The newly engineered system increased, by many miles, the distance at which a sailor could spot a tower’s glow. In 1822, Fresnel created a new type of lens that revolutionized optics by more effectively reflecting and refracting light. The new museum shows off a number of tools that helped guide ships over the years, including rusty foghorns and Fresnel lenses (pronounced freh-nel and named for French physicist Augustin Fresnel). As the museum’s executive director told the New York Times, “Lighthouses built the economy of this world.” The Founding Fathers knew that if you couldn’t sail safely into America’s harbors, “you couldn’t bring merchandise or do business.” On August 7, 1789, back when George Washington was President, Congress passed an act for the establishment and support of lighthouses, beacons, buoys and public piers (the annual National Lighthouse Day commemorates that anniversary). Lighthouse Service’s 3rd District,” which extended from Sandy Hook, New Jersey, north to Albany, New York, and east to the Massachusetts border.Īt the time-and for much of our country’s history-lighthouses were vital for keeping sailors alive, as well as for commerce. The depot was, according to the new museum, “the key manufacturing, storage, supply and maintenance center for the U.S. In 1862, several years after the hospital burned, the Staten Island Lighthouse Depot was erected in its place. And the museum’s site itself is filled with history: It’s the former location of the New York Marine Hospital (popularly called The Quarantine), a place where up to 1,500 immigrants could be held if suspected of being in “poor or questionable health”-and which, in 1858, “ a riotous mob of locals” burned down. This weekend, in honor of National Lighthouse Day on August 7, it’s offering free admission and a number of events in celebration of its grand opening, including talks from a noted MIT professor who doubles as a lightkeeper on a remote island in Lake Superior. While the museum had a soft opening of sorts a few months back, it’s now officially welcoming visitors. Given the location of the stations, many of which require access over rough ground, the job will involve spending significant time away from home both working and living in close proximity with colleagues.Īdvertising the role, Trinity House notes that the post will feature extensive UK travel and requires appropriate levels of health and fitness, due to the physical nature of the duties involved.New York’s Staten Island is now home to the National Lighthouse Museum, a non-profit site in the works since 1998 that displays the artifacts and cultural history of a sometimes-overlooked job-one in which people lived a lonely life on a tiny parcel of land to maintain a light that saved sailors’ lives. Working environments vary from land-based installations to those that are off-shore. The successful applicant will join a technical team responsible for the maintenance and repair of electrical and mechanical systems on aids to navigation. Trinity House, which looks after the lighthouses and lightships of England, Wales, the Channel Islands and Gibraltar, is recruiting a technician based at St Just to work on its maritime infrastructure. While the last live-in lighthouse keepers in Britain left their posts some 20 years ago, there's a job going in Cornwall that provides a feel for that lost way of life.
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