The original First-order Fresnel lens and clockwork mechanism from Piedras Blancas Lighthouse are on display next to the Veteran’s Memorial Building in Cambria, California. The lens is on loan from the Coast Guard to the Cambria Lions Club. A glass enclosure was built to house the lens and clockwork in 1996.
Jim Woodward, one of the leading Fresnel lens experts in the United States, has prepared for the Piedras Blancas Light Station Association a detailed 10-page report on the condition of the lens and the building that houses it. Soon, Woodward will clean the lens’s upper prisms. Volunteers, under his supervision, will assist with the more easily accessed prisms. Work is scheduled to begin in early December.
Click here to read more about this story in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
* * * * * * *
U.S. Lighthouse Society News is produced by the U.S. Lighthouse Society to support lighthouse preservation, history, education and research. You can receive these posts via email if you click on the “SUBSCRIBE” button in the right-hand column. Please support this electronic newsletter by joining the U.S. Lighthouse Society if you are not already a member.
If you have items of interest to the lighthouse community and its supporters, please email them to Jeremy at nelights@gmail.com.
Candace was the US Lighthouse Society historian from 2016 until she passed away in August 2018. For 30 years, her work involved lighthouse history. She worked with the National Park Service and the Council of American Maritime Museums. She was a noted author and was considered the most knowledgable person on lighthouse information at the National Archives. Books by Candace Clifford include: Women who Kept the Lights: a History of Thirty-eight Female Lighthouse Keepers , Mind the Light Katie, and Maine Lighthouses, Documentation of their Past.