James Chatham Duane was born in Schenectady, NY in 1824. His great-grandfather, James Duane, had been a member of the Continental Congress. He graduated West Point 3rd in the Class of 1848 and joined the Corps of Engineers. His antebellum service included two stints teaching engineering at West Point and two stints with the Company… Continue reading Bright Ideas #14: James C. Duane
Kate Walker here, keeping the light on Robbins Reef. We talked earlier about lighthouses with caisson foundations. Let’s look at two caisson lights. Fourteen Foot Bank Light Station stands in Delaware Bay near Bowers Beach. It was America’s first pneumatic caisson lighthouse structure, built in 1887. The U.S. Light-House Board (USLHB) Committee on Engineering reviewed… Continue reading KATE’S CORNER #20
Kate Walker here, keeping the light on Robbins Reef. Robbins Reef marks a hazardous reef in New York Bay so does not need to be seen at a great distance. According to the 1892 Light List, my light is 58 feet above sea level. Coastal lights need to be seen from great distances so the… Continue reading KATE’S CORNER #17
Society members Lynn and Dave Waller recently donated their National Archives research findings for the Graves Light Station, Massachusetts, to the Society Archives. Society Director Jeff Gales is delighted with the gift. “Making lighthouse research widely available is the intent of the new Catalog and such an endeavor would not be possible without generous donations… Continue reading Lynn and Dave Waller Research Collection for The Graves Lighthouse
Society members Lynn and Dave Waller recently donated their National Archives research findings for the Graves Light Station, Massachusetts, to the Society Archives. Society Director Jeff Gales is delighted with the gift. “Making lighthouse research widely available is the intent of the new Catalog and such an endeavor would not be possible without generous donations… Continue reading Lynn and Dave Waller Research Collection for The Graves Lighthouse
Kate Walker here, keeping the light on Robbins Reef. There were a lot of locations where the heavy tall towers I talked about earlier couldn’t be built. If the bottom was muddy or sandy, as in the Chesapeake Bay, Delaware Bay, the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi River delta, and the coral reefs of the… Continue reading KATE’S CORNER #16
Kate Walker here, keeping the light on Robbins Reef. In an earlier post I talked about single-keeper, “family” light stations which marked sounds, bays, rivers, and harbors. Tall towers, above 150 in height, were the extreme opposite. They stood on flat land on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts where offshore shoals, dangerous currents, or rocky… Continue reading KATE’S CORNER # 15
Kate Walker here, keeping the light on Robbins Reef. In an earlier post I talked about single-keeper, “family” light stations which marked sounds, bays, rivers, and harbors. Tall towers, above 150 in height, were the extreme opposite. They stood on flat land on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts where offshore shoals, dangerous currents, or rocky… Continue reading KATE’S CORNER # 15
On November 1, 1887, at about dusk, Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse Principal Keeper William R. Rowlinski climbed the 213 steps of the tall, red brick giant to its lantern room. Rowlinski proceeded to light the five-concentric-wick kerosene lamp to inaugurate the first night of service for what is now known as the Ponce DeLeon Inlet Lighthouse.… Continue reading Ponce Inlet Begins 130th Anniversary Celebration
Kate Walker here, keeping the light on Robbins Reef. The earlier lighthouse on Robbins Reef was built of stone, but my tower was built of cast-iron plate. Cast iron became a very useful material in the second half of the 19th century because it was lightweight and watertight. A cast-iron tower could be made in… Continue reading KATE’S CORNER #11
