#thinking about getting a solar power lightbulb for my lamp at night

[gideonisms]

my electric company emailed me and called me to beg me to use less power today because it's hot so I just went to campus where the AC is going to be set to frigid no matter what

[bakuraryxu]

Tell us more about lighthouses 👀

😩😩😩😩😩  

back in the day lightkeepers were called wickies, bc they trim and changed the wicks of the lighthouse lamp. everythings automated now and modern lighthouses run with lightbulbs with solar panels or plugged in and powered by electricity. 

the Fresnel lens was invented in 1822 and was a revolutionary technology in lighting at the time. it magnified the light the lighthouse could emit so ships could see it from further away. they were ordered by size and importance of the First order being the biggest and it went all the way down to 6th order i believe, the smaller order lens and lighthouses were reserved for harbour lighthouses bc they didnt need to be seen from so far! fresnel lenses  were very expensive and they look extremely cool. and they can get fucking huge! you can step inside a first order lens which is just as well because one of the lightkeepers biggest jobs aside from keeping the lamp lit was making sure the lens stayed clean, if there was any soot or dust on it the light wouldnt work as well and the lightkeeper could be fined or fired. 

lighthouses have different light patterns (frequency of flashing & colour of light & how often they spin) known as characteristics made up by the panels of the fresnel lens. this helps sailors differentiate the lighthouses and identify their location if the lighthouses are close together. in very dangerous bodies of water the lighthouses are green on one side and red on the other. red light indicates left (port!) and green indicates right (starboard!), so ships can navigate accordingly with the red light lined up w the port side 

they used to use mercury baths to keep the spinning mechanism of the lens spinning! this led to some people getting mercury poisoning and losing their fucking minds, which is probably why theres that stereotype of the crazy lightkeeper (i mean idk about you but thats the impression i got from stories growing up) when they didnt use mercury they used ball bearings or wheels 

married men were preferred for lightkeeping duties or ones with stable families, presumably because of the isolating nature of the job. there was usually more than one lightkeeper who lived nearby and they took shifts overnight to keep the lighthouse lamp lit. in whats called a stag station was the head keeper who had the best lodging and i think lived the closest to the light and 2 other keepers. women could be lightkeepers but they were less common, as you might expect for the 19th cent  historical time period. 

the outside of the lighthouse is usually painted some funky pattern or colour to help people on the ocean differentiate them. the paint job cant be seen at night which is another reason they have light characteristics. the height of the lighthouse depends on the surroundings, if its on the edge of a cliff it doesnt need to be as tall as something on the shore. also they were usually cylindrical bc that helped deflect damage from incoming waves & storms 

my favourite lighthouse is this fucking beast of a thing from Scotland the bell rock lighthouse built 1810 and still going strong. very dramatic and it survives storms and getting battered by waves all the time. it was built on a rocky island to help save sailors from getting busted up on the submerged rocks around it. can you imagine being the keeper for this thing? must have been terrifying. isnt that cool? i love it.

heres another pic of the bell rock lighthouse bc i love it