Light House Cyclopedia

Question 1 ：Structure of lamps

A:
Lamps are major components for lighthouses to shine. Lamps consist of the burner, lens, (lamp) flasher, and lens gyroscope.

1. Burner
In early times, lamps are designed with open structure. Lightkeepers can burn fuels like woods or charcoals to light up the sea. Thanks to technological development, different burner fuels are found, including animal oil, vegetable oil and kerosene. Animal oils include including beef tallow, mutton tallow, fish oil and whale oil. The lamps are covered when using lampshades. Afterwards, oil (petroleum) burner, incandescent oil burner, acetylene flash lamp and electric lamp are developed. The so-called burner, source of light, is a burner to converge and reflect light through the lens.
The burners were used before or have been used right now in Taiwan as following,

(1) Oil burner wicks: Single-wick and multi-wick types are used in early times. The source of oil came from vegetable oil, paraffin and t hen kerosene. The oil burners with wicks are not in use at present.

(2) Incandescent lamp: A device that produces light by heating a material to a high temperature, and then mixed the heated air and kerosene into gas to light up. The lamps are usually covered with lamp caps to produce brighter light. Most incandescent lamps have bayonet caps and screw caps. Incandescent lamps are not in use anymore now. Some incandescent acetylene lamps are designed with gauze caps on the acetylene burners.

(3) Acetylene flashlight: The light is also called the acetylene lamp, invented by the Swedish. This type of light is often used in lighted beacons or lighted buoy without keepers. This burner shines through voltage regulator and flashlight reflector. At present, only Chamuyu Lighthouse, Huayu Lighthouse, and lighted beacons at Keelung Harbor and Kaohsiung Harbor use acetylene burners now.

(4) Incandescent acetylene lamp: This lamp uses the improved acetylene burner, and is equipped with the gauze cover to produce a brighter light. The lamp is not in use now.

(5)Electric lamp: Electric lamps use urban, AC or DC powers as source of light.
A. AC (Alternating Current) power: It is used for the large-size incandescent bulbs to produce larger lighting power. At present, Taiwan lighthouses that are lighted up by AC power are Keelung Lighthouse, Tamsui Lighthouse, Yeliu Lighthouse, Baishajia Lighthouse, Fuguei Cape Lighthouse, Taichung Port Lighthouse, Fangyuan Lighthouse, Guosheng Lighthouse, Anping Lighthouse, Kaohsiung Lighthouse, Eluanbi Lighthouse, Liuociuo Isle Lighthouse, Dongjiyu Lighthouse, Pengjia Isle Lighthouse, Bitou Cape Lighthouse, San Diego Lighthouse, Su-ao Lighthouse, Cilaibi Lighthouse, Hualien Port Lighthouse, Green Island Lighthouse, Mudou Lighthouse, and Yuwongdau Lighthouse.
B. DC (Direct Current) power: It is weaker light, used in the places lacking AC power source or without keepers. Those places locate in Cimei Isle and Wengangdeui (Wansanding Isle). Keelung Lighthouse, whose lighting source is replaced by solar power now.

2. Lens:
The diameters of the lenses and focal length are measurement standards of lamp sizes. They also heavily affect light range. The lens means a transparent object with refracting surfaces, including the reflector or convex .

(1) Sizes of lenses: There are ten grades, according to diameters of lenses.
A. Top-grade lens: with lens diameter of 2660 mm.
B. First-class lens: with lens diameter of 1840 mm, like the Lighthouse of Pengjia Isle.
C. Second-class lens: with lens diameter of 140mm, like San Diego Lighthosue and Baishajia Lighthouse.
E. Mid-size third-class lens: with lens diameter of 800mm
F. Small-size third-class lens: with lens diameter of 750 mm, like Fuguei Cape Lighthouse and Taichung Port Lighthouse.
G. Large-size fourth-class lens: with lens diameter of 600 mm, like Kaohsiung Lighthouse and Eluanbi Lighthouse.
H. Forth-class lens with lens diameter of 500 mm, like Keelung Lighthouse and Yeliu Lighthouse.
I. Fifth-class lens: with lens diameter of 375 mm, like Hualien Port Lighthouse and Dongyong Lighthouse. 。
J. Sixth-class lens: with lens diameter of 300mm, like lighted beacons at the sea walls of Keelung Harbor.
K. The lenses with diameters below 300mm are not included into the grading, like the one used in Bachihmen Lighted Beacon.
There is no top-grad lens used in lighthouses in Taiwan. The largest lens is the second-class one used in Dongjyu Lighthosue. In Taiwan Island, the largest lens is the thrid-class lens used in Baishajia Lighthouse and San Diego Lighthouse.

(2) Lens types:
A. Reflector: it is a kind of concave lens made of metal or glass. It is used in leading lights (front light or rear light) of Tamsui Lighthouse, and in lighted beacons in Su-ao Harbor.
B. Convex lens: It is a lens curved outward or made of a combination of convex and prism from die-cast (molded) crystal glass. It can reflect and converge rays to produce a brighter light. The lenses cover refractors , anti- refractors lens and and drum lens.

3. Lamp flasher:
The device automatically turns a lamp on and off in accordance with light characters. Lamp flashers include the acetylene flasher and electric lamp flasher. The electric lamp flashers can be powered by DC or AD power. They are used in the mid-size or small lamps.

4. Lens Gyroscope:
It is used in the large-size lamps to rotate regularly and to flash different types of light in accordance with different light characters. In early times, the lens gyroscope operates with mercury trough, which is powered by gear wheels when there is no electricity. However, mercury would release poisonous gas easily when the temperature is high. So it was redesigned with electrical device working with electromagnetic induction . At present, only four lighthouses still use mercury troughs, including Yuwongdau Lighthouse, San Diego Lighthouse, Dongji Lighthouse, and the Lighthouse of Pengjia Isle.

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