Point Cabrillo Lighthouse
From Conservapedia
Point Cabrillo Lighthouse is located near the town of Mendocino, California. Construction of the Light Station began in 1908, and the lens was illuminated for the first time on June 10,1909, under head keeper Wilhelm Baumgartner.
Built and managed by the U.S. Lighthouse Service under the Department of Commerce, the original Point Cabrillo Light Station included the buildings still standing today. These include the three keeper's residences, the coal buildings (now garages), the carpentry shop and smithy, and the oil house. Several other structures - two water towers, a barn, and the original pump house have since been removed. The barn, which was located to the south of the residences at the end of a side road, was used as a U. S. Air Force radio monitor's training facility after World War II.[1]
The U. S. Lighthouse Service was officially absorbed into the United States Coast Guard in 1939. Bill Owens, who also served at the Point Arena Lighthouse, was the last civilian lighthouse keeper at Point Cabrillo. He retired in 1963. Coast Guard officers and their families continued to live in the keepers houses until the present-day California Coastal Conservancy took possession in 1992.
==The light tower houses a third order, British-built Fresnel lens by Chance Bros., with a range of 13-15 miles. The lens was originally powered by a kerosene oil lamp. There are only 2 other British-built lenses in operation in the U.S. today: A 1st Order lens at Heceta Head Lighthouse in Oregon, and a 2nd Order range light ("fixed") at Battery Point, Staten Island, New York.[2]
Originally the lens rotated by means of a clockworks mechanism with a descending weight. A chain with a 65-80 LB weight on the end of it passed through the floor of each level of the light tower. The light keeper would crank up the chain onto a drum every 2 hours. At some point, a portion of the concrete foundation on the ground floor was removed to add an additional 4-5 feet to the chain, gaining an additional ten minutes between windings. The clockworks were replaced with an electric motor and the oil lamp with a light bulb when electricity was introduced at the Station in 1935
The lens rotated at a fixed speed and produced a flash at ten second intervals. The rotation pattern of a lighthouse is printed on nautical charts, it's the lighthouse "signature" and must not vary.[3]
