Diploma taken

by American pic

houses.

Jay.

I should not forget to mention that the photographs and tures of light paintings of some of our light-houses occupied a prominent place in the American part of the exhibition, and it has been announced that they were awarded a diploma of honor. Kindness of Mr. I cannot close my account of the exhibition at Vienna with out expressing my warmest thanks to the Hon. Mr. Jay, the American minister, for his great kindness to me at Vienna and since my return, as well as for the interest he has shown in furthering the object of my visit, partienlarly by his successful efforts to procure for me from the Austrian government, for publication in this report, drawings and descriptions of some of the aids to navigation which that government had on exhibition.

at

Aids to navigation near New

York.

RETURN VOYAGE.

I sailed from Liverpool in the Cunard steamship Cuba on the 30th of August, after an absence of four months from the United States.

On my return voyage to America I had several conversations with Captain Moodie, one of the oldest and most experienced commanders of the Cunard line, respecting the light-houses of Great Britain and the United States, and an interesting fact was mentioned by him in regard to one of the gas light-houses on the Irish coast, viz: that on the night in which we came out of Saint George's Channel, the weather being thick, he observed the light on Tuskar Rock at a distance, as he supposed, of six miles, judg ing by his former experience with this light, but when he had come up to it he found he had run more than twelve miles after he first observed it. He subsequently found (probably when we stopped at Queenstown for the mails) that since his last voyage the light had been changed from oil to gas, and he remarked that he was confident he saw the gas-light at least twice as far as he would have ob served the oil-light in the same condition of the atmosphere. I asked him his experience and opinion in regard to the low fog or "occasional" light at South Stack, on the coast of Wales, which I have described, and he stated he had found it of much value when not a ray could be seen of the upper light, which is often obscured in fog.

Captain Moodie thought our lights efficient as far as he had observed them, and spoke particularly of the great value of the revolving light at Fire Island, on the outer coast of Long Island, which is the first light ordinarily made by over-sea steamers approaching New York, but he is of the opinion that our aids for using Gedney's Chanuel into the

harbor, (which he says cannot now be used in the nighttime, particularly in thick weather) are insufficient, and suggests that a light-ship should be moored where the fairway buoy is, inside the bar; that the fair-way buoy outside the bar should be replaced by a bell-buoy, and that the present light-ship should be moored north-northwest from her present position and into line with the bell-buoy and the light-ship inside the bar.

of harbor of New

York.

Captain Moodie mentioned the difficulties of entering the Buoy a ge harbor of New York in the winter-time when the iron buoys are removed and spar-buoys are substituted for them, stating that in harbors much farther to the northward no difficulty is found in maintaining the larger buoys in position in winter;* also the difficulty in making out the positions of the leading or range light-houses in the day-time when snow is upon the ground, and suggested that they be painted some dark color instead of white, to better serve as daymarks, a change which has been effected since my return.

Captain Moodie's views as to the desired ameliorations in the system of aids to navigation at the entrance to the harbor of New York are entitled to much weight, and the investigation of the subject which I have made since my return, confirms me in the opinion that the changes suggested should be made without delay.

CONCLUSION.

In concluding my notes of inspection of European lighthouse establishments, I will call the attention of the Board to those points which I think are of especial importance in the foregoing report, and which I commend to its most careful consideration :

(a.) As the subject of first importance, I will mention the Superiority of English and superiority of the English and French light-house lamps French lamps. over our own. it will have been observed that while the power of our light-house lamps is fixed, (i. e., they give only the same amount of light in foggy and thick weather as in fair, in the long twilights of summer as in the darkness of the night,) the English oil-lamps are flexible in power, and can be varied by the keepers to suit the varying conditions of the atmosphere; that the first-order sea-coast lights of England may be raised from an equivalent of 342 (their minimum) to 722 candles, while the maximum power of our first-order sea-coast light is uniformly the equivalent of only

*I do not think this would be possible in the harbor of New York without great loss. The ice-fields, moving with great velocity in the spring, carry off any buoys which may be placed, and spar-buoys, which are inexpensive, are, for this reason, used in winter.

Use of mineraloil.

house adminis

and more econ

210 candles; that while the English and French lights have been in recent years increased in power, the actual consump tion of oil per unit of light has been decreased by improvements in the supply of oxygen to the flame; and that, if the modifications which I have described in detail should be adopted, we should increase the illuminating power of our light-houses more than 50 per cent., which would be of incalculable benefit to commerce, particularly in "thick" weather.

(b.) The European governments, after careful and protracted experiments, are rapidly adopting the use of mineraloil instead of the vegetable and animal oils formerly used.

France has been the first to order the burning of the new illuminant on all of its coasts, and the light-house lamps of nearly all other nations of Europe, (including Great Britain, the nations of the East, and of South America, indeed all that I could hear of except our own, are being changed for its use.

Mineral-oil is more cleanly than the lard-oil consumed in our light-houses; it is not injuriously affected by the severest cold; the lamps are more readily lighted, and do not require to be trimmed during the longest nights, thus making commerce less dependent on the watchfulness of the keepers; while its cost is but little more than one third the cost of the latter.

The use of mineral-oil in the multiple-wick lamps used in light-houses was not possible until the introduction of the double outer current of air to the flame, and the invention of the mineral-oil light-house lamp, (to whomsoever it belongs, whether to Douglass, Lepaute, or Doty,) has produced, without doubt, the greatest improvement in lighthouse illumination since the invention of the Fresnel lens.

There can be no doubt that the adoption of this oil by the United States for use in our light-houses would stimulate our refiners to produce an article which would fill the requirements which I have mentioned in this report; but if they cannot, or will not, we can, as I have observed, import precisely the same excellent kind of mineral-oil (Scotch) which is now used in the light-houses of France and Great Britain, and save more than fifty thousand dollars per an num, besides producing more reliable lights than we now have.

Foreign light- (c.) It will have attracted attention that, as in our service, tration simpler the light-house establishments of Europe are under those omical than our departments of government which correspond to our Treas ury Department; also that there the administration on the

own.

sea-coasts is much more simple and economical than our own, and that while in our service the law provides that there shall be two officers in each of our twelve light-house districts, in Great Britain and France there is but one officer for each district; that the officer whose duty it is to construct and keep the light-houses and the lenticular and other parts of the illuminating apparatus in repair and to instruct the keepers in the use of the latter, is also the one to inspect the light-houses. Were the salaries of these officers the only consideration, it would not be a matter of much moment, but the dual arrangement in use in our service since 1852, involves double sets of clerks, double expenditures for rent of offices, fuel, and other contingent items, for the service of the districts, which require an annual outlay of many thousands of dollars, while the service can, there is no doubt, be conducted with more efficiency and economy than now, by a single officer in each district. This would correspond to the practice of France, which Administration was the first to adopt a thorough and scientific light-house system, and which is surpassed by no other country in the science, simplicity, economy, and efficiency of its adminis ration. The entire management of the French lights (except as regards the appointment of the keepers, which is in the hands of the prefects or civil officers of the districts) is in the officers of engineers, (des ponts et chaussées,) who are charged with the other works of river and harbor improvement; and while there are many other points in which we are excelled in regard to the above-named qualities of good administration, it is hardly required of me that I call attention to them here.

*

of French lights.

(d.) I would call attention to the desirability of modi- Electric and gas-lights. fying a few of those of our light-houses on which the

* From information derived from the excellent Mémoire sur l'Éclairage des Côtes de France by M. Reynaud, Inspector-General of the Engineer Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, and Chief of the French light-house establishment, aud from other sources, I find that the combined illuminating power of the French lights, expressed in French units of light t, is 2199, and the expense of the cost of maintenance is about $52.20 per unit per annum. The total illuminating power of the light-houses of the United States is 2233 units of light t, and the cost of maintenance is $401.50 per unit per annum, or about eight times the corresponding cost of the French lights. In the calculations from which I have obtained these results, I have not taken into account the cost of the erection of new light-houses, the repairs of existing ones, the expenses of the few light-ships of either service, nor the cost of the buoyage of the harbors.

This is an aggregation of the powers of the naked flames; that is, before condensation of the light by the lenticular apparatus.

Intensity of gas and electric

light.

Cost of chang. ing.

Ratio of areas of red and white panels in revolv. ing lenses.

Ability to work revolving lenses

by hand.

"Red cuts."

safety of life and treasure especially depends, for the introduction of the electric and the gas-lights, w ich I have described in great detail, since there are now many of these lights in use in Europe, and I think we should not be behind any nation in our efforts to lessen the dangers of the coasts.

It will have been observed that the uncondensed beams of each of these lights is equivalent to more than the combined light of 2,000 candles, while our maximum sea-coast oil-lights are but little more than an equivalent for the light of 200 candles. There is no light which can penetrate a dense fog, but there is the multitude of intermediate conditions of hazy and thick weather, between fair weather on the one hand and dense fog on the other, which can be illumined by such lights as that which I saw at Souter Point, on the east coast of England, and which flashes over the North Sea its condensed beams, each of which is more than equivalent to the combined light of 800,000 candles!

The cost of changing at a sea-coast light-house from oil to either gas or electric light is not great, and it was stated, as I have mentioned, that the cost of maintenance of the gas-light, of which Professor Tyndall spoke so highly when in the United States, is less than the cost of maintenance of the oil-light.

(e.) I should also mention the inequality which Professor Tyndall, the scientific adviser of Trinity House, has estab lished between the red and white panels of revolving lenses in the English light-houses, as mentioned under the heads of "The Wolf" and "Flamborough Head" lights. In order that the red may be seen at the same distance as the white flashes, the English revolving and flashing lenses are now made so that the areas of the red and white panels are in the proportion of 21 to 9.

In the United States the red are of the same size as the white panels in the same lenticular apparatus, and the result is, that the white are seen at a much greater distance than the red flashes; so that when a red and white flashing light first appears above the horizon it is liable to be mistaken for a white flashing light on another part of the coast and lead to disaster.

(f) An improvement upon our service, to which I have called attention, is the ability of the keepers of a revolving or flashing light to revolve the lens by hand if the machinery should become disabled.

(g.) I would especially mention the practice, of which I saw many cases on the coast of England, of marking out