Talk:Baltimore Harbor Light

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WikiProject Lighthouses Baltimore Harbor Light is part of WikiProject Lighthouses, a WikiProject related to lighthouses and other water navigational aids worldwide. It may include the lighthouses infobox. If you would like to participate, you can edit the article attached to this page, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.
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Baltimore Harbor Light is part of WikiProject Maryland, a WikiProject related to the U.S. state of Maryland.
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This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Baltimore Harbor Light article.
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[edit] Name

Based on this [1] the historic name is "Baltimore Light Station". -- Stbalbach 19:31, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

As per Talk:Lighthouses_in_the_United_States, I think consensus was to use the term "light" in writing articles, and in making other things redirects to it. --AlbertHerring 21:29, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
Hmm didn't see anything there about limiting it to two words "XYZ Light". .. USCG calls it officially "Baltimore Light Station", USCG seems to be the source most people want to use. -- Stbalbach 22:13, 20 August 2006 (UTC)
According to the talk here, the consensus was to use "Light". Beyond that, I don't know - I'm a rather late arrival to the discussion, so all I've got to go on is what's linked, sorry. --AlbertHerring 01:07, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
Light instead of Lighthouse. Which is how it is. Not Baltimore Lighthouse Station. -- Stbalbach 01:14, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
OK, I'll put up the question on the WikiProject page. My chief concern is to achieve unity - I don't object to the phrase "light station" in the article title, but if that's the case, then every article ought to be consistent with it, which isn't the case right now.
Sorry to be so obstrop...so obstrep...so annoying about this - I'm not usually this argumentative, I swear. --AlbertHerring 01:33, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
The Coast Guard calls it a light and not a Light station. See see http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/WEBLIGHTHOUSES/LHMD.html and page 77 of District 5 Lights list at http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pubs/LightLists/V2COMPLETE.PDF. --- Skapur 02:15, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
According to this USCG document:
historic name: Baltimore Light Station
This is the only place that seems to assign an "official name" and not just an unqualified name - most big institutions are notorious for using short-hand versions of names - for good reason, saves document space .. same reason we say WP:V instead of Wikipedia:Verifiable. -- Stbalbach 02:27, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
There was a BIG discussion in Talk:Lighthouses in the United States on this topic and the consensus was to use Light for all manners of Lighthouses. As far as WP:V is concerned, the USCG Lights list does define a "Lighthouse to be a lighted beacon of major importance" but does not define a Light station. A Light is defined officially in the Lights list by the USCG as "The signal emitted by a lighted aid to navigation. The illuminating apparatus used to emit the light signal. A lighted aid to navigation on a fixed structure." See page INTRO13 of http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/pubs/LightLists/V2COMPLETE.PDF for the above definitions. The only place a Light station is mentioned is in reference to Off Shore Tower. --- Skapur
No one was suggesting changing it to Lighthouse. But the official name is clearly laid out with no ambiguities as "Baltimore Light Station". As for your links, it sounds like a "light" could be anything that emits light. And it sure sounds to me like a lighthouse is an off shore tower. A "light" just means an aid to navigation, but when talking about a "lighthouse", the structure that houses the light et al, the USCG uses "light station". -- Stbalbach 05:43, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
I think you are getting the point. As far as the Coast Guard is concerned, they are all "Lights". As a mariner looking at charts and lists, I look at it as Light. You may want to google Baltimore Light Station. I get more links to rail road stations than anything else. --- Skapur 01:14, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
Ok I guess we name em based on Google results? I thought we were going by the USCG. Which is "Baltimore Light Station".

But according to this, also a Coast Guard page, it's Light. --AlbertHerring 05:41, 22 August 2006 (UTC)

Yeah but that is an unqualified name - it could be short-hand (like BWI is shorthand for Baltimore-Washington International Airport) - we don't know, there is no qualifier. Just because it is on a web page doesn't say much. In fact, the USCG says specifically historic name: Baltimore Light Station. So we know its "historic name". -- Stbalbach 15:46, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
You are conjecturing that it is shorthand. BTW the name on BWI's web site is Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall Airport with a "/" rather than a "-" although the Wikipedia article is Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport. Please consider the consensus of Wikipedia editors that agree on using "Light" in Talk:Lighthouses in the United States. Normally in Wikipedia, editor consensus rather than official name is the guide in naming. --- Skapur 19:00, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
Besides which, if memory serves (and I'll check when I can get my hands on 'em again), most print sources use the style "such-and-such light". I'm pretty sure de Gast does, and I'm almost positive F. Ross Holland (who I view to be about the best print source available) does as well. So it's the commonest usage. --AlbertHerring 21:04, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
Do you know what unqualified means? Here we have two sources, one is qualified, one is not. Which would you pick? The reason I "conjectured" is because it is unqualified. You are conjecturing it is NOT shorthand. Why use an unqualified name when a qualified name exists? As for a "consensus", all I see is a few people who talked about it on a talk page, there is no "manual of style" or anything else like that which provides a central place to discuss it or establish consensus. -- Stbalbach 23:07, 22 August 2006 (UTC)
I would pick the more reliable and often edited source --- Skapur 02:50, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

As one of the new keepers of this lighthouse, I can say we have chosen "Baltimore Harbor Light" as the long name we will use, and Baltimore Light as the short. We did this for a couple of reasons, the most important being that it is listed as Baltimore Harbor Light on the USCG Lights List.

There have been several names used over the years, some simultaneously. The original designs are titled "Baltimore Light-House, MD". Then there is "Baltimore Light Station", "Baltimore Harbor Lighthouse", "Baltimore Harbor Light", and as I knew it growing up around her, simply "Baltimore Light" (pron: Bal'mer Light). I think some of the multiple identities can attributed to the different terms used by the U.S. Lighthouse Service and the U.S. Coast Guard. I would also speculate that some terms were used to refer to the full operation (the light, the keepers, and everthing required to support them) and others were refering to the structure and optic only.

When we are not working on the light, we are always looking for more information about her for our website www.baltimorelight.org, and plan to contribute to this article shortly.--M_Jefferies 15:25, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Dear Mr. Jefferies, congrats on the lighthouse! Also thanks for posting the interior shots, I had never seen the inside before. I'll be following what develops here and in general, I used to live on Shipsview Road overlooking it. -- Stbalbach 16:27, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] NOT the only lighthouse powered by Nuclear Energy.

The russians have been doing this for years, with Radioisotope thermoelectric generator units. TiHead 10:43, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Yes I had heard of that, do you have any other information about the Soviet/Russian lighthouses? -- Stbalbach 12:08, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
Only what I have learned from here Radioisotope thermoelectric generator. TiHead 19:47, 17 October 2006 (UTC)
I believe it was the first (in the world), and the only U.S. lighthouse, to have been powered by an atomic generator. The Soviets have/had something like 130 of these devices in lighthouses, and they know where most of them are. --M_Jefferies 15:43, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Requested move

Since the last previous discussion, the lighthouse has changed hands, and is now private property. Per above, the new owners are calling it the "Baltimore Harbor Light". I would suggest we rename to that, since it will be the most commonly recognizable going forward (and is the current official name), and have a section detailing the many other names it has gone by historically. -- Stbalbach 16:30, 8 November 2006 (UTC)