WEBVTT - How Lighthouses Work 0:00:01.000 --> 0:00:11.000 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know fromhouse Stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:14.040 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:16.880 Chuck Bryant, Jerry over there, and this is the Lighthouse 0:00:16.920 --> 0:00:22.200 episode Take one. Uh. Can I just go ahead and 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:28.080 say that I love lighthouses? Do you love love already before? 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:30.880 Like you fell in love with them and researching both 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:36.080 like if I'm I grew up going to Honey Island, 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:39.120 South Carolina, not every year, but we went quite a 0:00:39.120 --> 0:00:42.680 few times here Buford and they have a lighthouse and 0:00:42.720 --> 0:00:44.519 it was one of my favorite things to do as 0:00:44.520 --> 0:00:48.159 a kid, was climbing the lighthouse. And I would I 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:52.040 if I'm near a lighthouse now ever, I will go 0:00:52.159 --> 0:00:56.120 climate but outside. I will seek it out and then 0:00:56.160 --> 0:01:00.480 shimmy up the outside like Spider Man. Um. No, I 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:02.160 will seek it out and go look at it and 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.399 then climb it and um this article just made me 0:01:05.440 --> 0:01:08.240 love it even more. I have a precious memories lighthouse 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:13.640 to marble Head Lighthouse near Kataba Island, which is where 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:18.840 what state by Sandusky in Ohio on Lake Erie. And 0:01:18.840 --> 0:01:20.400 it was the same thing when I was a kid. 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.959 We used to go vacation on Kataba Island, and um, 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:25.759 we would go to that lighthouse every once a while. 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:29.640 I don't remember ever going inside, though it might not 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:31.880 have been open, because there's no reason why you would 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:33.840 go to a lighthouse more than once and not go 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:38.080 inside climb it up. I don't remember every going in, 0:01:38.600 --> 0:01:40.640 or maybe you're just like, yeah, it looks nice from 0:01:40.640 --> 0:01:42.600 down here. Yeah, I would have climbed it. I was 0:01:42.640 --> 0:01:46.840 a climber. Yeah, me too. Um. But I think the 0:01:46.880 --> 0:01:49.320 other thing that factors in for me is I found 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:58.120 I really love antiquated systems that could still be viable. Yeah, 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:02.120 like post apocalypse, you could fire up lighthouses again, you 0:02:02.200 --> 0:02:05.240 know fire yeah, and it would work. Yeah, it would. 0:02:06.560 --> 0:02:08.080 And I think that's a weird thing with me that 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:11.480 I love. I love stuff that's still around that you 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.240 could use if if need be. You know, I've never 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:18.079 really looked at my environment that way, like to see 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.440 what it was going to be standing after an apocalypse. 0:02:20.720 --> 0:02:22.799 Maybe I should. Well I don't know about standing, but 0:02:22.880 --> 0:02:26.080 let's just let's say there was some weird domino effect 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:29.960 type thing like that movie where electricity and internet and 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:33.080 everything went out and people turned on each other. You 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:36.360 could still light a lighthouse and fos could find their 0:02:36.360 --> 0:02:41.920 safe harbor. What movie are you talking about the domino effect? Oh? Really, 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.520 there's a movie like that called that. Yeah, I didn't 0:02:44.520 --> 0:02:46.320 know that. I think it was called with Elizabeth Shoo 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:54.120 and agent Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks Kyle what's his face? McLaughlin? 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.639 And he is so great? Is the mare um Portlandia? Yeah? 0:02:57.720 --> 0:02:59.799 He is good. I love that guy. I think it's 0:02:59.800 --> 0:03:02.920 called a domino effect. If not, that was the you know, 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:07.560 essentially what happened there was a domino effect like a blackout, right, Yeah, 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:10.320 that just like and it created a domino effected things 0:03:10.360 --> 0:03:14.200 kind of spun out of control. You're talking about Fury Road, right, 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:19.560 So uh, Chuck. I love lighthouses too, but I knew 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:25.840 virtually nothing about them until researching this. And um, if 0:03:25.880 --> 0:03:28.200 you think about them though, it's like you were saying, 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:31.120 after the apocalypse, you'll still they'll still be standing. You 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:33.640 just need to replace the electricity with a fire and 0:03:33.680 --> 0:03:36.720 then you'd have basically what lighthouses have always been, which 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.800 is some sort of highly visible signal. For most of 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:44.440 the time, it was a fire, either a wood fire, 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:48.119 coal fire, tar fire. Um that you could see that 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:52.120 was meant to signal to ships that hey man, there's 0:03:52.120 --> 0:03:55.400 some treacherous waters around here. It's one of the main 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:57.760 things that they did. And as the light got better 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:01.480 and better. One of the roles that um, lighthouses play 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.800 was not just to say careful in this area. We 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.320 went to the trouble building a lighthouse here because it's 0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:11.320 so treacherous. But also check out these rocks. See this 0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:14.640 with this light, there's some rocks there. Yeah, like literally 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.640 lighting up a harbor. Yeah. Um, well, because there was 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.680 no light otherwise. Right. And then um, the other role 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:24.320 that they play is in the daytime, right, because lighthouses 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:29.200 I don't think that they actually keep them on twenty 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:31.640 four hours a day, highly inefficient. On a cloudy day, 0:04:31.920 --> 0:04:34.480 if it's foggy, they'll turn it on and start sounding 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.280 the fog horns, which we'll talk about. But um, for 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:40.640 the most part in the daytime, it's off. But a 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:44.520 lighthouse still serves a purpose during the day because they 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.560 don't decorate them the way that they decorate them just 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:50.600 for looks. They do it so you can differentiate one 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:52.680 lighthouse from another. Yeah, Like this one looks like a 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:57.760 barber pole. So I'm near north Carolina is exactly right. 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:00.560 And there's like a whole book called the light List 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:03.000 where it has pictures of them and if you get 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:05.400 your hands on that. I meant to look it up 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.039 but ran out of time. I'll bet it's neat. I 0:05:08.040 --> 0:05:09.760 bet it's neat too. By the way, that movie is 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.560 called the Trigger Effect. I have heard of that one. 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.400 There was a movie called the Domino Effect, but it's 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:16.800 not the same one. What about the butterfly effects? Remember 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:22.520 that garbage that was the couch? Right? Yeah? Man? Why 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.279 does he haunt us? I don't know. It comes up 0:05:25.320 --> 0:05:27.360 a lot, all right. Where were we were we in 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:31.000 the lighthouse? We were talking about the day mark? Yeah, yeah, yeah, 0:05:31.440 --> 0:05:36.640 pretty neat. But there's also what's called the light signature, right, yes, 0:05:36.960 --> 0:05:41.000 where that's um, that's we're going back to nighttime again. 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.360 Ye sorry version the sun's going up and down, the 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:48.320 lights off. It got weird. It is a little weird. Sorry, Jerry, 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:53.560 are you still here? So? Um? At night the light 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:57.320 has its own flashing signature, light signature, and that's also 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.039 in the light book too, And there's actually a number 0:05:59.080 --> 0:06:02.840 of different ways that a light can flash, right, who knew? 0:06:03.240 --> 0:06:05.640 I didn't know you've got the fixed and that is, 0:06:05.680 --> 0:06:08.279 of course, if you just have a light on saying 0:06:08.680 --> 0:06:12.560 we're open. Yeah, it shines continuously, come on in, it's 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.880 the waffle house. You have the occulting light. I love 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.080 this one, the creepiest of all lights. Uh. It has 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.120 longer periods of light than dark. Um. And then the 0:06:23.200 --> 0:06:28.479 flashes six six six uh, And a flashing light has 0:06:28.520 --> 0:06:31.279 longer periods of dark than light. So occulting and flashing 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:33.320 or just sort of inverse of one another, there are 0:06:33.320 --> 0:06:35.719 two sides of the same coin. That's right. I can't 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:38.159 have light without the dark is the whole premise. And 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:41.279 then you have the isophase light that's equal light and 0:06:41.400 --> 0:06:46.640 dark with its uh signature blips, and then a group 0:06:46.760 --> 0:06:52.600 flashing light super seventies. Yeah, it has a regular repeating 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:57.520 number of flashing lights. It's the same pattern, right. Yeah. 0:06:57.560 --> 0:07:01.160 And there's actually really famous one of those, um, the 0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:04.720 Minnot's Ledge light in Boston. It was very famously known 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:07.000 as I think it still is that I Love you 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:10.440 light because of a flash one, then we flash four, 0:07:10.640 --> 0:07:13.800 and then we flash three, so I l O V 0:07:14.000 --> 0:07:16.960 E y O U. So it was like a very 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.440 romantic light. That's how people took it. I didn't make 0:07:19.480 --> 0:07:22.400 that up. Oh see, I thought it was I hate 0:07:22.480 --> 0:07:26.960 cal it could. That's the secondary way that it's known. 0:07:27.160 --> 0:07:30.720 The people Boston are known for their soft side. I know. 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.360 So that's why I love you. Yeah, they're prone to 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:37.760 break into sobs and the public on the street frequently 0:07:38.080 --> 0:07:40.720 just walking around thinking about the beauty of life. That's right, 0:07:40.760 --> 0:07:42.560 And hey, Boston, we'll see you this fall at the 0:07:42.600 --> 0:07:46.000 Wilbur Theater. I think it's still available. I just want 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.280 to work that in nice um. And then finally we 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:53.000 have our alternating I'm sorry. We have the Morse code um, 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:55.720 which is what it sounds like. It It mimics Morse 0:07:55.760 --> 0:08:00.640 code with stats and dashes, stats and dooshes. That's Marist 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:07.240 code dots and dashes man um to spell out, you know, 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:12.200 things like I love you. But that's not when Mino's 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:17.800 ledged does. It's it's just it's just one, four and three, 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:21.720 and people took it that way. I hate and when 0:08:21.760 --> 0:08:24.600 its ledge, Actually it's pretty awesome to begin with. It's 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.520 it's under ten ft of water at high tide and 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:30.720 they had to build it I think in the nineteenth century, 0:08:31.040 --> 0:08:33.040 whenever the tide was out, so they only had like 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.120 X amount of hours and the day during low tide 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:39.280 when the ledge was exposed, it's still there. It's tough cookie, 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:43.720 but josh, these are all sort of modern modern is 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:46.960 modern ish, but um, although old, they can go back 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:55.359 to uh what comers Iliad? They mentioned a lighthouse. Yeah, crazy, 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:58.319 and I mean like we're talking basically a huge bonfire 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:02.520 on a cliff more exactly, you know, not like a well, 0:09:02.559 --> 0:09:05.040 not like Minot's ledge or anything. But the still qualifies 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:09.000 as a lighthouse. It was the premise behind it, Yeah, exactly. 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:16.000 I founded weirdly defensive just now about that still lighthouse. Yeah. Uh, 0:09:16.360 --> 0:09:18.680 like you said, you would have like either wood or 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.000 coal burning on a long pole. Uh. And then finally 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:28.160 in the eighteenth century, um, they started using lanterns, which 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.960 is a little more probably controllable. Yeah. The problem was 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:35.679 that they kept running into, um was that the oil 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:39.360 or coal would smudge the lantern, the glass around the lantern, 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.640 and the so the glass top, the whole thing where 0:09:42.640 --> 0:09:44.880 the light is that you can walk around, and that's 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.560 the lantern of the lighthouse. And if you're burning a 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:51.360 coal fire in there, it's gonna get sooty. Pretty quick. Yeah. 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:53.160 One of the that's one of the main jobs of 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:57.480 the lighthouse keepers to watch windows. Um. The problem is 0:09:57.600 --> 0:10:00.880 in between washings, which they did at least once a 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:05.360 day normally, UM, the light would degrade as the soot 0:10:05.400 --> 0:10:09.319 built up. Uh. So they figured out, oh, we need better, 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.800 better fuel than coal or tar. We thought they used tar. 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.040 Let's burn the dirtiest thing on the plane. Inside. They 0:10:18.080 --> 0:10:19.920 were working with what they had at the time. So 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.240 they figured out, especially in New England, that they could 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:26.200 um use things like blubber and lard, which they did 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:30.280 from Wales, burns a lot cleaner. Uh. And then they 0:10:30.320 --> 0:10:34.920 also figured out, hey, you know what this flame is okay, 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.120 but wouldn't it be great pre electricity if we had 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:41.760 something like electricity to beam this thing out there? For 0:10:41.920 --> 0:10:46.439 miles and miles and a very smart physicists from France 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:51.440 named Augustine Fresnel. For Nell, I like, Fresnell, that's cool. 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.200 For Nell said, all right, take my lens and do 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.640 with it what you will, and he invent at the 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:01.640 Fornell lens. He did and nineteen I'm sorry, eighty two, 0:11:02.240 --> 0:11:04.320 and it's like what you would think it would be. 0:11:04.360 --> 0:11:07.880 It's a bunch of prisms. Um through that through magic 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.240 can cast a beam like twenty something miles out to 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.440 the ocean. It's amazing. They concentrate in the the gather 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:16.880 light from the top and the bottom and in the 0:11:16.880 --> 0:11:19.480 middle and basically just shoot it all back to a 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:27.320 single magnifying point. It just goes miles. Yeah. Yeah, and 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.760 that really that changed everything and did a great job 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:36.280 of handling the load until electricity would come around. And 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.319 that's when everyone was like, you know what, we don't 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:42.680 need these silly flames anymore. Let's just plug in a light. 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.000 But you can still use it for nell lens with 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.679 the light and it's even brighter like today's modern lighthouses. 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:53.040 Use um or have produced lights between ten thousand candelas 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:58.880 and a million Candelas's candela? Did you see this reference? Like, 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.079 this is the worst analogy I've ever run across. What 0:12:03.920 --> 0:12:06.960 did it say? A candela is one two d the 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:10.520 brightness of a fifty watt light bulb. Oh okay, yeah, 0:12:10.800 --> 0:12:13.080 I know exactly how much a candela is. I also 0:12:13.120 --> 0:12:17.160 saw that it's roughly the brightness of a candle, which 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:19.720 makes sense, and that's a much better frame of reference. 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:22.640 So the brightness of a million candles burning in the 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:27.640 same place. That's how bright modern lighthouses are, not one 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:33.040 two bulb. Let's take a break. Yeah, seriously, let's go 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:35.800 find out who wrote that and write a strongly worded letter. 0:12:56.440 --> 0:13:01.199 Well that got ugly, So we're I feel like we're 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:06.640 still talking about the history of lighthouses, right yeah, um, 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:09.120 well what they were, they were made of wood early 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:12.760 on um. But the problem with a wooden lighthouse and 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:16.960 a massive burning fire of tar is that they can 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.640 burn down and be washed out to see, or in 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.040 rough weather it can just be knocked plumb over by waves. 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:25.679 And but like I said, they used what they had 0:13:25.720 --> 0:13:28.520 at the time, and over the years they got sturdier 0:13:28.559 --> 0:13:31.640 and sturdier with steel and concrete and stuff like that. Well, 0:13:31.679 --> 0:13:36.120 even over even before, over the years before, over the years. Yeah. 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.559 The Pharisa Alexandria, one of the seven Wonders of the 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:44.000 ancient world, was this um lighthouse at the mouth of 0:13:44.040 --> 0:13:48.600 the harbor to Alexandria, Egypt. And it was around I'm 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:51.720 not quite sure when it was around. I think the 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:56.720 which one the pharaohs of Alexandria to seventy BC. My friend, 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:59.440 that thing was pretty sturdy it took a massive earthquake 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.720 to bring it to It was made of masonry, it 0:14:01.760 --> 0:14:04.040 wasn't made of wood, you know. So it looks like 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.080 lighthouse construction got dumber as the years went on, and 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.080 then it got smart again. Then it got smart again. 0:14:09.120 --> 0:14:11.880 It just dipped down in the wood era and then 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:16.600 came back up. Well. Um, what you you normally have 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.440 is a lighthouse, which can be just a lighthouse, or 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:24.360 there might be uh a fog signal building. There might 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:26.520 be a boat house. You might have a little house 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:30.240 or apartment attached to it, and you might live there 0:14:30.280 --> 0:14:32.520 with your family on in a very remote part of 0:14:32.520 --> 0:14:36.240 the world. Um, all by yourself for with a couple 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:39.280 of other dudes. Yeah, and take turns and take shifts. 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.240 That's called a stag station. Yeah. And I think the 0:14:42.240 --> 0:14:44.320 other thing that appeals to me about lighthouses is I 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.760 could have lived that life. Oh yeah, yeah I can. 0:14:48.760 --> 0:14:51.040 I have seen myself dropping out and you got a 0:14:51.160 --> 0:14:53.960 neck beard. Yeah, so you needs like a cable net 0:14:54.000 --> 0:14:57.600 sweater and living up there all by myself corn cob 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:02.640 pipe really yeah, throw my own crops and just sit 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.440 up there and be quiet, no one bugging me. It's 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:10.360 like it appeals. I did not know that. I did 0:15:10.440 --> 0:15:13.720 not picture you as a lighthousekeeper. I could totally do it, 0:15:13.880 --> 0:15:19.400 or a lightkeeper for short um and um. This is 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.440 another thing that I thought was remarkable in this article. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.680 You might as well mention it is it. If there 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:29.600 is a lighthouse near you that nobody operates, it is 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:38.200 possible that you could own that lighthouse. Yeah. On the 0:15:38.320 --> 0:15:42.960 National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of two thousand, it got 0:15:42.960 --> 0:15:45.920 a process together where the coast Guard, which is what 0:15:46.080 --> 0:15:51.520 runs the lighthouse, biz now a lighthouse racket. Um. They 0:15:51.560 --> 0:15:54.440 you can basically start a nonprofit or have a nonprofit 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.680 and at no cost they will give you a decommissioned 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.880 lighthouse if you maintain it and keep it open to 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:05.680 the public. Yeah. For the most part, it's like preservation 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.920 society in this. But if nobody wants it, they put 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:12.280 it up for auction and then you can do what 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:14.800 you want to. You can live out my dream and 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:16.360 I wouldn't have to do the windows either. I could 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:18.480 just live up there and be a crusty old hermit. 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:21.720 You know, we could do a Kickstarter to help you 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:26.480 live out your dream. Chuck, Well, let's let's do a 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:28.480 few more years of stuff. You should know first though, 0:16:28.520 --> 0:16:33.200 before you go. Okay, okay, um, all right, so back 0:16:33.240 --> 0:16:37.200 to more modern times. Um, we're building them out of 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.760 concrete and steel. At this point they're a little more sturdy. 0:16:41.000 --> 0:16:43.800 You got your little keeper's house. You're not getting paid 0:16:43.920 --> 0:16:49.200 much money. How much money, dude? Not much? So this 0:16:49.320 --> 0:16:53.360 article says that they earned about two annually in the 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:56.680 late nineteenth century. I went on to the g wiz 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:03.680 west Egg inflation calculator for eight in eight that was 0:17:04.000 --> 0:17:08.400 five grand. Today your provisions are covered though, right, Yeah, 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.080 but at the very least your room is. I don't 0:17:12.080 --> 0:17:15.359 know about board. I bet you they all the whale 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.280 ard you can eat. Yeah, no, imagine they take care 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.160 of stuff because you can't like leave and go shopping 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:23.680 like imagine you just have everything shipped to you and 0:17:23.840 --> 0:17:29.280 um again ideal. I love that. Don't have to go out, 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:32.160 you don't have to spend any money. It's like web van, yeah, 0:17:32.320 --> 0:17:35.080 coming to you. You're just you're banking that five five 0:17:35.119 --> 0:17:39.680 grand a year essentially. Wow. Man, when you get into 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:44.440 like lighthouse mode, you're lower in the standards like germanously 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.680 you're like, man, I'm making five grand. People are bringing 0:17:47.680 --> 0:17:50.080 me food I don't have to talk to anybody. Yeah, 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:55.400 that's awesome. It's like your fantasy. That's hilarious. Um. So 0:17:56.480 --> 0:17:59.040 that lens we were talking about, we we didn't use 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:01.960 that in the United States for a while because the 0:18:02.000 --> 0:18:04.120 way I read this is we kind of cheaped out 0:18:05.000 --> 0:18:08.240 when it was being run um by this guy Stephen 0:18:08.280 --> 0:18:13.399 pleasant from for thirty years eight eighteen fifty two, thirty 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:18.360 two years he ran an efficient, some might say chintzy 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.200 program to where he was like, you know, we don't 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:26.600 need those fancy French lenses. Um, take these creddi versions. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.639 They probably wouldn't even a lens. It's like a mirror, 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.520 reflector or something. Maybe if that, yeah, maybe a piece 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:36.720 of metal at somebody had to just stand behind the 0:18:36.800 --> 0:18:42.080 light with the reflected you're my mute assistant, right quiet. 0:18:43.000 --> 0:18:45.360 But then finally the US government got involved and said, 0:18:45.359 --> 0:18:47.640 you know what, we need to regulate this. Well, they 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:55.320 were involved. That's why, Yes, from seventeen sixteen to seventeen 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:58.879 eighty nine, that was not run by the US government. No, 0:18:59.000 --> 0:19:01.919 it wasn't until alex Andrew Hamilton's almost got in a 0:19:02.080 --> 0:19:06.000 shipwreck off the coast of I think North Carolina, and 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:08.600 he went back and said, hey, I think we need 0:19:08.640 --> 0:19:11.800 some lighthouses. The federal government needs to get involved. And 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.720 so I think the nineteenth piece of legislation the US 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:21.920 Congress ever passed was to establish the Lighthouse Board. Uh, 0:19:21.960 --> 0:19:25.440 the U S Lighthouse Establishment initially is what it was called. 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:31.400 And you know, socialist program. He said that the federal 0:19:31.520 --> 0:19:34.280 the federality is going to run this thing, uh and 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:40.359 in charge now. And you know what, things um went downhill? Yeah, improved, 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.160 proved everyone who's critical big government, right. Yeah, But there 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:47.000 were a lot of lighthouses at the time. By nineteen hundred, 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.240 we had about a thousand lighthouses well, and by nineteen 0:19:50.320 --> 0:19:54.720 hundred government had reformed its reputation, Like seriously, the world 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:59.359 ground for the mid nineteenth century, the US governed, the 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:04.439 US lighthouse system was second rate at best. They just 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:06.879 had a terrible reputation. And I guess it sounds like 0:20:06.920 --> 0:20:09.959 they got rid of Stephen Pleasant, whose name is basically 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:13.919 mud these days, and the quality went up. Yeah, and 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.320 that's when they established the Lighthouse Board, which is I 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.840 think what you were thinking to shape things up. In 0:20:18.880 --> 0:20:21.520 eighteen fifty two, they said let's get some for now 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:25.040 lenses for all these lighthouses. Finally, Yeah, we can be 0:20:25.080 --> 0:20:30.640 like the rest of the world pleasant stead. Uh. Did 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:33.879 you know the Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse. I 0:20:33.920 --> 0:20:36.240 don't know if I knew it, but when I've read it, 0:20:36.280 --> 0:20:38.320 I'm like, well, yeah, but I don't know if it 0:20:38.520 --> 0:20:43.000 unlocked some memory or if I'm just like that's just 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:47.080 too obvious. Yeah. I was like, surely I knew that, right, right, 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:51.200 that was it. For fifteen years it was a lighthouse 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:55.560 in New York Harbor, which is pretty neat. And then 0:20:55.640 --> 0:21:02.360 by nineteen thirty, when electricity was effective and rampant, UM, 0:21:02.400 --> 0:21:05.480 you didn't need these fires burning or candles burning or 0:21:05.480 --> 0:21:08.720 whale blubber. No, but there were a lot of lighthouses 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:13.520 where that were on like islands or on offshore like 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:17.840 ledges like Minnow's Ledge or Eddie Stone in England. UM 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:21.640 that were just like the technology to run electricity out 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:25.200 there just was not around. UM. So they were still 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:30.440 using oil of various types to to fuel these things 0:21:30.440 --> 0:21:35.760 well into the twentieth century, into the sixties, UM easily Yeah, 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:38.600 and they were um still had people working there, um 0:21:38.680 --> 0:21:44.160 living in the lighthouse or on the property. Uh. Into 0:21:44.240 --> 0:21:48.040 the nineteen sixties, it was definitely more rare, but um 0:21:48.119 --> 0:21:50.720 and night. Uh. That's when the Coast Guard brought about 0:21:50.760 --> 0:21:56.680 their lighthouse automation and modernization program, and that pretty much 0:21:56.760 --> 0:21:59.320 dwindled by the end of that decade. It dwindled it 0:21:59.400 --> 0:22:02.920 down to sixty that still had people working there. Yeah, 0:22:03.160 --> 0:22:06.400 sixty out of a thousand. Today, there's one in Boston, 0:22:06.600 --> 0:22:10.560 the Brewster Island, one little bruster, little Brewster Island was 0:22:10.720 --> 0:22:12.880 refusing him a big Brewster. Well, there might be one 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:17.520 Brewster's Millions Island, little Brewster. That's right. It was the 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:23.520 first one in the United States. Uh, seventeen sixteen was 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:25.360 when it was built, and then that one was replaced 0:22:25.359 --> 0:22:29.480 in Sight three and it's the second oldest working one 0:22:29.560 --> 0:22:33.600 behind Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Is the right, and the 0:22:33.640 --> 0:22:36.080 person that lives there is basically living there as a 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:41.000 tour guide, not necessarily like guiding boats into harbor, although 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.200 they may do both. No, I think it's still working. Yeah, 0:22:44.200 --> 0:22:47.480 well then I guess they do both. I saw modern 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:51.479 marvels on lighthouses, and they interviewed one of the light 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.600 keepers on Brewster Island, little Brewster Island, and he he 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:58.560 was They showed him like polishing the glass and everything. Yeah, 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:01.800 but it's automated. I got delight itself. I see, I see, 0:23:01.840 --> 0:23:05.480 so they up keep into our guided right. Okay, but yeah, 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:07.680 he's still I mean, he's providing a function there. Yeah, 0:23:07.840 --> 0:23:10.119 that's not just show. Maybe I could That's what I 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:12.800 could do. That think you should have heard that guy. 0:23:13.200 --> 0:23:16.199 He's like, I can't even begin to do it. But 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:19.800 he was like a hardcore light keeper in Boston. Yeah, 0:23:20.080 --> 0:23:22.600 I can imagine, although I wouldn't be the best person, 0:23:22.680 --> 0:23:26.399 because Chuck silent lighthouse story isn't really You're just like 0:23:27.040 --> 0:23:30.159 you just sweep your arm in and turn out quietly. 0:23:30.520 --> 0:23:33.680 People ask questions, I just wrap them on the knuckles out. 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:36.840 All right. I'm getting all excited thinking about the prospects 0:23:36.880 --> 0:23:38.919 of living in a lighthouse. So I'm gonna go do 0:23:38.960 --> 0:24:02.880 some push ups and we'll come back right after this. So, Chuck, 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:07.240 say that you did live your life as a lightkeeper, 0:24:07.280 --> 0:24:09.880 what would you what would it be like? Mm hmm. 0:24:10.520 --> 0:24:14.520 First of all, what's what's your family background? Uh? Well, 0:24:14.600 --> 0:24:18.400 my dad was a fisherman. Probably actually my my great 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:23.200 great grandfather was a fisherman. My grandfather was a lightkeeper. 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:25.680 My dad was a son of a lightkeeper and the 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:32.159 mom was Akeeper, pirate captain, pirate captain. Like, Gina Davis, Yeah, 0:24:32.480 --> 0:24:36.680 that was a good movie. She's awesome. Yeah she uh. 0:24:36.920 --> 0:24:39.800 Jesse Thorne interviewed her recently on his Bull's Eye show. 0:24:40.640 --> 0:24:44.000 She's just like the best, and they were all excited 0:24:44.000 --> 0:24:46.639 in the office. Everyone was like, oh, man, Gina Davis 0:24:46.680 --> 0:24:49.840 is the coolest she uh. Supposedly was known for bringing 0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:54.000 cookies to that she baked herself two interviews. Yeah, she's 0:24:54.000 --> 0:24:56.880 a MENSA member. Yeah, I got a lot going on there. 0:24:57.000 --> 0:24:59.920 Julius Smith, who works at the maximun HQ and produces 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:03.240 Judge Don Hodgman, said on her Facebook she was like, 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:08.240 Gina Davis is like the coolest aunt of all cool aunts. Yes, 0:25:08.280 --> 0:25:10.159