In an area of London known as the Docklands, where the River Lea meets the River Thames, is a part of the waterfront known as the Trinity Buoy Wharf. And on the wharf is London’s only lighthouse. The lighthouse at the Trinity Buoy Wharf was never used for navigation. The wharf itself was also used… Continue reading Light Hearted Special Edition – Jem Finer, London’s Experimental Lighthouse and “Longplayer”

Episode Four was first released on June 13, 2019. Nobska Point is in Woods Hole, part of the town of Falmouth at the southwestern tip of Cape Cod, Massachusetts. In 2014 the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the iconic Nobska Point Light Station would be available to a new steward through a license agreement. In… Continue reading Light Hearted episode 4 redux – Catherine Bumpus, Friends of Nobska Light (MA); Gigi Lirot and Ben Swan of Whitehead Light Station (ME)

White Shoal Lighthouse is twenty miles west of the Mackinac Bridge and Mackinaw City at the northeast end of Lake Michigan. Work on the lighthouse began in the spring of 1908. The crib foundation was built using 400,000 square feet of timber, 3700 cubic yards of concrete, and 4000 tons of rock. The lantern originally… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 63 – Brent Tompkins, White Shoal Lighthouse, Michigan

On March 3, 1821, Congress appropriated $10,500 for three lighthouses on the Maine coast, one of them on five-acre Burnt Island at the west side of the entrance to Boothbay Harbor. In 1988, the station was automated and destaffed. A decade later, Burnt Island Light Station was transferred to the Maine Department of Marine Resources.… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 62 – Elaine Jones, Burnt Island Lighthouse, Maine; Russ Katje, hall of fame Lighthouse Passport Program collector

This is the second part of a two-part interview with Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse in outer Boston Harbor, a classic wave-swept granite tower on a barren, rocky ledge. One of the subjects discussed is the “Franklens” created by Dave Waller and friends — a first-order Fresnel lens made of spare panels… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 61 – Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse, Massachusetts (pt 2 of 2)

Episode 3 of the USLHS podcast “Light Hearted” was originally released on June 10, 2019. In this episode, host Jeremy D’Entremont was joined by co-host Michelle Jewell Shaw. A lighthouse history segment focused on the ancient Roman lighthouse in Dover, England. The featured interview was with Dolly Bicknell, president of Project Gurnet and Bug Lights,… Continue reading Light Hearted episode 3 redux – Dolly Bicknell of Project Gurnet & Bug Lights; Roman lighthouse at Dover, England

Graves Lighthouse is a classic, granite, wave-swept offshore lighthouse tower on a barren ledge in outer Boston Harbor. It went into service in 1905 with a huge first-order Fresnel lens from Paris, rotating on 400 pounds of mercury, produced a light that was later upgraded to 3.2 million candlepower– it was for many years the… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 60 – Dave and Lynn Waller, owners of Graves Lighthouse, Massachusetts (pt 1 of 2)

In episode 2 of the USLHS podcast Light Hearted, originally released on June 6, 2019, host Jeremy D’Entremont interviewed Chad Kaiser, general manager of the New Dungeness Light Station in Sequim, Washington. Chad is also a lampist (Fresnel lens expert) and preservationist, and part two of this interview was heard in episode 20. Chad and… Continue reading Light Hearted episode 2 Redux – Chad Kaiser, New Dungeness Light Station (WA); Pharos of Alexandria, “The Light at the Edge of the World”

The Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard is a great destination for anyone who’s interested in lighthouses. There are five lighthouses on the island, including Cape Poge Light on Chappaquiddick, an island that’s connected to Martha’s Vineyard. And the Martha’s Vineyard Museum in Vineyard Haven has the first-order Fresnel lens from Gay Head Lighthouse on display.… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 59 – Richard Skidmore, Gay Head Light, Martha’s Vineyard, MA

Gay Head Lighthouse stands in one of the most picturesque locations in New England, on top of the 130-foot-tall multicolored clay cliffs at the western edge of the island of Martha’s Vineyard, just south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts. The Town of Aquinnah took ownership of the lighthouse in February 2015. As of that month,… Continue reading Light Hearted ep 58 – Liz Witham and Ken Wentworth, “Keepers of the Light” (Gay Head Lighthouse, MA)