Middle Bay Light
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| Middle Bay Light | |
|---|---|
 Middle Bay Lighthouse circa 1940 |
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| Location: | Mobile Harbor, Mobile Bay, Alabama |
| Coordinates WGS-84 (GPS) |
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| Year first constructed: | 1885 |
| Year first lit: | 1885 |
| Automated: | 1935 |
| Deactivated: | 1967 |
| Foundation: | Screw piling with platform |
| Construction: | Wood |
| Tower shape: | Hexagonal |
| Height: | 41 feet |
| Original lens: | Fourth order, 1885 |
| Characteristic: | Fixed white varied by a red flash every 30 seconds, bell struck by machinery every 5 seconds. |
Middle Bay Lighthouse, also known as Middle Bay Light and Mobile Bay Lighthouse, is a hexagonal-shaped screw-pile lighthouse with a lantern on top. It sits offshore from Mobile, Alabama in the center of Mobile Bay.
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[edit] History
The station was activated in 1885. In 1916 the keeper's wife gave birth to a baby that summer at the station. According to the Alabama Lighthouse Association web site, the keeper brought a dairy cow to the station and corralled it on a section of the lower deck because his wife was unable to nurse the newborn baby. All had to be evacuated when the station survived but was damaged by a hurricane that year. The light was automated in 1935.
The lighthouse was deactivated in 1967. In 1984 the lighthouse was stabilized by Middle Bay Light Centennial Commission in preparation for the centennial celebration. Middle Bay Lighthouse was placed onNational Register of Historic Places in 1985. In 1996 the Coast Guard loaned the original Fresnel lens to the Ft. Morgan Museum for public display. In 2002 restoration efforts were begun to repair the lighthouse.
[edit] Fresnel lens
The Fresnel Lens was named for Augustin Jean Fresnel, a French physicist who, in 1828, demonstrated the wave theory of light and changed the entire world's lighthouse illumination to the Fresnel System. The Fresnel lens collected the light radiated at random from a small light source and directed the rays to the horizon. [1]
Whale oil was the first fuel used and the lighthouse tenders worked in shifts making sure that the lamps did not go out and smoke the lens. In later years kerosene was used and eventually they were converted to electricity. [1]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b The Fresnel Lens. BrownMarine.com. Retrieved on 2007-04-23.
[edit] External links
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