If all lighthouses were white, round and had a fixed light of the same intensity how could a mariner tell where he was or what the light signaled? It would be difficult indeed unless the sailor knew his exact location and that of each lighthouse. For those reasons, lighthouses were constructed differently in the 18th and 19th centuries. In fact, the 1880 Lighthouse Service regulations stated, “aids to navigation shall be distinguished by shape, arrangement and color, according to the peculiarity of the respective localities. When new towers or buildings are erected, the old ones shall be removed, so as to preserve the general appearance of the site from seaward. Buildings shall not be erected, nor the color be changed, nor the trees cut down, nor any other changes at any light station, without authority of the Board”.

The major difference in lighthouses is the “order” (size) of the Fresnel lens with which the stations were equipped. They were produced as follows:

Order Inside Diameter Height 1st 72 7/16” 7’ 10” 2nd 55 1/8” 6’ 1” 3rd

39 3/8” 4’ 8” 3 ½ 29 ½” 3’ 8” 4th 19 11/16” 2’ 4” 5th 14 ¾” 1’ 8” 6th 11 ¾” 1’ 5”

The Fresnel lenses resembled huge glass bee hives. The Keeper of a light station, with either a 1st or 2nd order lens, could easily stand within the light to clean it. First order lights were established to give warning of the approach to land and the point of location. Second order lights marked the secondary points or headlands along a sea coast and the approaches to bays and sounds.

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Third order lights were required in bays that were of considerable width and intricacy, as Delaware Bay; also for principal lights for the coats of lakes.

Fourth, fifth and sixth order lights marked the most prominent points, headlands or shoals in large bays or sounds, or obstructions in rivers such as piers or wharves.

And as lighthouse lenses were of various sizes, as would the flow of light in the “on” and “off” periods differ. A navigator simply had to time the duration of the light, and consult his United States government published light list to know an exact location.

Red or green panels were also used at times to further identify light stations. That was not a common practice since red lights had only ½ the range of green and ¼ of white’s range. Colored panels were most often to identify hazards within the sector of a light. For example, if there were shoals in a light’s northeast sector, red glass would only be inserted in the northeast panels of the lantern.

During daylight hours lighthouses served as day marks for mariners and were identified by location, shape, color, and various distinguishing characteristics. The twin brownstone towers of the Navesink Light Station could hardly be mistaken for Sandy Hook’s white tower six miles northward. Light towers were built in cylindrical, square, octagonal or hexagonal shapes. Characteristics, such as the number and color of out-buildings and vegetation about the structure, aided in the identification of lighthouses.

The color(s) of a light was the means by which it was most readily

identified. There was no mistaking the bold black and white candy cane stripes of the Cape Hatteras light. Barnegat light has its top half painted red and the bottom white. The orange cylindrical tower of Absecon light has a black band around its middle. Choice of color was not haphazard, for what good would a white tower be against a landscape covered with heavy snow? Some lighthouses flanking channels were painted to indicate the side of the channel they marked – red if they stood on the right side or black if they were on the left side of good water.

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Many light stations were equipped with steam-powered fog horns and were identified much the same as lights. Each station was assigned a signal that consisted of a set number of blasts to occur at timed intervals. It was a far more efficient system than the bells or signal cannons that were placed at some lighthouses.

Lightships were stationed where it was impossible to build a

lighthouse. They too were given characteristic markings Regulations stated “light vessels shall be distinguished at night by the number and position of the lights and during the day by color, rig, cages, balls and other marks, with the name of the vessel on the stern.”

When electricity became available through onboard generators, the

lightships became even more valuable as navigation aids. The Ambrose Channel light vessel which replaced the Sandy Hook Lightship in 1908, had a 15,000 candle-power light showed a group of three flashes every eight seconds and was visible 14 miles. Lighthouses and Lightships were different… They had to be for sailors to know exactly where they were in the approaches to and from the coasts of the United States.

Barnegat Lighthouse

From Sandy Hook to Cape May, five major lighthouses marked New Jersey’s 127 mile Atlantic coastline. Sandy Hook, Navesink (Twin Lights),

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Barnegat, Absecon, and Cape May lighthouses all had powerful lenses. The beacons from these lighthouses could be seen 18-20 miles from the shore.

The most powerful beacon was installed at Navesink Lightstation (Twin Lights), in 1898. Marking the westerly side of the entrance to New York Harbor, the 25,000.000 candlepower beam was the brightest in the country. It could be seen 22 miles away with the glow from the light being spotted by navigators at a distance of 70 miles.

Scattered between the major lighthouses were smaller stations, which

marked inlets, harbors and navigational hazards. Sea Girt, Tucker’s Island and Hereford’s Inlet, examples of the smaller lighthouses with less powerful beams, were just as important to navigation along New Jersey’s coastline as the larger stations.

The Lighthouse Service also

maintained lightships along the coast. Sandy Hook lightship (1823) was the first to be

Sandy Hook Lighthouse positioned in the ocean. Later, Scotland, Barnegat, and Five Fathom Bank lightships joined Sandy Hook in marking the long New Jersey coastline. In 1908, Sandy Hook lightship was moved and renamed Ambrose to mark the entrance to the newly created Ambrose channel.

Except for Sandy Hook and Cape May lighthouses, most all New Jersey’s lighthouses and lightships have been taken out of service. Texas style platforms used as lighthouses (such as Ambrose) and sophisticated electronics have

replaced the need for these navigational aides. Cape May Lighthouse

Fortunately, many of the lighthouses and lightships have been preserved. Navesink (Twin Lights) and Barnegat lighthouse are part of the New Jersey State Park system and are open to the public. Other lighthouses

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such as Sandy Hook and Sea Girt are only open on certain days. Hereford Inlet in North Wildwood has a museum in the lighthouse building and Sea Girt lighthouse is under restoration.

Two lightships, Ambrose at South Street Seaport and Barnegat at Penn’s Landing (Philadelphia), have been preserved.

Navesink Twin Lights

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The Lighthouse Challenge of New Jersey occurs every October. For more information go to www.lighthousechallengenj.org

Why Are Lighthouses so Tall?

Lighthouses must be tall in order for the light to be seen around the

curvature of Earth. If Earth were flat rather than round, the lighthouses could be shorter.

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In the diagram on the back of this sheet, Earth’s curvature is greatly exaggerated in order to show its effect on visibility; thus the diagram is very much not to scale. The dashed line represents a light beam that just grazes the surface of the ocean, and continues to the bridge of the ship. The point on the ocean labeled “horizon”, is the point where the ocean appears to meet the sky, when viewed from the lighthouse and the ship. It is the farthest point on the surface of the ocean that is visible from the lighthouse or from the ship. Its location depends on the height of the light or the observer above the water level. The higher both the light and the ship’s bridge are above the water, the farther away the ship can see the light, provided of course that the light is bright enough to be seen at such a distance.

Atmospheric refraction (the effect that causes mirages and various other bizarre phenomena) tends to bend light slightly around Earth, and thus tends to increase visibility distances slightly. The refraction effect is somewhat variable.

The visibility distance between the light and the ship

is given approximately by the formula:

Visibility distance (nautical miles) * = approximately 1.144 * square root of height (feet) of light above water level + 1.144 * square root of height (feet) of ship’s bridge above water level

This formula shows that visibility distance is less than proportional to

height. So building the lighthouse higher does not provide much more visibility distance.

As an example, suppose that the lighthouse is built on a bluff 50 feet above mean high water (the usual reference elevation for lighthouses), and the light itself is 100 feet above the base of the lighthouse tower. When the tide rises, decreasing the height of the light above the actual water level, the visibility distance decreases as well. Suppose that the tide is 5 feet above mean high water; thus the light is 145 feet above the water.

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Then the visible horizon is about 13.8 nautical miles from the lighthouse. And suppose that the ship’s bridge is 50 feet above the water. (Since the ship floats on the water, the tide does not affect the height of the ship’s bridge). Then the visible horizon is about 8.1 nautical miles from the ship. The total visibility distance from the light to the ship is then about 21.9 nautical miles. If the ship is farther away, then it cannot see the light.

In addition to the light being high enough to be seen far out to sea,

the light must be bright enough to be seen that far away. Therefore, the highest lighthouses need to have the brightest lights. Long ago, when lighthouses burned oil in wicks and used crude reflectors, brightness was a serious problem. Later, electric lights and Fresnel lenses solved this problem. Today, the beautiful Fresnel lenses generally have been replaced by automated airway beacons.

How far does the light need to be visible? Since lighthouses warn

mariners of hazards like off-shore rocks, the required visibility distance depends on how far the dangerous area extends out to sea. For each lighthouse, the ideal height is computed from the formula shown above; but the actual height depends also on the land terrain (for example, it helps to build the lighthouse on a bluff), on construction and sea conditions, and even on appropriations from Congress.

*A nautical mile is 1852 meters or about 6076 feet.

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