June 30, 2016 • 44 mins
People have been burning fires on cliffs as long as other people have used boats, but after the Age of Exploration, lighthouses took their unmistakable form and the great stories of the people who kept the lights around the world began.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know fromhouse Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W.
Chuck Bryant, Jerry over there, and this is the Lighthouse
episode Take one. Uh. Can I just go ahead and
(00:22):
say that I love lighthouses? Do you love love already before?
Like you fell in love with them and researching both
like if I'm I grew up going to Honey Island,
South Carolina, not every year, but we went quite a
few times here Buford and they have a lighthouse and
(00:42):
it was one of my favorite things to do as
a kid, was climbing the lighthouse. And I would I
if I'm near a lighthouse now ever, I will go
climate but outside. I will seek it out and then
shimmy up the outside like Spider Man. Um. No, I
will seek it out and go look at it and
then climb it and um this article just made me
(01:05):
love it even more. I have a precious memories lighthouse
to marble Head Lighthouse near Kataba Island, which is where
what state by Sandusky in Ohio on Lake Erie. And
it was the same thing when I was a kid.
We used to go vacation on Kataba Island, and um,
we would go to that lighthouse every once a while.
(01:25):
I don't remember ever going inside, though it might not
have been open, because there's no reason why you would
go to a lighthouse more than once and not go
inside climb it up. I don't remember every going in,
or maybe you're just like, yeah, it looks nice from
down here. Yeah, I would have climbed it. I was
a climber. Yeah, me too. Um. But I think the
(01:46):
other thing that factors in for me is I found
I really love antiquated systems that could still be viable. Yeah,
like post apocalypse, you could fire up lighthouses again, you
know fire yeah, and it would work. Yeah, it would.
And I think that's a weird thing with me that
(02:08):
I love. I love stuff that's still around that you
could use if if need be. You know, I've never
really looked at my environment that way, like to see
what it was going to be standing after an apocalypse.
Maybe I should. Well I don't know about standing, but
let's just let's say there was some weird domino effect
type thing like that movie where electricity and internet and
(02:30):
everything went out and people turned on each other. You
could still light a lighthouse and fos could find their
safe harbor. What movie are you talking about the domino effect? Oh? Really,
there's a movie like that called that. Yeah, I didn't
know that. I think it was called with Elizabeth Shoo
and agent Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks Kyle what's his face? McLaughlin?
(02:54):
And he is so great? Is the mare um Portlandia? Yeah?
He is good. I love that guy. I think it's
called a domino effect. If not, that was the you know,
essentially what happened there was a domino effect like a blackout, right, Yeah,
that just like and it created a domino effected things
kind of spun out of control. You're talking about Fury Road, right,
(03:16):
So uh, Chuck. I love lighthouses too, but I knew
virtually nothing about them until researching this. And um, if
you think about them though, it's like you were saying,
after the apocalypse, you'll still they'll still be standing. You
just need to replace the electricity with a fire and
then you'd have basically what lighthouses have always been, which
(03:36):
is some sort of highly visible signal. For most of
the time, it was a fire, either a wood fire,
coal fire, tar fire. Um that you could see that
was meant to signal to ships that hey man, there's
some treacherous waters around here. It's one of the main
things that they did. And as the light got better
(03:57):
and better. One of the roles that um, lighthouses play
was not just to say careful in this area. We
went to the trouble building a lighthouse here because it's
so treacherous. But also check out these rocks. See this
with this light, there's some rocks there. Yeah, like literally
lighting up a harbor. Yeah. Um, well, because there was
(04:18):
no light otherwise. Right. And then um, the other role
that they play is in the daytime, right, because lighthouses
I don't think that they actually keep them on twenty
four hours a day, highly inefficient. On a cloudy day,
if it's foggy, they'll turn it on and start sounding
the fog horns, which we'll talk about. But um, for
the most part in the daytime, it's off. But a
(04:40):
lighthouse still serves a purpose during the day because they
don't decorate them the way that they decorate them just
for looks. They do it so you can differentiate one
lighthouse from another. Yeah, Like this one looks like a
barber pole. So I'm near north Carolina is exactly right.
And there's like a whole book called the light List
(05:00):
where it has pictures of them and if you get
your hands on that. I meant to look it up
but ran out of time. I'll bet it's neat. I
bet it's neat too. By the way, that movie is
called the Trigger Effect. I have heard of that one.
There was a movie called the Domino Effect, but it's
not the same one. What about the butterfly effects? Remember
that garbage that was the couch? Right? Yeah? Man? Why
(05:22):
does he haunt us? I don't know. It comes up
a lot, all right. Where were we were we in
the lighthouse? We were talking about the day mark? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
pretty neat. But there's also what's called the light signature, right, yes,
where that's um, that's we're going back to nighttime again.
Ye sorry version the sun's going up and down, the
(05:44):
lights off. It got weird. It is a little weird. Sorry, Jerry,
are you still here? So? Um? At night the light
has its own flashing signature, light signature, and that's also
in the light book too, And there's actually a number
of different ways that a light can flash, right, who knew?
I didn't know you've got the fixed and that is,
(06:05):
of course, if you just have a light on saying
we're open. Yeah, it shines continuously, come on in, it's
the waffle house. You have the occulting light. I love
this one, the creepiest of all lights. Uh. It has
longer periods of light than dark. Um. And then the
flashes six six six uh, And a flashing light has
(06:28):
longer periods of dark than light. So occulting and flashing
or just sort of inverse of one another, there are
two sides of the same coin. That's right. I can't
have light without the dark is the whole premise. And
then you have the isophase light that's equal light and
dark with its uh signature blips, and then a group
flashing light super seventies. Yeah, it has a regular repeating
(06:53):
number of flashing lights. It's the same pattern, right. Yeah.
And there's actually really famous one of those, um, the
Minnot's Ledge light in Boston. It was very famously known
as I think it still is that I Love you
light because of a flash one, then we flash four,
and then we flash three, so I l O V
(07:14):
E y O U. So it was like a very
romantic light. That's how people took it. I didn't make
that up. Oh see, I thought it was I hate
cal it could. That's the secondary way that it's known.
The people Boston are known for their soft side. I know.
So that's why I love you. Yeah, they're prone to
(07:34):
break into sobs and the public on the street frequently
just walking around thinking about the beauty of life. That's right,
And hey, Boston, we'll see you this fall at the
Wilbur Theater. I think it's still available. I just want
to work that in nice um. And then finally we
have our alternating I'm sorry. We have the Morse code um,
which is what it sounds like. It It mimics Morse
(07:55):
code with stats and dashes, stats and dooshes. That's Marist
code dots and dashes man um to spell out, you know,
things like I love you. But that's not when Mino's
ledged does. It's it's just it's just one, four and three,
(08:17):
and people took it that way. I hate and when
its ledge, Actually it's pretty awesome to begin with. It's
it's under ten ft of water at high tide and
they had to build it I think in the nineteenth century,
whenever the tide was out, so they only had like
X amount of hours and the day during low tide
when the ledge was exposed, it's still there. It's tough cookie,
(08:40):
but josh, these are all sort of modern modern is
modern ish, but um, although old, they can go back
to uh what comers Iliad? They mentioned a lighthouse. Yeah, crazy,
and I mean like we're talking basically a huge bonfire
on a cliff more exactly, you know, not like a well,
(09:02):
not like Minot's ledge or anything. But the still qualifies
as a lighthouse. It was the premise behind it, Yeah, exactly.
I founded weirdly defensive just now about that still lighthouse. Yeah. Uh,
like you said, you would have like either wood or
coal burning on a long pole. Uh. And then finally
in the eighteenth century, um, they started using lanterns, which
(09:28):
is a little more probably controllable. Yeah. The problem was
that they kept running into, um was that the oil
or coal would smudge the lantern, the glass around the lantern,
and the so the glass top, the whole thing where
the light is that you can walk around, and that's
the lantern of the lighthouse. And if you're burning a
coal fire in there, it's gonna get sooty. Pretty quick. Yeah.
(09:51):
One of the that's one of the main jobs of
the lighthouse keepers to watch windows. Um. The problem is
in between washings, which they did at least once a
day normally, UM, the light would degrade as the soot
built up. Uh. So they figured out, oh, we need better,
better fuel than coal or tar. We thought they used tar.
(10:15):
Let's burn the dirtiest thing on the plane. Inside. They
were working with what they had at the time. So
they figured out, especially in New England, that they could
um use things like blubber and lard, which they did
from Wales, burns a lot cleaner. Uh. And then they
also figured out, hey, you know what this flame is okay,
but wouldn't it be great pre electricity if we had
(10:38):
something like electricity to beam this thing out there? For
miles and miles and a very smart physicists from France
named Augustine Fresnel. For Nell, I like, Fresnell, that's cool.
For Nell said, all right, take my lens and do
with it what you will, and he invent at the
(10:58):
Fornell lens. He did and nineteen I'm sorry, eighty two,
and it's like what you would think it would be.
It's a bunch of prisms. Um through that through magic
can cast a beam like twenty something miles out to
the ocean. It's amazing. They concentrate in the the gather
light from the top and the bottom and in the
middle and basically just shoot it all back to a
(11:19):
single magnifying point. It just goes miles. Yeah. Yeah, and
that really that changed everything and did a great job
of handling the load until electricity would come around. And
that's when everyone was like, you know what, we don't
need these silly flames anymore. Let's just plug in a light.
(11:43):
But you can still use it for nell lens with
the light and it's even brighter like today's modern lighthouses.
Use um or have produced lights between ten thousand candelas
and a million Candelas's candela? Did you see this reference? Like,
this is the worst analogy I've ever run across. What
(12:03):
did it say? A candela is one two d the
brightness of a fifty watt light bulb. Oh okay, yeah,
I know exactly how much a candela is. I also
saw that it's roughly the brightness of a candle, which
makes sense, and that's a much better frame of reference.
So the brightness of a million candles burning in the
same place. That's how bright modern lighthouses are, not one
(12:27):
two bulb. Let's take a break. Yeah, seriously, let's go
find out who wrote that and write a strongly worded letter.
(12:56):
Well that got ugly, So we're I feel like we're
still talking about the history of lighthouses, right yeah, um,
well what they were, they were made of wood early
on um. But the problem with a wooden lighthouse and
a massive burning fire of tar is that they can
(13:17):
burn down and be washed out to see, or in
rough weather it can just be knocked plumb over by waves.
And but like I said, they used what they had
at the time, and over the years they got sturdier
and sturdier with steel and concrete and stuff like that. Well,
even over even before, over the years before, over the years. Yeah.
The Pharisa Alexandria, one of the seven Wonders of the
(13:39):
ancient world, was this um lighthouse at the mouth of
the harbor to Alexandria, Egypt. And it was around I'm
not quite sure when it was around. I think the
which one the pharaohs of Alexandria to seventy BC. My friend,
that thing was pretty sturdy it took a massive earthquake
to bring it to It was made of masonry, it
(14:01):
wasn't made of wood, you know. So it looks like
lighthouse construction got dumber as the years went on, and
then it got smart again. Then it got smart again.
It just dipped down in the wood era and then
came back up. Well. Um, what you you normally have
is a lighthouse, which can be just a lighthouse, or
there might be uh a fog signal building. There might
(14:24):
be a boat house. You might have a little house
or apartment attached to it, and you might live there
with your family on in a very remote part of
the world. Um, all by yourself for with a couple
of other dudes. Yeah, and take turns and take shifts.
That's called a stag station. Yeah. And I think the
other thing that appeals to me about lighthouses is I
could have lived that life. Oh yeah, yeah I can.
(14:48):
I have seen myself dropping out and you got a
neck beard. Yeah, so you needs like a cable net
sweater and living up there all by myself corn cob
pipe really yeah, throw my own crops and just sit
up there and be quiet, no one bugging me. It's
like it appeals. I did not know that. I did
(15:10):
not picture you as a lighthousekeeper. I could totally do it,
or a lightkeeper for short um and um. This is
another thing that I thought was remarkable in this article.
You might as well mention it is it. If there
is a lighthouse near you that nobody operates, it is
possible that you could own that lighthouse. Yeah. On the
(15:38):
National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of two thousand, it got
a process together where the coast Guard, which is what
runs the lighthouse, biz now a lighthouse racket. Um. They
you can basically start a nonprofit or have a nonprofit
and at no cost they will give you a decommissioned
(15:58):
lighthouse if you maintain it and keep it open to
the public. Yeah. For the most part, it's like preservation
society in this. But if nobody wants it, they put
it up for auction and then you can do what
you want to. You can live out my dream and
I wouldn't have to do the windows either. I could
just live up there and be a crusty old hermit.
(16:19):
You know, we could do a Kickstarter to help you
live out your dream. Chuck, Well, let's let's do a
few more years of stuff. You should know first though,
before you go. Okay, okay, um, all right, so back
to more modern times. Um, we're building them out of
concrete and steel. At this point they're a little more sturdy.
(16:41):
You got your little keeper's house. You're not getting paid
much money. How much money, dude? Not much? So this
article says that they earned about two annually in the
late nineteenth century. I went on to the g wiz
west Egg inflation calculator for eight in eight that was
(17:04):
five grand. Today your provisions are covered though, right, Yeah,
but at the very least your room is. I don't
know about board. I bet you they all the whale
ard you can eat. Yeah, no, imagine they take care
of stuff because you can't like leave and go shopping
like imagine you just have everything shipped to you and
um again ideal. I love that. Don't have to go out,
(17:29):
you don't have to spend any money. It's like web van, yeah,
coming to you. You're just you're banking that five five
grand a year essentially. Wow. Man, when you get into
like lighthouse mode, you're lower in the standards like germanously
you're like, man, I'm making five grand. People are bringing
me food I don't have to talk to anybody. Yeah,
(17:50):
that's awesome. It's like your fantasy. That's hilarious. Um. So
that lens we were talking about, we we didn't use
that in the United States for a while because the
way I read this is we kind of cheaped out
when it was being run um by this guy Stephen
pleasant from for thirty years eight eighteen fifty two, thirty
(18:13):
two years he ran an efficient, some might say chintzy
program to where he was like, you know, we don't
need those fancy French lenses. Um, take these creddi versions.
They probably wouldn't even a lens. It's like a mirror,
reflector or something. Maybe if that, yeah, maybe a piece
(18:34):
of metal at somebody had to just stand behind the
light with the reflected you're my mute assistant, right quiet.
But then finally the US government got involved and said,
you know what, we need to regulate this. Well, they
were involved. That's why, Yes, from seventeen sixteen to seventeen
(18:55):
eighty nine, that was not run by the US government. No,
it wasn't until alex Andrew Hamilton's almost got in a
shipwreck off the coast of I think North Carolina, and
he went back and said, hey, I think we need
some lighthouses. The federal government needs to get involved. And
so I think the nineteenth piece of legislation the US
(19:15):
Congress ever passed was to establish the Lighthouse Board. Uh,
the U S Lighthouse Establishment initially is what it was called.
And you know, socialist program. He said that the federal
the federality is going to run this thing, uh and
in charge now. And you know what, things um went downhill? Yeah, improved,
(19:40):
proved everyone who's critical big government, right. Yeah, But there
were a lot of lighthouses at the time. By nineteen hundred,
we had about a thousand lighthouses well, and by nineteen
hundred government had reformed its reputation, Like seriously, the world
ground for the mid nineteenth century, the US governed, the
US lighthouse system was second rate at best. They just
(20:04):
had a terrible reputation. And I guess it sounds like
they got rid of Stephen Pleasant, whose name is basically
mud these days, and the quality went up. Yeah, and
that's when they established the Lighthouse Board, which is I
think what you were thinking to shape things up. In
eighteen fifty two, they said let's get some for now
lenses for all these lighthouses. Finally, Yeah, we can be
(20:25):
like the rest of the world pleasant stead. Uh. Did
you know the Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse. I
don't know if I knew it, but when I've read it,
I'm like, well, yeah, but I don't know if it
unlocked some memory or if I'm just like that's just
too obvious. Yeah. I was like, surely I knew that, right, right,
(20:47):
that was it. For fifteen years it was a lighthouse
in New York Harbor, which is pretty neat. And then
by nineteen thirty, when electricity was effective and rampant, UM,
you didn't need these fires burning or candles burning or
whale blubber. No, but there were a lot of lighthouses
(21:08):
where that were on like islands or on offshore like
ledges like Minnow's Ledge or Eddie Stone in England. UM
that were just like the technology to run electricity out
there just was not around. UM. So they were still
using oil of various types to to fuel these things
(21:30):
well into the twentieth century, into the sixties, UM easily Yeah,
and they were um still had people working there, um
living in the lighthouse or on the property. Uh. Into
the nineteen sixties, it was definitely more rare, but um
and night. Uh. That's when the Coast Guard brought about
(21:50):
their lighthouse automation and modernization program, and that pretty much
dwindled by the end of that decade. It dwindled it
down to sixty that still had people working there. Yeah,
sixty out of a thousand. Today, there's one in Boston,
the Brewster Island, one little bruster, little Brewster Island was
refusing him a big Brewster. Well, there might be one
(22:12):
Brewster's Millions Island, little Brewster. That's right. It was the
first one in the United States. Uh, seventeen sixteen was
when it was built, and then that one was replaced
in Sight three and it's the second oldest working one
behind Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Is the right, and the
(22:33):
person that lives there is basically living there as a
tour guide, not necessarily like guiding boats into harbor, although
they may do both. No, I think it's still working. Yeah,
well then I guess they do both. I saw modern
marvels on lighthouses, and they interviewed one of the light
keepers on Brewster Island, little Brewster Island, and he he
(22:55):
was They showed him like polishing the glass and everything. Yeah,
but it's automated. I got delight itself. I see, I see,
so they up keep into our guided right. Okay, but yeah,
he's still I mean, he's providing a function there. Yeah,
that's not just show. Maybe I could That's what I
could do. That think you should have heard that guy.
He's like, I can't even begin to do it. But
(23:16):
he was like a hardcore light keeper in Boston. Yeah,
I can imagine, although I wouldn't be the best person,
because Chuck silent lighthouse story isn't really You're just like
you just sweep your arm in and turn out quietly.
People ask questions, I just wrap them on the knuckles out.
All right. I'm getting all excited thinking about the prospects
(23:36):
of living in a lighthouse. So I'm gonna go do
some push ups and we'll come back right after this. So, Chuck,
(24:02):
say that you did live your life as a lightkeeper,
what would you what would it be like? Mm hmm.
First of all, what's what's your family background? Uh? Well,
my dad was a fisherman. Probably actually my my great
great grandfather was a fisherman. My grandfather was a lightkeeper.
(24:23):
My dad was a son of a lightkeeper and the
mom was Akeeper, pirate captain, pirate captain. Like, Gina Davis, Yeah,
that was a good movie. She's awesome. Yeah she uh.
Jesse Thorne interviewed her recently on his Bull's Eye show.
She's just like the best, and they were all excited
(24:44):
in the office. Everyone was like, oh, man, Gina Davis
is the coolest she uh. Supposedly was known for bringing
cookies to that she baked herself two interviews. Yeah, she's
a MENSA member. Yeah, I got a lot going on there.
Julius Smith, who works at the maximun HQ and produces
Judge Don Hodgman, said on her Facebook she was like,
Gina Davis is like the coolest aunt of all cool aunts. Yes,
(25:08):
she was in Beetle Juice. I mean like, yeah, it
didn't get much cooler than that. She could she could
just be a total jerk and she was still awesome
and Beetle Juice. Um. So, anyway, hats off to Eugena Tavis.
How'd that come up? I don't even remember now your
mom was a pirate captain alright, Gina Davis? Was that
a shout out to Cutthroat Island? I guess the movie.
(25:31):
You're the one that said it. I guess. Yeah, was
that cut Throat Island? Huh? Is it the name of it? Yeah,
it was that bad pirate movie. I loved it. That
wasn't bad. It got bad pressed, it wasn't bad. It's
funny you like some of the most legendarily bad movies
of all times. It wasn't that bad. As far as
(25:53):
just like critics and you're like, yeah, man Ishtar, I've
actually stayed away from his star. Also stayed away from
Rock the Kasbo because I saw that it was basically
an updated Ishtar. Did I even see that? I can't
remember if I watched it one night Rock the Kasba, yeah,
or if I wanted to and didn't like. That's how
(26:14):
little of an impact it made. It's on Netflix. I
think I actually did watch it, and it was just
sort of like, yeah, not very good. Yeah, No, Ishtar
is a pretty good code word to stay away from him.
I never saw Ishtar. What else do I like? That
was bad? It was supposedly bad. I mean, like, just
have you have you seen cuts Rhode Island? Sure, it's terrible,
(26:38):
it's not um all right. So we were talking about
the lineage, what might get you into the light keeping business.
We were being coy and role playing, but that is true. People.
It's a family business for the most part. Uh your
parents or your father might have done it, or you
come from a long line of uh seafaring types. At
(26:58):
the very least you feel close to the sea. Yeah,
Like if you want to spend your time out there
on a rocky point overlooking the waves all day long,
like you probably didn't come from Kansas to do so,
you know. Yeah, there they have wheat watchers. They just
sit in the tower and watch the wheat and the
(27:21):
flatness and they stand up all of a sudden they're like,
oh my god, there's a wheat missing. There's a wheat. Um.
One thing we keep saying is men. That's because most
of the lighthousekeepers were men, but not all. No, not all,
and not all of them were necessarily white men either.
There were some very famous legendary African American lightkeepers and
(27:45):
um light life savers as well. Surfmen is what they
were called to because supposedly you're just there to provide
light and signal, but when the s hits the f right. UM,
I think you can say a fan fan when the
essets a fan. Brave lightkeepers were known to go out
(28:07):
there and provide rescue. Yeah. Um, and one of them
was a woman named Ida Lewis, actually American hero. She
grew up on Lime Rock Island, uh, near Newport Rhode
Island in Newport Harbor, and her dad was a lightkeeper,
so she followed that tradition and she actually started taking
over the duties after her father had a stroke. Um
(28:28):
and uh, she just became a lightkeeper, but a very
famous one for her life saving skills. Rescued a dozen
men over the years. No, actually eighteen affirmed. They think
it's as high as twenty five. They're I'm gonna say dozens.
She Uh, she rescued her last person at age sixty three. Yeah.
(28:49):
She's quite a lady, that's but for the most part,
and and she's not the only one who saved lives,
like there were plenty out there that did. But it
was not an expected role of a lightkeeper because the
Coastguard had a life saver house usually nearby a lighthouse,
because the lighthouse was there in the first place too,
(29:11):
because there was a treacherous area, so it just makes
sense to also put a life saving House there because
even with the light the lighthouse itself, ship may still
run the ground and there may be rescuing. And if
you want to be thrilled, there's a really neat um
article that's posted on this podcast page about the p
Island Um life Saving House. It was, um. But by
(29:35):
the way that pre Coastguard, we had the U S
Life Saving Service, which is what that term comes from. Yeah,
and then they merged everything together under Roosevelt, and the
the lighthouses and the life saving Service all came under
the purview of the Coastguard. Right, we should do one
(29:56):
on the Coastguard. Remember that married couple that were both Coastguards. Yeah,
that lobby dosts for many years until they gave up.
We're still thinking about you guys, and we're still gonna
do a Coastguard podcast eventually years and years later. Um. So,
pre nine when they made the Coastguard is where you
(30:17):
really can't find a whole lot of written history now
while that has been lost to time and um they
say here in this article that what we have now
our stories from families that remain lower. Yeah. Lore, it's
pretty neat Yeah, and then chuck, um, so if you're
in a lighthouse, even as remote and cut off as
(30:37):
they are, if you hated it, you would still be like,
at least I'm not working on a light ship. Yes,
So before they had booies like modern booies. Today there's
there's booties out there. They're basically like floating lighthouses in
areas that require some sort of warning but are just
too far off land to build the lighthouse. They put
(30:58):
booties out there. And today the booies are like sometimes
something like forty feet in diameter. They're huge, massive things. Um.
But before booies even they would use something called light ships.
And it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a lighthouse
on a ship and it's in a very remote area.
You are out there for months at a time. Yeah,
(31:20):
you just sail out and anchor down and live there
right um, and the boats anchored all the time. You
would have to like go to and from the boat
to the to shore. Um. But while you're working there,
it's just mind bogglingly awful. There was a lot of
like insanity. Yeah, that would happen, like when the fog
rolled in before the evan of foghorns, you would have
(31:43):
to yank the bells rope the fog bell rope um
every ten seconds, twenty four hours a day, for as
long as the fog was around. Every ten seconds you
had to ring about. That was your job, and if
you didn't then you were risking the lives of anybody
passing by in the area. So not cool, man, not
(32:03):
cool at all. But the lightships, apparently we're just about
as bad as it it got. As far as boredom, loneliness, isolation,
hatred of bells, the lightship had it all. You hate bells.
I didn't. I never worked on a lightship, but I'll
bet they hated bells. You would hear that in your sleep.
If you rang a bell every ten seconds for hours
(32:26):
at a stretch, you're not going to get that out
of your head. And even if you did, when you
tried to go to sleep, one of the guys on
the next ship would be out there ringing the bell anyway. So,
dregy nuts, let's talk about some famous lighthouses. Well, we
already talked about the the Pharos of alexandria Um, which
(32:48):
is the oldest known lighthouse and at the time they
contend might have been the tallest thing on the planet.
That's super tall. Yeah, and it was masonry to the
found it in underwater ocean. They found pieces of it
and in Alexandria Harbor. I guess you mentioned Eddie Stone
(33:09):
Light already in Plymouth, England, which is I guess that's
where the fine gin comes from. Yeah, still hitting Plymouth
up if anyone out there works for Plymouth. Oh man,
it's such good gin. It's delicious. So is Leopold's Leopold Gin. Yeah,
it's American gin really good, too good. That's that's my
(33:29):
go to American gin. Nice, although I like most American gin's,
but that's if you had st George. I love that stuff. Yeah,
there's three of them. One of them I do not
care for it all really, but the other two I like.
I'll bet it's the terror terr War. You don't like
it's so got a weird taste, yeah, but love it.
But its own thing, the fact that it doesn't have
(33:51):
its own classification of gin like Old Tom or Jennifer
or something like that. It should have its own thing. Yeah,
like foot gin. I love that stuff. It's weird, dude,
it's really good. You know what it's really good with?
Have you ever had um fever tree bitter lemon. No,
it's like a lemony lemon, limy, citrusy drink, but without
(34:12):
much sweetness. Um that with the territory war gin and juice.
Yeah you know, but it's it's knock your socks off. Yeah,
I don't care for it. And you know what, I'll
just go ahead and bring you my bottle because I've
had like two drinks out of it, so I did
wrap my head around. I will you just can't do it.
I will email you tonight as a reminder, say, hey,
(34:33):
I'll bring in that st George. Thanks man. And also,
by the way, I am now on because you know,
I drink the dirty martini, but I don't eat olives,
which is a little weird, just like the juice. Yeah
the brine, okay, um with a twist, it's a little different,
I know that. And um, for years I would have
(34:55):
empty jars of dry olives in my fridge and very
little juice you know in there. Oh, I know what
you're talking about. Now. So now I bought dirty sue
yeah olive juice, uh, and you can buy it in
a bottle, and I bought a box of it, and
it just sits in the cabinet my house, nice and
so big. Shout out to Dirty Sue Olive brine, really dirty,
(35:16):
is up your Martini? What's your gin that you used
for this? Well? I mean I love Plymouth, I love
Hendrix and our friends at Spring forty four. Gin dude
sent us gin from a They said it's all about
the water, and they have like the best water on earth.
They made some old tom gin. Yeah, and it is.
It is delicious like it it made. I love Martinez.
(35:39):
Is it's um old tom gin. Uh um, marischino liqueur,
not the cherry stuff, but like the real liquor, and
then um some sweeter mouth. It's like probably the most
perfect drink anyone's ever made. It's very old um that
maybe maybe the best Martinez of overhead. That was good stuff. Well,
(36:02):
for a while lately I've been stirring. I got a
little martini picture or a cocktail picture to stir um.
But I'm back to shaking now because I found out
that bruising gin is a total myth. So James Bond
wasn't cuckoo. No, you can't bruise gin. Yeah, that's all
just garbage. Do you use orange bitters? In yours. No,
(36:23):
really brightens it up, straight up dirty sue gin. I
do use a little vermouth like I know that people
don't like vermouth at all anymore. Really, Yeah, I see
bartenders now don't use any vermouth. That's that's not a martini.
Well agreed, that's a gin a child gin up with
some um. Just the one in the green Italian bottle?
(36:49):
Is that Dolan Blanc? Yeah, that's good stuff. But I
also found out recently that that vermouth is a wine
and you don't just keep it on your shelf for
two years. Uh, you keep in the fridge for maybe
a month. Yeah, I didn't know that. So I've been
drinking this old old vermouth. You still can, It's not
like you can't, but just for the best possible impact,
(37:10):
you want to just get that small bottle. I learned
that the hard way. I'm gonna start doing that. Man,
we we should have our own cocktail show. We should
because we've just talked. We talked about booze a lot.
We don't need to. Let's drink about it. Has that
covered a good friends that let's drink about it. Yeah,
and thanks also to Ben who sent us um some
ambler smooth ambler. Uh what was it called contradiction? That
(37:37):
stuff is good too, that's right, man, booze talk on lighthouses.
Who knew? Oh, I bet you there's a lot of
boozeing that goes on at lighthouses to time. They're not
making amazing drinks with St. George and bitter lemon. They're
just drinking that stuff straight out of the deer skin.
Yeah exactly. Um, Where were we, Eddie Stone Lighthouse, Plymouth, England? Oh? Yes,
(38:00):
this gut started. Um. This thing is. It's a it's
a very rough area to have a lighthouse, and it
seems like nature doesn't want a lighthouse there because over
the years it has been knocked down and burned down
many many times. This dude, basically um went out there
by himself, Harry Harry or Henry Winstanley in sixteen sixty
(38:23):
six six and just started building this wooden lighthouse out
and these rocks off the coast of Plymouth. Himself got
captured by a French pirate, released and lit the thing
in and he actually died. He deconstructed it and rebuilt
it and died in the second version of it. It
got swept away with him inside but he was a
(38:45):
pretty cool cat. That was seventeen o three. Then another
one in seventeen o eight was built that burned down
in seventeen fifty five. And then a guy named John Smeaton,
he was an engineer. He built one that was built
to last for a little while. He actually came up
with what you think of as the modern lighthouse. It's
stick at the bottom, tapers at the top, and then
it flares out right below the lantern. And the reason
(39:07):
most lighthouses flare out right below the lantern is when
a wave comes up and the waves can get that big,
it won't ride up into the lantern. It will be
thrown back out to see when it hits the flare.
It's a water guard. Pretty much interesting. I did not
know that here's a smart dude. Um So that one
lasted for a hundred and twenty three years, which was,
you know, as far as the Eddy Stone light is concerned,
(39:29):
an eternity. But eventually, uh the Trinity House, which is
England's version of the coast Guard of the lighthousehouse, they said, no,
let's let's tear that thing down. It's this long, but
we think it might not for much longer. But then
they built another one. This one actually they used almost
(39:50):
a jigsaw puzzle foundation. Yeah, so when a wave hits it,
it actually compresses together and becomes stronger when a wave
s kicking into it. So that was there for good, wonderful.
We talked about Boston Light. There's also the Cape Hatteras
on the outer banks of North Carolina, which is I
(40:11):
believe the tallest one in the United States two feet
and it's one of the most famous as well. It's
the one with the black and white barber pole design. Yeah,
that's sixty three for our friends everywhere else in the world.
Did you know that one was in trouble The sea
was encroaching upon it, and they got some money together.
Congress did and moved it. Moved this lighthouse feet back
(40:37):
inland over the course of twenty three days. They slowly
moved it on tracks. It was pretty amazing. It was
on that modern marbles one. It's like fitz CARLDO. Sure, um,
I got a few more fast facts unless you have
something else, No, I'm done. Uh. Six hundred and eighty
lighthouses remaining in the US estimated out of that original
(40:59):
thousand plus thirty seven states have lighthouses, just not Kansas.
Michigan has the most, don't they have all the states?
Undred and twenty in Michigan because of the Great Lakes,
I would imagine makes sense. The East Coast says three one,
West Coast only has ninety four. I guess there's just
a lot more shipping and stuff. Huh, need to step
(41:20):
it up West coast um and worldwide. Uh. We estimate
seven more than seventeen thousand lighthouses in two d and
fifty countries. M and the brightest one Oak Island in
North Carolina, fourteen million candle power. You can see it
twenty four miles. Great. Yeah, that's a lot. Fourteen million
(41:42):
candles all burning. And what's pretty neat? It sounds like
a new religion. The Candela's really a million is one
lighting their candle and I think you just established it
reciting the the candela's prayer. Nice. See we just started
a religion. Yeah that easy? Well you did? I just
(42:04):
bore a witness. That's all right. You can be my
faithful assistant. Thanks can baptize you sure? Okay? Uh. If
you want to know more about lighthouses, you can type
that word into the search part house too. Horse dot com.
And since I talked about baptizing Chuck, it's time for
listener man. Since you talked about baptizing Chuck, that must
(42:26):
mean it's hey, guys. I recently discovered your podcast and
immediately fell in love. I'm thirsty for knowledge. Find it
quite impressive that you've become quasi experts. Not really, yeah,
but I'm writing in to respond to the controlled burn episode.
I used to work for my local county park system
doing habitat and wildlife management, and controlled burns took up
(42:48):
many days in the early spring for us. Our department
only consist of about six to seven people, three of
which were licensed burn bosses by the state. They make
the burn plan, they light the fire, and basically coordinate
and oversee the entire operation. I would make everybody call
me burn boss totally. Um. Additionally, local fire departments volunteer
(43:09):
personnel and sometimes equipment. Uh so they lend out their
stuff which is nice, and people such as water trucks
to assist. We also had quite a large number of
park volunteers that go through our training and help on
fire line. On the fire line as well, that would
be neat. I would do that, yeah, like a Saturday afternoon.
I'm sure it's different for each state and agency um,
(43:31):
but our burn bosses go through training put on by
the state in order to get certified. I can't recall
this is mentioned, but another advantage of controlled burns is
that the charred earth absorbed light because it's black in color,
more than it normally would, causing the soil to heat
more quickly and thus early germination for the desired species.
(43:51):
I had not considered that we didn't mention that good
factoid there. Thanks for satisfying my wondering mind, Tracy comp
and since that, Ohio, thanks a lot, Tracy. We appreciate that.
We always love to hear from people who know what
they're talking about. Burn Boss Colma. If you want to
get in touch with us, you can tweet to us
(44:12):
at s y s K podcast or hang out with
us on Instagram s y s K Podcast. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to stuff Podcast at
how stuff works dot Com. Has always joined us at
our home underweb stuff you Should Know dot Com for
(44:32):
more on this and thousands of other topics. Does it
how stuff works dot Com
Welcome to Stuff you Should Know fromhouse Stuff Works dot com. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W.
Chuck Bryant, Jerry over there, and this is the Lighthouse
episode Take one. Uh. Can I just go ahead and
(00:22):
say that I love lighthouses? Do you love love already before?
Like you fell in love with them and researching both
like if I'm I grew up going to Honey Island,
South Carolina, not every year, but we went quite a
few times here Buford and they have a lighthouse and
(00:42):
it was one of my favorite things to do as
a kid, was climbing the lighthouse. And I would I
if I'm near a lighthouse now ever, I will go
climate but outside. I will seek it out and then
shimmy up the outside like Spider Man. Um. No, I
will seek it out and go look at it and
then climb it and um this article just made me
(01:05):
love it even more. I have a precious memories lighthouse
to marble Head Lighthouse near Kataba Island, which is where
what state by Sandusky in Ohio on Lake Erie. And
it was the same thing when I was a kid.
We used to go vacation on Kataba Island, and um,
we would go to that lighthouse every once a while.
(01:25):
I don't remember ever going inside, though it might not
have been open, because there's no reason why you would
go to a lighthouse more than once and not go
inside climb it up. I don't remember every going in,
or maybe you're just like, yeah, it looks nice from
down here. Yeah, I would have climbed it. I was
a climber. Yeah, me too. Um. But I think the
(01:46):
other thing that factors in for me is I found
I really love antiquated systems that could still be viable. Yeah,
like post apocalypse, you could fire up lighthouses again, you
know fire yeah, and it would work. Yeah, it would.
And I think that's a weird thing with me that
(02:08):
I love. I love stuff that's still around that you
could use if if need be. You know, I've never
really looked at my environment that way, like to see
what it was going to be standing after an apocalypse.
Maybe I should. Well I don't know about standing, but
let's just let's say there was some weird domino effect
type thing like that movie where electricity and internet and
(02:30):
everything went out and people turned on each other. You
could still light a lighthouse and fos could find their
safe harbor. What movie are you talking about the domino effect? Oh? Really,
there's a movie like that called that. Yeah, I didn't
know that. I think it was called with Elizabeth Shoo
and agent Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks Kyle what's his face? McLaughlin?
(02:54):
And he is so great? Is the mare um Portlandia? Yeah?
He is good. I love that guy. I think it's
called a domino effect. If not, that was the you know,
essentially what happened there was a domino effect like a blackout, right, Yeah,
that just like and it created a domino effected things
kind of spun out of control. You're talking about Fury Road, right,
(03:16):
So uh, Chuck. I love lighthouses too, but I knew
virtually nothing about them until researching this. And um, if
you think about them though, it's like you were saying,
after the apocalypse, you'll still they'll still be standing. You
just need to replace the electricity with a fire and
then you'd have basically what lighthouses have always been, which
(03:36):
is some sort of highly visible signal. For most of
the time, it was a fire, either a wood fire,
coal fire, tar fire. Um that you could see that
was meant to signal to ships that hey man, there's
some treacherous waters around here. It's one of the main
things that they did. And as the light got better
(03:57):
and better. One of the roles that um, lighthouses play
was not just to say careful in this area. We
went to the trouble building a lighthouse here because it's
so treacherous. But also check out these rocks. See this
with this light, there's some rocks there. Yeah, like literally
lighting up a harbor. Yeah. Um, well, because there was
(04:18):
no light otherwise. Right. And then um, the other role
that they play is in the daytime, right, because lighthouses
I don't think that they actually keep them on twenty
four hours a day, highly inefficient. On a cloudy day,
if it's foggy, they'll turn it on and start sounding
the fog horns, which we'll talk about. But um, for
the most part in the daytime, it's off. But a
(04:40):
lighthouse still serves a purpose during the day because they
don't decorate them the way that they decorate them just
for looks. They do it so you can differentiate one
lighthouse from another. Yeah, Like this one looks like a
barber pole. So I'm near north Carolina is exactly right.
And there's like a whole book called the light List
(05:00):
where it has pictures of them and if you get
your hands on that. I meant to look it up
but ran out of time. I'll bet it's neat. I
bet it's neat too. By the way, that movie is
called the Trigger Effect. I have heard of that one.
There was a movie called the Domino Effect, but it's
not the same one. What about the butterfly effects? Remember
that garbage that was the couch? Right? Yeah? Man? Why
(05:22):
does he haunt us? I don't know. It comes up
a lot, all right. Where were we were we in
the lighthouse? We were talking about the day mark? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
pretty neat. But there's also what's called the light signature, right, yes,
where that's um, that's we're going back to nighttime again.
Ye sorry version the sun's going up and down, the
(05:44):
lights off. It got weird. It is a little weird. Sorry, Jerry,
are you still here? So? Um? At night the light
has its own flashing signature, light signature, and that's also
in the light book too, And there's actually a number
of different ways that a light can flash, right, who knew?
I didn't know you've got the fixed and that is,
(06:05):
of course, if you just have a light on saying
we're open. Yeah, it shines continuously, come on in, it's
the waffle house. You have the occulting light. I love
this one, the creepiest of all lights. Uh. It has
longer periods of light than dark. Um. And then the
flashes six six six uh, And a flashing light has
(06:28):
longer periods of dark than light. So occulting and flashing
or just sort of inverse of one another, there are
two sides of the same coin. That's right. I can't
have light without the dark is the whole premise. And
then you have the isophase light that's equal light and
dark with its uh signature blips, and then a group
flashing light super seventies. Yeah, it has a regular repeating
(06:53):
number of flashing lights. It's the same pattern, right. Yeah.
And there's actually really famous one of those, um, the
Minnot's Ledge light in Boston. It was very famously known
as I think it still is that I Love you
light because of a flash one, then we flash four,
and then we flash three, so I l O V
(07:14):
E y O U. So it was like a very
romantic light. That's how people took it. I didn't make
that up. Oh see, I thought it was I hate
cal it could. That's the secondary way that it's known.
The people Boston are known for their soft side. I know.
So that's why I love you. Yeah, they're prone to
(07:34):
break into sobs and the public on the street frequently
just walking around thinking about the beauty of life. That's right,
And hey, Boston, we'll see you this fall at the
Wilbur Theater. I think it's still available. I just want
to work that in nice um. And then finally we
have our alternating I'm sorry. We have the Morse code um,
which is what it sounds like. It It mimics Morse
(07:55):
code with stats and dashes, stats and dooshes. That's Marist
code dots and dashes man um to spell out, you know,
things like I love you. But that's not when Mino's
ledged does. It's it's just it's just one, four and three,
(08:17):
and people took it that way. I hate and when
its ledge, Actually it's pretty awesome to begin with. It's
it's under ten ft of water at high tide and
they had to build it I think in the nineteenth century,
whenever the tide was out, so they only had like
X amount of hours and the day during low tide
when the ledge was exposed, it's still there. It's tough cookie,
(08:40):
but josh, these are all sort of modern modern is
modern ish, but um, although old, they can go back
to uh what comers Iliad? They mentioned a lighthouse. Yeah, crazy,
and I mean like we're talking basically a huge bonfire
on a cliff more exactly, you know, not like a well,
(09:02):
not like Minot's ledge or anything. But the still qualifies
as a lighthouse. It was the premise behind it, Yeah, exactly.
I founded weirdly defensive just now about that still lighthouse. Yeah. Uh,
like you said, you would have like either wood or
coal burning on a long pole. Uh. And then finally
in the eighteenth century, um, they started using lanterns, which
(09:28):
is a little more probably controllable. Yeah. The problem was
that they kept running into, um was that the oil
or coal would smudge the lantern, the glass around the lantern,
and the so the glass top, the whole thing where
the light is that you can walk around, and that's
the lantern of the lighthouse. And if you're burning a
coal fire in there, it's gonna get sooty. Pretty quick. Yeah.
(09:51):
One of the that's one of the main jobs of
the lighthouse keepers to watch windows. Um. The problem is
in between washings, which they did at least once a
day normally, UM, the light would degrade as the soot
built up. Uh. So they figured out, oh, we need better,
better fuel than coal or tar. We thought they used tar.
(10:15):
Let's burn the dirtiest thing on the plane. Inside. They
were working with what they had at the time. So
they figured out, especially in New England, that they could
um use things like blubber and lard, which they did
from Wales, burns a lot cleaner. Uh. And then they
also figured out, hey, you know what this flame is okay,
but wouldn't it be great pre electricity if we had
(10:38):
something like electricity to beam this thing out there? For
miles and miles and a very smart physicists from France
named Augustine Fresnel. For Nell, I like, Fresnell, that's cool.
For Nell said, all right, take my lens and do
with it what you will, and he invent at the
(10:58):
Fornell lens. He did and nineteen I'm sorry, eighty two,
and it's like what you would think it would be.
It's a bunch of prisms. Um through that through magic
can cast a beam like twenty something miles out to
the ocean. It's amazing. They concentrate in the the gather
light from the top and the bottom and in the
middle and basically just shoot it all back to a
(11:19):
single magnifying point. It just goes miles. Yeah. Yeah, and
that really that changed everything and did a great job
of handling the load until electricity would come around. And
that's when everyone was like, you know what, we don't
need these silly flames anymore. Let's just plug in a light.
(11:43):
But you can still use it for nell lens with
the light and it's even brighter like today's modern lighthouses.
Use um or have produced lights between ten thousand candelas
and a million Candelas's candela? Did you see this reference? Like,
this is the worst analogy I've ever run across. What
(12:03):
did it say? A candela is one two d the
brightness of a fifty watt light bulb. Oh okay, yeah,
I know exactly how much a candela is. I also
saw that it's roughly the brightness of a candle, which
makes sense, and that's a much better frame of reference.
So the brightness of a million candles burning in the
same place. That's how bright modern lighthouses are, not one
(12:27):
two bulb. Let's take a break. Yeah, seriously, let's go
find out who wrote that and write a strongly worded letter.
(12:56):
Well that got ugly, So we're I feel like we're
still talking about the history of lighthouses, right yeah, um,
well what they were, they were made of wood early
on um. But the problem with a wooden lighthouse and
a massive burning fire of tar is that they can
(13:17):
burn down and be washed out to see, or in
rough weather it can just be knocked plumb over by waves.
And but like I said, they used what they had
at the time, and over the years they got sturdier
and sturdier with steel and concrete and stuff like that. Well,
even over even before, over the years before, over the years. Yeah.
The Pharisa Alexandria, one of the seven Wonders of the
(13:39):
ancient world, was this um lighthouse at the mouth of
the harbor to Alexandria, Egypt. And it was around I'm
not quite sure when it was around. I think the
which one the pharaohs of Alexandria to seventy BC. My friend,
that thing was pretty sturdy it took a massive earthquake
to bring it to It was made of masonry, it
(14:01):
wasn't made of wood, you know. So it looks like
lighthouse construction got dumber as the years went on, and
then it got smart again. Then it got smart again.
It just dipped down in the wood era and then
came back up. Well. Um, what you you normally have
is a lighthouse, which can be just a lighthouse, or
there might be uh a fog signal building. There might
(14:24):
be a boat house. You might have a little house
or apartment attached to it, and you might live there
with your family on in a very remote part of
the world. Um, all by yourself for with a couple
of other dudes. Yeah, and take turns and take shifts.
That's called a stag station. Yeah. And I think the
other thing that appeals to me about lighthouses is I
could have lived that life. Oh yeah, yeah I can.
(14:48):
I have seen myself dropping out and you got a
neck beard. Yeah, so you needs like a cable net
sweater and living up there all by myself corn cob
pipe really yeah, throw my own crops and just sit
up there and be quiet, no one bugging me. It's
like it appeals. I did not know that. I did
(15:10):
not picture you as a lighthousekeeper. I could totally do it,
or a lightkeeper for short um and um. This is
another thing that I thought was remarkable in this article.
You might as well mention it is it. If there
is a lighthouse near you that nobody operates, it is
possible that you could own that lighthouse. Yeah. On the
(15:38):
National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of two thousand, it got
a process together where the coast Guard, which is what
runs the lighthouse, biz now a lighthouse racket. Um. They
you can basically start a nonprofit or have a nonprofit
and at no cost they will give you a decommissioned
(15:58):
lighthouse if you maintain it and keep it open to
the public. Yeah. For the most part, it's like preservation
society in this. But if nobody wants it, they put
it up for auction and then you can do what
you want to. You can live out my dream and
I wouldn't have to do the windows either. I could
just live up there and be a crusty old hermit.
(16:19):
You know, we could do a Kickstarter to help you
live out your dream. Chuck, Well, let's let's do a
few more years of stuff. You should know first though,
before you go. Okay, okay, um, all right, so back
to more modern times. Um, we're building them out of
concrete and steel. At this point they're a little more sturdy.
(16:41):
You got your little keeper's house. You're not getting paid
much money. How much money, dude? Not much? So this
article says that they earned about two annually in the
late nineteenth century. I went on to the g wiz
west Egg inflation calculator for eight in eight that was
(17:04):
five grand. Today your provisions are covered though, right, Yeah,
but at the very least your room is. I don't
know about board. I bet you they all the whale
ard you can eat. Yeah, no, imagine they take care
of stuff because you can't like leave and go shopping
like imagine you just have everything shipped to you and
um again ideal. I love that. Don't have to go out,
(17:29):
you don't have to spend any money. It's like web van, yeah,
coming to you. You're just you're banking that five five
grand a year essentially. Wow. Man, when you get into
like lighthouse mode, you're lower in the standards like germanously
you're like, man, I'm making five grand. People are bringing
me food I don't have to talk to anybody. Yeah,
(17:50):
that's awesome. It's like your fantasy. That's hilarious. Um. So
that lens we were talking about, we we didn't use
that in the United States for a while because the
way I read this is we kind of cheaped out
when it was being run um by this guy Stephen
pleasant from for thirty years eight eighteen fifty two, thirty
(18:13):
two years he ran an efficient, some might say chintzy
program to where he was like, you know, we don't
need those fancy French lenses. Um, take these creddi versions.
They probably wouldn't even a lens. It's like a mirror,
reflector or something. Maybe if that, yeah, maybe a piece
(18:34):
of metal at somebody had to just stand behind the
light with the reflected you're my mute assistant, right quiet.
But then finally the US government got involved and said,
you know what, we need to regulate this. Well, they
were involved. That's why, Yes, from seventeen sixteen to seventeen
(18:55):
eighty nine, that was not run by the US government. No,
it wasn't until alex Andrew Hamilton's almost got in a
shipwreck off the coast of I think North Carolina, and
he went back and said, hey, I think we need
some lighthouses. The federal government needs to get involved. And
so I think the nineteenth piece of legislation the US
(19:15):
Congress ever passed was to establish the Lighthouse Board. Uh,
the U S Lighthouse Establishment initially is what it was called.
And you know, socialist program. He said that the federal
the federality is going to run this thing, uh and
in charge now. And you know what, things um went downhill? Yeah, improved,
(19:40):
proved everyone who's critical big government, right. Yeah, But there
were a lot of lighthouses at the time. By nineteen hundred,
we had about a thousand lighthouses well, and by nineteen
hundred government had reformed its reputation, Like seriously, the world
ground for the mid nineteenth century, the US governed, the
US lighthouse system was second rate at best. They just
(20:04):
had a terrible reputation. And I guess it sounds like
they got rid of Stephen Pleasant, whose name is basically
mud these days, and the quality went up. Yeah, and
that's when they established the Lighthouse Board, which is I
think what you were thinking to shape things up. In
eighteen fifty two, they said let's get some for now
lenses for all these lighthouses. Finally, Yeah, we can be
(20:25):
like the rest of the world pleasant stead. Uh. Did
you know the Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse. I
don't know if I knew it, but when I've read it,
I'm like, well, yeah, but I don't know if it
unlocked some memory or if I'm just like that's just
too obvious. Yeah. I was like, surely I knew that, right, right,
(20:47):
that was it. For fifteen years it was a lighthouse
in New York Harbor, which is pretty neat. And then
by nineteen thirty, when electricity was effective and rampant, UM,
you didn't need these fires burning or candles burning or
whale blubber. No, but there were a lot of lighthouses
(21:08):
where that were on like islands or on offshore like
ledges like Minnow's Ledge or Eddie Stone in England. UM
that were just like the technology to run electricity out
there just was not around. UM. So they were still
using oil of various types to to fuel these things
(21:30):
well into the twentieth century, into the sixties, UM easily Yeah,
and they were um still had people working there, um
living in the lighthouse or on the property. Uh. Into
the nineteen sixties, it was definitely more rare, but um
and night. Uh. That's when the Coast Guard brought about
(21:50):
their lighthouse automation and modernization program, and that pretty much
dwindled by the end of that decade. It dwindled it
down to sixty that still had people working there. Yeah,
sixty out of a thousand. Today, there's one in Boston,
the Brewster Island, one little bruster, little Brewster Island was
refusing him a big Brewster. Well, there might be one
(22:12):
Brewster's Millions Island, little Brewster. That's right. It was the
first one in the United States. Uh, seventeen sixteen was
when it was built, and then that one was replaced
in Sight three and it's the second oldest working one
behind Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Is the right, and the
(22:33):
person that lives there is basically living there as a
tour guide, not necessarily like guiding boats into harbor, although
they may do both. No, I think it's still working. Yeah,
well then I guess they do both. I saw modern
marvels on lighthouses, and they interviewed one of the light
keepers on Brewster Island, little Brewster Island, and he he
(22:55):
was They showed him like polishing the glass and everything. Yeah,
but it's automated. I got delight itself. I see, I see,
so they up keep into our guided right. Okay, but yeah,
he's still I mean, he's providing a function there. Yeah,
that's not just show. Maybe I could That's what I
could do. That think you should have heard that guy.
He's like, I can't even begin to do it. But
(23:16):
he was like a hardcore light keeper in Boston. Yeah,
I can imagine, although I wouldn't be the best person,
because Chuck silent lighthouse story isn't really You're just like
you just sweep your arm in and turn out quietly.
People ask questions, I just wrap them on the knuckles out.
All right. I'm getting all excited thinking about the prospects
(23:36):
of living in a lighthouse. So I'm gonna go do
some push ups and we'll come back right after this. So, Chuck,
(24:02):
say that you did live your life as a lightkeeper,
what would you what would it be like? Mm hmm.
First of all, what's what's your family background? Uh? Well,
my dad was a fisherman. Probably actually my my great
great grandfather was a fisherman. My grandfather was a lightkeeper.
(24:23):
My dad was a son of a lightkeeper and the
mom was Akeeper, pirate captain, pirate captain. Like, Gina Davis, Yeah,
that was a good movie. She's awesome. Yeah she uh.
Jesse Thorne interviewed her recently on his Bull's Eye show.
She's just like the best, and they were all excited
(24:44):
in the office. Everyone was like, oh, man, Gina Davis
is the coolest she uh. Supposedly was known for bringing
cookies to that she baked herself two interviews. Yeah, she's
a MENSA member. Yeah, I got a lot going on there.
Julius Smith, who works at the maximun HQ and produces
Judge Don Hodgman, said on her Facebook she was like,
Gina Davis is like the coolest aunt of all cool aunts. Yes,
(25:08):
she was in Beetle Juice. I mean like, yeah, it
didn't get much cooler than that. She could she could
just be a total jerk and she was still awesome
and Beetle Juice. Um. So, anyway, hats off to Eugena Tavis.
How'd that come up? I don't even remember now your
mom was a pirate captain alright, Gina Davis? Was that
a shout out to Cutthroat Island? I guess the movie.
(25:31):
You're the one that said it. I guess. Yeah, was
that cut Throat Island? Huh? Is it the name of it? Yeah,
it was that bad pirate movie. I loved it. That
wasn't bad. It got bad pressed, it wasn't bad. It's
funny you like some of the most legendarily bad movies
of all times. It wasn't that bad. As far as
(25:53):
just like critics and you're like, yeah, man Ishtar, I've
actually stayed away from his star. Also stayed away from
Rock the Kasbo because I saw that it was basically
an updated Ishtar. Did I even see that? I can't
remember if I watched it one night Rock the Kasba, yeah,
or if I wanted to and didn't like. That's how
(26:14):
little of an impact it made. It's on Netflix. I
think I actually did watch it, and it was just
sort of like, yeah, not very good. Yeah, No, Ishtar
is a pretty good code word to stay away from him.
I never saw Ishtar. What else do I like? That
was bad? It was supposedly bad. I mean, like, just
have you have you seen cuts Rhode Island? Sure, it's terrible,
(26:38):
it's not um all right. So we were talking about
the lineage, what might get you into the light keeping business.
We were being coy and role playing, but that is true. People.
It's a family business for the most part. Uh your
parents or your father might have done it, or you
come from a long line of uh seafaring types. At
(26:58):
the very least you feel close to the sea. Yeah,
Like if you want to spend your time out there
on a rocky point overlooking the waves all day long,
like you probably didn't come from Kansas to do so,
you know. Yeah, there they have wheat watchers. They just
sit in the tower and watch the wheat and the
(27:21):
flatness and they stand up all of a sudden they're like,
oh my god, there's a wheat missing. There's a wheat. Um.
One thing we keep saying is men. That's because most
of the lighthousekeepers were men, but not all. No, not all,
and not all of them were necessarily white men either.
There were some very famous legendary African American lightkeepers and
(27:45):
um light life savers as well. Surfmen is what they
were called to because supposedly you're just there to provide
light and signal, but when the s hits the f right. UM,
I think you can say a fan fan when the
essets a fan. Brave lightkeepers were known to go out
(28:07):
there and provide rescue. Yeah. Um, and one of them
was a woman named Ida Lewis, actually American hero. She
grew up on Lime Rock Island, uh, near Newport Rhode
Island in Newport Harbor, and her dad was a lightkeeper,
so she followed that tradition and she actually started taking
over the duties after her father had a stroke. Um
(28:28):
and uh, she just became a lightkeeper, but a very
famous one for her life saving skills. Rescued a dozen
men over the years. No, actually eighteen affirmed. They think
it's as high as twenty five. They're I'm gonna say dozens.
She Uh, she rescued her last person at age sixty three. Yeah.
(28:49):
She's quite a lady, that's but for the most part,
and and she's not the only one who saved lives,
like there were plenty out there that did. But it
was not an expected role of a lightkeeper because the
Coastguard had a life saver house usually nearby a lighthouse,
because the lighthouse was there in the first place too,
(29:11):
because there was a treacherous area, so it just makes
sense to also put a life saving House there because
even with the light the lighthouse itself, ship may still
run the ground and there may be rescuing. And if
you want to be thrilled, there's a really neat um
article that's posted on this podcast page about the p
Island Um life Saving House. It was, um. But by
(29:35):
the way that pre Coastguard, we had the U S
Life Saving Service, which is what that term comes from. Yeah,
and then they merged everything together under Roosevelt, and the
the lighthouses and the life saving Service all came under
the purview of the Coastguard. Right, we should do one
(29:56):
on the Coastguard. Remember that married couple that were both Coastguards. Yeah,
that lobby dosts for many years until they gave up.
We're still thinking about you guys, and we're still gonna
do a Coastguard podcast eventually years and years later. Um. So,
pre nine when they made the Coastguard is where you
(30:17):
really can't find a whole lot of written history now
while that has been lost to time and um they
say here in this article that what we have now
our stories from families that remain lower. Yeah. Lore, it's
pretty neat Yeah, and then chuck, um, so if you're
in a lighthouse, even as remote and cut off as
(30:37):
they are, if you hated it, you would still be like,
at least I'm not working on a light ship. Yes,
So before they had booies like modern booies. Today there's
there's booties out there. They're basically like floating lighthouses in
areas that require some sort of warning but are just
too far off land to build the lighthouse. They put
(30:58):
booties out there. And today the booies are like sometimes
something like forty feet in diameter. They're huge, massive things. Um.
But before booies even they would use something called light ships.
And it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a lighthouse
on a ship and it's in a very remote area.
You are out there for months at a time. Yeah,
(31:20):
you just sail out and anchor down and live there
right um, and the boats anchored all the time. You
would have to like go to and from the boat
to the to shore. Um. But while you're working there,
it's just mind bogglingly awful. There was a lot of
like insanity. Yeah, that would happen, like when the fog
rolled in before the evan of foghorns, you would have
(31:43):
to yank the bells rope the fog bell rope um
every ten seconds, twenty four hours a day, for as
long as the fog was around. Every ten seconds you
had to ring about. That was your job, and if
you didn't then you were risking the lives of anybody
passing by in the area. So not cool, man, not
(32:03):
cool at all. But the lightships, apparently we're just about
as bad as it it got. As far as boredom, loneliness, isolation,
hatred of bells, the lightship had it all. You hate bells.
I didn't. I never worked on a lightship, but I'll
bet they hated bells. You would hear that in your sleep.
If you rang a bell every ten seconds for hours
(32:26):
at a stretch, you're not going to get that out
of your head. And even if you did, when you
tried to go to sleep, one of the guys on
the next ship would be out there ringing the bell anyway. So,
dregy nuts, let's talk about some famous lighthouses. Well, we
already talked about the the Pharos of alexandria Um, which
(32:48):
is the oldest known lighthouse and at the time they
contend might have been the tallest thing on the planet.
That's super tall. Yeah, and it was masonry to the
found it in underwater ocean. They found pieces of it
and in Alexandria Harbor. I guess you mentioned Eddie Stone
(33:09):
Light already in Plymouth, England, which is I guess that's
where the fine gin comes from. Yeah, still hitting Plymouth
up if anyone out there works for Plymouth. Oh man,
it's such good gin. It's delicious. So is Leopold's Leopold Gin. Yeah,
it's American gin really good, too good. That's that's my
(33:29):
go to American gin. Nice, although I like most American gin's,
but that's if you had st George. I love that stuff. Yeah,
there's three of them. One of them I do not
care for it all really, but the other two I like.
I'll bet it's the terror terr War. You don't like
it's so got a weird taste, yeah, but love it.
But its own thing, the fact that it doesn't have
(33:51):
its own classification of gin like Old Tom or Jennifer
or something like that. It should have its own thing. Yeah,
like foot gin. I love that stuff. It's weird, dude,
it's really good. You know what it's really good with?
Have you ever had um fever tree bitter lemon. No,
it's like a lemony lemon, limy, citrusy drink, but without
(34:12):
much sweetness. Um that with the territory war gin and juice.
Yeah you know, but it's it's knock your socks off. Yeah,
I don't care for it. And you know what, I'll
just go ahead and bring you my bottle because I've
had like two drinks out of it, so I did
wrap my head around. I will you just can't do it.
I will email you tonight as a reminder, say, hey,
(34:33):
I'll bring in that st George. Thanks man. And also,
by the way, I am now on because you know,
I drink the dirty martini, but I don't eat olives,
which is a little weird, just like the juice. Yeah
the brine, okay, um with a twist, it's a little different,
I know that. And um, for years I would have
(34:55):
empty jars of dry olives in my fridge and very
little juice you know in there. Oh, I know what
you're talking about. Now. So now I bought dirty sue
yeah olive juice, uh, and you can buy it in
a bottle, and I bought a box of it, and
it just sits in the cabinet my house, nice and
so big. Shout out to Dirty Sue Olive brine, really dirty,
(35:16):
is up your Martini? What's your gin that you used
for this? Well? I mean I love Plymouth, I love
Hendrix and our friends at Spring forty four. Gin dude
sent us gin from a They said it's all about
the water, and they have like the best water on earth.
They made some old tom gin. Yeah, and it is.
It is delicious like it it made. I love Martinez.
(35:39):
Is it's um old tom gin. Uh um, marischino liqueur,
not the cherry stuff, but like the real liquor, and
then um some sweeter mouth. It's like probably the most
perfect drink anyone's ever made. It's very old um that
maybe maybe the best Martinez of overhead. That was good stuff. Well,
(36:02):
for a while lately I've been stirring. I got a
little martini picture or a cocktail picture to stir um.
But I'm back to shaking now because I found out
that bruising gin is a total myth. So James Bond
wasn't cuckoo. No, you can't bruise gin. Yeah, that's all
just garbage. Do you use orange bitters? In yours. No,
(36:23):
really brightens it up, straight up dirty sue gin. I
do use a little vermouth like I know that people
don't like vermouth at all anymore. Really, Yeah, I see
bartenders now don't use any vermouth. That's that's not a martini.
Well agreed, that's a gin a child gin up with
some um. Just the one in the green Italian bottle?
(36:49):
Is that Dolan Blanc? Yeah, that's good stuff. But I
also found out recently that that vermouth is a wine
and you don't just keep it on your shelf for
two years. Uh, you keep in the fridge for maybe
a month. Yeah, I didn't know that. So I've been
drinking this old old vermouth. You still can, It's not
like you can't, but just for the best possible impact,
(37:10):
you want to just get that small bottle. I learned
that the hard way. I'm gonna start doing that. Man,
we we should have our own cocktail show. We should
because we've just talked. We talked about booze a lot.
We don't need to. Let's drink about it. Has that
covered a good friends that let's drink about it. Yeah,
and thanks also to Ben who sent us um some
ambler smooth ambler. Uh what was it called contradiction? That
(37:37):
stuff is good too, that's right, man, booze talk on lighthouses.
Who knew? Oh, I bet you there's a lot of
boozeing that goes on at lighthouses to time. They're not
making amazing drinks with St. George and bitter lemon. They're
just drinking that stuff straight out of the deer skin.
Yeah exactly. Um, Where were we, Eddie Stone Lighthouse, Plymouth, England? Oh? Yes,
(38:00):
this gut started. Um. This thing is. It's a it's
a very rough area to have a lighthouse, and it
seems like nature doesn't want a lighthouse there because over
the years it has been knocked down and burned down
many many times. This dude, basically um went out there
by himself, Harry Harry or Henry Winstanley in sixteen sixty
(38:23):
six six and just started building this wooden lighthouse out
and these rocks off the coast of Plymouth. Himself got
captured by a French pirate, released and lit the thing
in and he actually died. He deconstructed it and rebuilt
it and died in the second version of it. It
got swept away with him inside but he was a
(38:45):
pretty cool cat. That was seventeen o three. Then another
one in seventeen o eight was built that burned down
in seventeen fifty five. And then a guy named John Smeaton,
he was an engineer. He built one that was built
to last for a little while. He actually came up
with what you think of as the modern lighthouse. It's
stick at the bottom, tapers at the top, and then
it flares out right below the lantern. And the reason
(39:07):
most lighthouses flare out right below the lantern is when
a wave comes up and the waves can get that big,
it won't ride up into the lantern. It will be
thrown back out to see when it hits the flare.
It's a water guard. Pretty much interesting. I did not
know that here's a smart dude. Um So that one
lasted for a hundred and twenty three years, which was,
you know, as far as the Eddy Stone light is concerned,
(39:29):
an eternity. But eventually, uh the Trinity House, which is
England's version of the coast Guard of the lighthousehouse, they said, no,
let's let's tear that thing down. It's this long, but
we think it might not for much longer. But then
they built another one. This one actually they used almost
(39:50):
a jigsaw puzzle foundation. Yeah, so when a wave hits it,
it actually compresses together and becomes stronger when a wave
s kicking into it. So that was there for good, wonderful.
We talked about Boston Light. There's also the Cape Hatteras
on the outer banks of North Carolina, which is I
(40:11):
believe the tallest one in the United States two feet
and it's one of the most famous as well. It's
the one with the black and white barber pole design. Yeah,
that's sixty three for our friends everywhere else in the world.
Did you know that one was in trouble The sea
was encroaching upon it, and they got some money together.
Congress did and moved it. Moved this lighthouse feet back
(40:37):
inland over the course of twenty three days. They slowly
moved it on tracks. It was pretty amazing. It was
on that modern marbles one. It's like fitz CARLDO. Sure, um,
I got a few more fast facts unless you have
something else, No, I'm done. Uh. Six hundred and eighty
lighthouses remaining in the US estimated out of that original
(40:59):
thousand plus thirty seven states have lighthouses, just not Kansas.
Michigan has the most, don't they have all the states?
Undred and twenty in Michigan because of the Great Lakes,
I would imagine makes sense. The East Coast says three one,
West Coast only has ninety four. I guess there's just
a lot more shipping and stuff. Huh, need to step
(41:20):
it up West coast um and worldwide. Uh. We estimate
seven more than seventeen thousand lighthouses in two d and
fifty countries. M and the brightest one Oak Island in
North Carolina, fourteen million candle power. You can see it
twenty four miles. Great. Yeah, that's a lot. Fourteen million
(41:42):
candles all burning. And what's pretty neat? It sounds like
a new religion. The Candela's really a million is one
lighting their candle and I think you just established it
reciting the the candela's prayer. Nice. See we just started
a religion. Yeah that easy? Well you did? I just
(42:04):
bore a witness. That's all right. You can be my
faithful assistant. Thanks can baptize you sure? Okay? Uh. If
you want to know more about lighthouses, you can type
that word into the search part house too. Horse dot com.
And since I talked about baptizing Chuck, it's time for
listener man. Since you talked about baptizing Chuck, that must
(42:26):
mean it's hey, guys. I recently discovered your podcast and
immediately fell in love. I'm thirsty for knowledge. Find it
quite impressive that you've become quasi experts. Not really, yeah,
but I'm writing in to respond to the controlled burn episode.
I used to work for my local county park system
doing habitat and wildlife management, and controlled burns took up
(42:48):
many days in the early spring for us. Our department
only consist of about six to seven people, three of
which were licensed burn bosses by the state. They make
the burn plan, they light the fire, and basically coordinate
and oversee the entire operation. I would make everybody call
me burn boss totally. Um. Additionally, local fire departments volunteer
(43:09):
personnel and sometimes equipment. Uh so they lend out their
stuff which is nice, and people such as water trucks
to assist. We also had quite a large number of
park volunteers that go through our training and help on
fire line. On the fire line as well, that would
be neat. I would do that, yeah, like a Saturday afternoon.
I'm sure it's different for each state and agency um,
(43:31):
but our burn bosses go through training put on by
the state in order to get certified. I can't recall
this is mentioned, but another advantage of controlled burns is
that the charred earth absorbed light because it's black in color,
more than it normally would, causing the soil to heat
more quickly and thus early germination for the desired species.
(43:51):
I had not considered that we didn't mention that good
factoid there. Thanks for satisfying my wondering mind, Tracy comp
and since that, Ohio, thanks a lot, Tracy. We appreciate that.
We always love to hear from people who know what
they're talking about. Burn Boss Colma. If you want to
get in touch with us, you can tweet to us
(44:12):
at s y s K podcast or hang out with
us on Instagram s y s K Podcast. You can
join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know.
You can send us an email to stuff Podcast at
how stuff works dot Com. Has always joined us at
our home underweb stuff you Should Know dot Com for
(44:32):
more on this and thousands of other topics. Does it
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