Lighthouse Fresnel Lens
by Carolyn Derstine
Title
Lighthouse Fresnel Lens
Artist
Carolyn Derstine
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Visitors climbing to the top of Port Blanco Lighthouse in Port Orford, Oregon, can get the rare experience of standing a foot away from a fully operational Fresnel lens that provides its powerful light. It is easy to get mesmerized by the moving rainbows in the glass prisms as the lens rotates. These lenses are a work of art as well as function. The original lens was a first order, fixed, Fresnel lens (non-rotating). In early 1936, the lighthouse was electrified and the actual lens was replaced with an eight side, rotating lens, built in France by Henry-LePaute. Augustin Jean Fresnel made the greatest stride in lighthouse technology when he invented his optic system. Fresnel’s system used prisms to focus the light lost above and below the light source, back into a single beam of light. The light is focused through the center of the lens creating a highly visible beam of light. The new lens coupled with the speed as it turned, provided a flash of light every 20 seconds. A 1,000-watt incandescent bulb replaces Cape Blanco’s soot producing oil lamps of old. Hard to fathom that one light bulb, with the innovative Fresnel lens, can cast a light beam 26 miles out to sea!
Uploaded
July 10th, 2019
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