March 20, 2021 • 45 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. Learn all about them in this classic episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everyone, Happy Saturday. I hope you have your breakfast
cereal and your Saturday morning cartoons all taken care of.
It is in Select time, June, and we're talking about
how lighthouses work. This is a really cool podcast. I
remember really enjoying this one because I had done some
research on lighthouses for a movie script I was writing,
(00:22):
so this one was really pretty key for that. So
here we go with how lighthouses work. Welcome to Stuff
you should know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles
(00:43):
w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry over there, and this is
the lighthouse episode, Take one. Uh can I just go
ahead and say that I love lighthouses. You love love
already before like you fell in love with them. I'm
researching this both, like if I'm I grew up going
(01:04):
to Honey Island, South Carolina. Not every year, but we
went quite a few times near Buford and they have
a lighthouse and it was one of my favorite things
to do as a kid, was climbing the lighthouse. And
I would I if I am near a lighthouse, now ever,
I will go climate the outside. I will seek it
out and then shim me up the outside like spider Man. Um. No,
(01:30):
I will seek it out and go look at it
and then climb it. And um this article just made
me love it even more. I have a precious memories
lighthouse too. Let's hear 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,
(01:52):
and um, we would go to that lighthouse every once
a while. 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 light house more than once
and not go inside climb it up. I don't remember
every going in, but 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.
(02:15):
But I think the 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, I would, And I think that's a
(02:36):
weird thing with me that 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
(02:58):
and internet and everything went out right and people turned
on each other. You could still lit a lighthouse and
bos 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
(03:20):
Cooper from Twin Peaks Kyle what's his face? McLaughlin and
he is so great is the mare um Portlandia? Yeah,
he is good. I love that guy. I think it's
called the 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 effect that things kind of spun out of control.
(03:41):
You're talking about Fury Road. Oh right, sorry, so, uh
chuckout love lighthouses too, but I knew virtually nothing about
him until researching this. And Um, if you think about them, though,
it's like you were saying, after the apocalypse, you'll still
still be standing. You just need to replace the electricity
(04:02):
with the fire, and then you'd have basically what lighthouses
have always been, which 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
(04:24):
of the main things that they did. And as the
light got better and better, one of the roles that um,
lighthouses played 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
(04:48):
was 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 efficient 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
(05:10):
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 know I'm near North Carolina's Cape
Hatteras exactly right. And there's like a whole book called
the light List where it has pictures of them, and
(05:32):
did you get your hands on that? I'm meant to
look it up, but I 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 coop? Right? Yeah? Man?
Why does he haunt us? I don't know. He comes
(05:54):
up a lot. All right. Where were we were we
in the lighthouse? We were talking about the day mark. 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. Yeah,
Sorryverson the sun's going up and down you turn the
lights off. It got weird. It is a little weird.
(06:16):
Yeah all right, Jerry, are you still here here? So? Um,
at night, the light has its own flashing signature, light signature,
and that's also in the Light book two. 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, of course, if you just have a light
on saying we're open, it shines continuously. Come on in.
(06:41):
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
it flashes six six six uh. And a flashing light
has longer periods of dark than light. So a halting
and flashing or just sort of inverse of one another.
(07:02):
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 number of flashing lights the same pattern, right. Yeah.
(07:27):
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 it would flash one, then it would flash four,
and then we flashed three. So I l O V
E y O U. So it was like a very
romantic light. That's how people took it. I didn't make
(07:49):
that up. Oh see, I thought it was I hate
cal it could. That's the secondary way that it's known.
The people of Boston are known for their soft side.
I know, so that's why I love you. Yeah. They're
prone to break into sobs and the public on the
street frequently just walking around thinking about the beauty of life. Um.
(08:10):
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 code with stats and dashestats and dashes.
That's Morse code dots and dashes man um just spell
out you know, things like I love you. But that's
(08:34):
not when wheno's ledged us and it's not Morse code,
it's just it's just one four and three yea, And
people took it that way. I hate go. 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
(08:55):
like X amount of hours and day during low tide.
When the ledge was exposed. It was interesting. It's still there.
It's tough cookie, but Josh, these are all sort of
modern modern is modern ish, but um, although old, they
can go back to uh what Homer's Iliad They mentioned
a lighthouse. Crazy, and I mean like we're talking basically
(09:20):
a huge bonfire on a cliff more exactly, you know,
not like but well, not like Minot's ledge or anything,
but then still qualifies as a lighthouse. It was the
premise behind it. Yeah exactly. I sounded weirdly defensive just
now about that. Still a lighthouse. Yeah. Uh, like you said,
you would have like either wood or coal burning on
(09:42):
a long pole. Uh. And then finally in the eighteenth century, um,
they started using lanterns, which 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,
(10:04):
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. One of the best one
of the main jobs of the lighthouse keepers to wash windows. Right. Um.
The problem is in between washings, which they did at
least once a day normally, um, the light would degrade
(10:27):
as the soot built up. Uh. So they figured out, oh,
we need better better fuel than coal or tar. We
thought to use tar. Let's burn the dirtiest thing on
the planet. 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,
(10:48):
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
electric city if we had something like electricity to beam
this thing out there for miles and miles and a
very smart physicist from France named Augustine Fresnell. I like Fresnell,
(11:13):
that's cool. For Nell said, all right, take my lens
and do with it what you will, and he indited
the Fornell lens. He did, I'm sorry, 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. Yeah,
(11:35):
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 single magnifying point.
It just goes miles. Yeah. Yeah, and that really that
changed everything and did a great job of handling the
(11:55):
load until electricity would come around. And that's when everyone like,
you know what, we don't need these silly flames anymore.
Let's just plug in the light. But you can still
use it Fornelle lens with the light and it's even brighter.
That's true. Like today's modern lighthouses use um or have
produced lights between ten thousand candelas and a million candelas.
(12:18):
What's a candela? Did you see this reference, Like, this
is the worst analogy I've ever run across. What did
it say? A candela is one two hundred 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,
(12:40):
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 two hundred. Bowl.
Let's take a break. Yeah, seriously, let's go find out
who wrote that and write a strongly worded letter. Well
(13:19):
that got ugly, so, uh, we're I feel like we're
still talking about the history of lighthouses, right yeah sure, 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 burn down
(13:40):
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 Farah said Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of
(14:02):
the 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 Pharos of Alexandria to seventy BC.
My friend, that thing was pretty sturdy. It took a
massive earthquake to bring it down. It was made of masonry.
(14:24):
It 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 got smart again.
It just dipped down in the wood era and then
came back up. Well, um, what you you normally have
is the lighthouse, which can be just a lighthouse, or
there might be uh a fog signal building. There might
(14:47):
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 dude. 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
(15:11):
have seen myself dropping out and you got a neck beard. Yeah.
All you need is like a cable nuts sweater and
living up there all by myself corn cob pipe really yeah,
grow my own crops and just sit up there and
be quiet, no one bugging me. It's like it appeals.
(15:32):
I did not know that. I did 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
(15:53):
you could own that lighthouse. Yeah. One door. The National
Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of two thousand, it h got
a process together where the Coast Guard, which is what
runs the lighthouse biz now the lighthouse racket. Um. They
(16:14):
you can basically start a nonprofit or have a nonprofit
and at no cost, they will give you a decommissioned
lighthouse if you maintain it and keep it open to
the public. Yeah, for the most part, it's like preservation societies.
But if nobody wants it, they put it up for auction. Yeah,
and then you can do what you want to. You
(16:36):
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. You know. We could
do a kickstarter to help you live out your dream. Chuck, Well,
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
(17:00):
of concrete and steel. At this point they're a little
more sturdy. 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 dollars annually
in the late nineteenth century. I went on to the
gee Whiz West Egg inflation calculator for eight in eighteen nine.
(17:26):
That was five grand. Today. Your provisions are covered, though, right, Yeah,
at the very least your room is. I don't know
about board. I bet you they all the whale lard
you can eat. Yeah, Now 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.
(17:50):
I love that. Don't have to go out, you don't
have to spend any money. It's like web van, yeah,
coming to you. 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 jimmandess like You're like, man,
I'm making five grand. People are bringing me food. I
(18:11):
don't have to talk to anybody. Yeah, 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
(18:33):
thirty years eighteen fifty two, thirty 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 creddy versions. They probably wouldn't even a lens.
It is like a mirror reflector or something. Maybe if that, yeah,
(18:56):
maybe a piece 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
in said you know what, we need to regulate this.
We the US they were involved. That's why. Yes, from
seventeen sixteen to seventeen eighty nine, that was not run
(19:20):
by the US government. No, it wasn't until Alexander 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 Congress ever passed was to establish
(19:41):
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 federalities are going to
run this thing. Uh and then in charge now and
you know what things um went downhill? Yeah, improved, improved.
(20:04):
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
(20:27):
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 fronel lenses
for all these lighthouses. Finally, Yeah, we can be like
(20:48):
the rest of the world. Pleasant dead. Uh, did you
know the Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse. I don't
know if I knew it, but when I 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. I didn't know. Yeah, I was like, I
(21:08):
surely I knew that, right right that 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
(21:29):
there were a lot of lighthouses where that we're on
like islands or on offshore like ledges like Minno's Ledge
or Eddie Stone in England. Um, that were just like
the technology to run electricity out there just was not around,
of course. Um, so they were still using oil of
(21:50):
various types to to fuel these things. Well into the
twentieth century, into the sixties, um easily, yeah, and they
were um still 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
(22:11):
that's when the Coast Guard brought about 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 interfusing it with
(22:34):
Big Brewster. Well, there might be one 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,
(22:54):
is the right and the person that lives there is
basically living there as a tour guide, not necessarily like
guiding boats into harbor. 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
(23:16):
Brewster Island, and he he was They showed him like
polishing the glass and everything. Yeah, but it's automated. I
got the light itself. I see. I see. So they
keep into our guided I think, okay, but yeah, he's
still I mean, he's providing a function there that's not
just show. Maybe I could that's what I could do.
Then you should have heard that guy. He's like, I
(23:37):
can't even begin to do it. But 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 a room and turns out quietly. People
ask questions, I just wrap them on the knuckles out
all right, I'm getting all excited thinking about the prospects
(23:59):
of living in a lighthouse. So I'm gonna go do
some push ups and we'll come back right after this. So, Chuck,
(24:25):
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.
(24:46):
My dad was a son of a light keeper, and
some mom was a keeper. Pirate captain. Pirate captain. Like
Gina Davis. Yeah, that was a good movie. She's awesome.
Yeah she uh see. Thorn interviewed her recently on his
Bull's Eye show. She's just like the best, and they
were all excited in the office. Everyone was like, oh, man,
(25:08):
Gina Davis is the coolest. She supposedly was known for
bringing cookies to that she baked herself to interviews. Yeah,
she's a MENSA member. Yeah, I got a lot going
on there. Julius Smith, who works at the Max fun
HQ and produces Judge Sean Hodgman, said on her Facebook
she was like, Gina Davis is like the coolest aunt
of all cool aunts of all time. Yes, she was
(25:31):
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 in Beetle Juice.
Um So, anyway, hats off to Eugena Davis. 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. You're the
(25:54):
one that said it. I guess, Yeah, was that Cutthroat Island? Huh?
Is it the name of it? 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 time. It
(26:14):
wasn't that bad as far as just like critics and
you're like, yeah, man Ishtar, I never saw. I've actually
stayed away from his star. I 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,
(26:34):
or if I wanted to and didn't. Like that's how
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 movie. 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 Rorod Island? Sure
(27:00):
it's terrible, it's not terrible. 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 the very least you feel
(27:23):
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 flatness and they stand up
(27:47):
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 um, light
(28:10):
life savers as well. Surfmen is what they were called too. Yeah,
because supposedly you're just there to provide light and signal.
But when the S hits the f um, I think
you can say a fan fan when the S s s
it's a fan. Brave lightkeepers were known to go out
there and provide rescue. Yeah. Um. And one of them
(28:33):
was a woman named Ida Lewis, actually American hero. She
grew up on Lime Rock Island, uh, near Newport, Rhode
Island and 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
and uh, she just became a lightkeeper, but a very
(28:54):
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 not gonna say dozens.
She uh, she rescued her last person at age sixty three. Yeah,
she's quite a lady, that's but for the most part,
(29:16):
And and she's not the only one who saved lives,
like there were plenty out there that did. But it
was not h an expected role of a light keeper
because the Coast Guard had a lifesaver house usually nearby
a lighthouse, because the lighthouse was there in the first
place too, because there was a treacherous area. So it
(29:37):
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.
(29:58):
But by the way that pre Coastguard, we have 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
(30:18):
do one on the Coastguard. Remember that married couple that
were both Coastguards that lobbied us for many years until
they gave up. We're still thinking about you guys, and
we're still going to do a Coastguard podcast. Don't worry
eventually years and years later. Um So, pre nine when
they made the Coastguard is where you really can't find
(30:41):
a whole lot of written history. Now, a lot of
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 they are, if
(31:01):
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 buoys
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 a lighthouse, they put booties out there,
(31:22):
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, you
(31:43):
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. But there was a lot of like insanity, Yeah,
that would happen, Like when the fog rolled in before
(32:03):
the evan of foghorns, you would have 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
a bell. That was your job. And if you didn't
then you were risking the lives of anybody passing by
(32:24):
in the area. So not cool, man, not 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. 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.
(32:46):
If you rang a bell every ten seconds for hours
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 shift would be out there ringing the bell anyway,
So you had draby nuts. Let's talk about some famous lighthouses. Well,
we already talked about the h the Pharos of Alexandria Um,
(33:11):
which is the oldest known lighthouse and at the time
they contend might have been the tallest thing on the
planet at fot that's super dull. Yeah, and it was
masonry too. They found it in underwater at the bot
the ocean. They found pieces of it and in Alexandria Harbor.
I guess you mentioned Eddie Stone light already in Plymouth, England,
(33:35):
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's gin. Yeah, it's American gin really good too good.
That's that's my go to American gin. Nice, Although I
(33:55):
like most American jin's, but that's been Have 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 Terry War. You don't like it's so got a
weird taste. Yeah, but love it. But I don't appreciate
its own things, the fact that it doesn't have its
own classification of gin like old Tom or Jennifer or
(34:17):
something like that. It should have its own thing like
foot gin. I love that stuff. It's 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 much sweetness. Um
(34:37):
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. Try to wrap my head around.
I will take you just can't do it. I will
email you tonight as a reminder, say hey, I'll bring
in that st George, thanks man. And also, by the way,
(35:00):
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 um
with a twist. It's a little different. I know. I've
I've had that and um for years. I would have
empty jars of dry olives in my fridge and very
(35:21):
little juice. You know it's in there. I know what
you're talking about. Now. So now I bought Dirty Sue
olive juice and you can buy it in a bottle,
and I bought a box of it and it just
sits in the cabinet my house. And so big shout
out to Dirty Sue Olive brine. Really dirty? Is up
your martini? What's your gin that you use for this? Well?
(35:42):
I mean, I love Plymouth, I love Hendrix and our
friends at Spring forty four. Gin, dude, send 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. Is it's
(36:03):
um old tom gin? Uh um marischino liqueur not the
cherry stuff, but like the real liquor, and then um,
some sweet vermouth. It's like probably the most perfect drink
anyone's ever made. It's very old. Um. That made maybe
the best Martinez I've ever had. That was good stuff. Well,
(36:25):
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've 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?
(36:46):
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?
(37:12):
Was 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, keep it 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, you want to
(37:34):
just get that small bottle. Yeah, I learned that the
hard way to. 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? Yeah,
that's true. Are 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
(38:00):
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 a lighthouse. But they're not making
amazing drinks with St. George and bitter lemon. They're just
drinking that stuff straight out of the deer skin. Exactly.
Um where were we? Eddie Stone Lighthouse, Plymouth, England? This
(38:24):
that 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 six and
(38:47):
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 hid. He deconstructed it and rebuilt it and died
in the second version of it. Really it got swept
away with him inside. But he was a pretty cool cat.
(39:09):
That was s 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 lighthouses. Stick at the bottom, tapers
at the top, and then it flares out right below
the lantern. And the reason most lighthouses flare out right
(39:31):
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 he was
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, an eternity.
(39:53):
But eventually, uh, the Trinity House, which is England's version
of the coastguard of the lighthouse, they said, no, let's
let's tear that thing down this long, but we think
it might not for much longer. But then they built
another one. This one actually they used almost a jigsaw
(40:15):
puzzle the foundation. Yeah, so when a wave hits it,
it actually compresses together and becomes stronger when a wave
smacking 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
believe the tallest one in the United States two eight
(40:37):
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 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 ac
(41:00):
inland over the course of twenty three days. They slowly
moved it on tracks. It was pretty amazing. It was
on that modern marvels one. It's like fitz CARLDO. Sure, um,
I got a few more fast facts. Unless you have
something else, I'm done. Uh. Six hundred and eighty lighthouses
remaining in the US estimated out of that original thousand
(41:22):
plus thirty seven states have lighthouses, just not Kansas. Michigan
has the most, don't they of all the states? 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 it up
(41:43):
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 candles, all burning and once
(42:06):
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
(42:27):
you did. I just bore a witness. That's all right.
You can be my faithful assistant. Thanks. Can I baptize you? Sure? Okay? Uh?
If you want to know more about lighthouses, you can
type that word into the search part how stuff works
dot com. And since I talked about baptizing Chuck, it's
time for listener, ma'am. Since you talked about baptizing Chuck,
(42:48):
that must 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 as I 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
(43:10):
controlled burns took up many days in the early spring.
For US, our department only consists 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 job totallywood um. Additionally,
(43:31):
local fire departments volunteer personnel and sometimes equipment. Uh so
they lend out their stuff, which is nice, and people
such as water trucks to assist. We all said 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. Sure, I'm sure it's different for
(43:51):
each state and agency. Um, but our burn bosses go
through training put on by the state in order to
get certified. I can't recall this as men and but
another advantage of controlled burns is that the charred earth
absorbs 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. I had not
(44:14):
considered that. We didn't mention that good factoid there. Thanks
for satisfying my wondering mind. Tracy comp and sent Sineta, Ohio.
Thanks a lot, Tracy. We appreciate that. Oh. We always
love to hear from people who know what they're talking about.
Burn Boss comp. Yeah. If you want to get in
touch with us, you can tweet to us at sysk
(44:35):
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 and has always joined us at our home on
the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. Stuff you
Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio
(44:58):
app Apple Podcasts. Are you listen to your favorite shows?
H
Hey, everyone, Happy Saturday. I hope you have your breakfast
cereal and your Saturday morning cartoons all taken care of.
It is in Select time, June, and we're talking about
how lighthouses work. This is a really cool podcast. I
remember really enjoying this one because I had done some
research on lighthouses for a movie script I was writing,
(00:22):
so this one was really pretty key for that. So
here we go with how lighthouses work. Welcome to Stuff
you should know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey,
and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles
(00:43):
w Chuck Bryant, and Jerry over there, and this is
the lighthouse episode, Take one. Uh can I just go
ahead and say that I love lighthouses. You love love
already before like you fell in love with them. I'm
researching this both, like if I'm I grew up going
(01:04):
to Honey Island, South Carolina. Not every year, but we
went quite a few times near Buford and they have
a lighthouse and it was one of my favorite things
to do as a kid, was climbing the lighthouse. And
I would I if I am near a lighthouse, now ever,
I will go climate the outside. I will seek it
out and then shim me up the outside like spider Man. Um. No,
(01:30):
I will seek it out and go look at it
and then climb it. And um this article just made
me love it even more. I have a precious memories
lighthouse too. Let's hear 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,
(01:52):
and um, we would go to that lighthouse every once
a while. 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 light house more than once
and not go inside climb it up. I don't remember
every going in, but 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.
(02:15):
But I think the 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, I would, And I think that's a
(02:36):
weird thing with me that 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
(02:58):
and internet and everything went out right and people turned
on each other. You could still lit a lighthouse and
bos 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
(03:20):
Cooper from Twin Peaks Kyle what's his face? McLaughlin and
he is so great is the mare um Portlandia? Yeah,
he is good. I love that guy. I think it's
called the 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 effect that things kind of spun out of control.
(03:41):
You're talking about Fury Road. Oh right, sorry, so, uh
chuckout love lighthouses too, but I knew virtually nothing about
him until researching this. And Um, if you think about them, though,
it's like you were saying, after the apocalypse, you'll still
still be standing. You just need to replace the electricity
(04:02):
with the fire, and then you'd have basically what lighthouses
have always been, which 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
(04:24):
of the main things that they did. And as the
light got better and better, one of the roles that um,
lighthouses played 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
(04:48):
was 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 efficient 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
(05:10):
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 know I'm near North Carolina's Cape
Hatteras exactly right. And there's like a whole book called
the light List where it has pictures of them, and
(05:32):
did you get your hands on that? I'm meant to
look it up, but I 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 coop? Right? Yeah? Man?
Why does he haunt us? I don't know. He comes
(05:54):
up a lot. All right. Where were we were we
in the lighthouse? We were talking about the day mark. 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. Yeah,
Sorryverson the sun's going up and down you turn the
lights off. It got weird. It is a little weird.
(06:16):
Yeah all right, Jerry, are you still here here? So? Um,
at night, the light has its own flashing signature, light signature,
and that's also in the Light book two. 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, of course, if you just have a light
on saying we're open, it shines continuously. Come on in.
(06:41):
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
it flashes six six six uh. And a flashing light
has longer periods of dark than light. So a halting
and flashing or just sort of inverse of one another.
(07:02):
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 number of flashing lights the same pattern, right. Yeah.
(07:27):
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 it would flash one, then it would flash four,
and then we flashed three. So I l O V
E y O U. So it was like a very
romantic light. That's how people took it. I didn't make
(07:49):
that up. Oh see, I thought it was I hate
cal it could. That's the secondary way that it's known.
The people of Boston are known for their soft side.
I know, so that's why I love you. Yeah. They're
prone to break into sobs and the public on the
street frequently just walking around thinking about the beauty of life. Um.
(08:10):
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 code with stats and dashestats and dashes.
That's Morse code dots and dashes man um just spell
out you know, things like I love you. But that's
(08:34):
not when wheno's ledged us and it's not Morse code,
it's just it's just one four and three yea, And
people took it that way. I hate go. 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
(08:55):
like X amount of hours and day during low tide.
When the ledge was exposed. It was interesting. It's still there.
It's tough cookie, but Josh, these are all sort of
modern modern is modern ish, but um, although old, they
can go back to uh what Homer's Iliad They mentioned
a lighthouse. Crazy, and I mean like we're talking basically
(09:20):
a huge bonfire on a cliff more exactly, you know,
not like but well, not like Minot's ledge or anything,
but then still qualifies as a lighthouse. It was the
premise behind it. Yeah exactly. I sounded weirdly defensive just
now about that. Still a lighthouse. Yeah. Uh, like you said,
you would have like either wood or coal burning on
(09:42):
a long pole. Uh. And then finally in the eighteenth century, um,
they started using lanterns, which 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,
(10:04):
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. One of the best one
of the main jobs of the lighthouse keepers to wash windows. Right. Um.
The problem is in between washings, which they did at
least once a day normally, um, the light would degrade
(10:27):
as the soot built up. Uh. So they figured out, oh,
we need better better fuel than coal or tar. We
thought to use tar. Let's burn the dirtiest thing on
the planet. 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,
(10:48):
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
electric city if we had something like electricity to beam
this thing out there for miles and miles and a
very smart physicist from France named Augustine Fresnell. I like Fresnell,
(11:13):
that's cool. For Nell said, all right, take my lens
and do with it what you will, and he indited
the Fornell lens. He did, I'm sorry, 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. Yeah,
(11:35):
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 single magnifying point.
It just goes miles. Yeah. Yeah, and that really that
changed everything and did a great job of handling the
(11:55):
load until electricity would come around. And that's when everyone like,
you know what, we don't need these silly flames anymore.
Let's just plug in the light. But you can still
use it Fornelle lens with the light and it's even brighter.
That's true. Like today's modern lighthouses use um or have
produced lights between ten thousand candelas and a million candelas.
(12:18):
What's a candela? Did you see this reference, Like, this
is the worst analogy I've ever run across. What did
it say? A candela is one two hundred 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,
(12:40):
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 two hundred. Bowl.
Let's take a break. Yeah, seriously, let's go find out
who wrote that and write a strongly worded letter. Well
(13:19):
that got ugly, so, uh, we're I feel like we're
still talking about the history of lighthouses, right yeah sure, 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 burn down
(13:40):
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 Farah said Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of
(14:02):
the 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 Pharos of Alexandria to seventy BC.
My friend, that thing was pretty sturdy. It took a
massive earthquake to bring it down. It was made of masonry.
(14:24):
It 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 got smart again.
It just dipped down in the wood era and then
came back up. Well, um, what you you normally have
is the lighthouse, which can be just a lighthouse, or
there might be uh a fog signal building. There might
(14:47):
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 dude. 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
(15:11):
have seen myself dropping out and you got a neck beard. Yeah.
All you need is like a cable nuts sweater and
living up there all by myself corn cob pipe really yeah,
grow my own crops and just sit up there and
be quiet, no one bugging me. It's like it appeals.
(15:32):
I did not know that. I did 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
(15:53):
you could own that lighthouse. Yeah. One door. The National
Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of two thousand, it h got
a process together where the Coast Guard, which is what
runs the lighthouse biz now the lighthouse racket. Um. They
(16:14):
you can basically start a nonprofit or have a nonprofit
and at no cost, they will give you a decommissioned
lighthouse if you maintain it and keep it open to
the public. Yeah, for the most part, it's like preservation societies.
But if nobody wants it, they put it up for auction. Yeah,
and then you can do what you want to. You
(16:36):
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. You know. We could
do a kickstarter to help you live out your dream. Chuck, Well,
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
(17:00):
of concrete and steel. At this point they're a little
more sturdy. 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 dollars annually
in the late nineteenth century. I went on to the
gee Whiz West Egg inflation calculator for eight in eighteen nine.
(17:26):
That was five grand. Today. Your provisions are covered, though, right, Yeah,
at the very least your room is. I don't know
about board. I bet you they all the whale lard
you can eat. Yeah, Now 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.
(17:50):
I love that. Don't have to go out, you don't
have to spend any money. It's like web van, yeah,
coming to you. 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 jimmandess like You're like, man,
I'm making five grand. People are bringing me food. I
(18:11):
don't have to talk to anybody. Yeah, 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
(18:33):
thirty years eighteen fifty two, thirty 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 creddy versions. They probably wouldn't even a lens.
It is like a mirror reflector or something. Maybe if that, yeah,
(18:56):
maybe a piece 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
in said you know what, we need to regulate this.
We the US they were involved. That's why. Yes, from
seventeen sixteen to seventeen eighty nine, that was not run
(19:20):
by the US government. No, it wasn't until Alexander 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 Congress ever passed was to establish
(19:41):
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 federalities are going to
run this thing. Uh and then in charge now and
you know what things um went downhill? Yeah, improved, improved.
(20:04):
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
(20:27):
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 fronel lenses
for all these lighthouses. Finally, Yeah, we can be like
(20:48):
the rest of the world. Pleasant dead. Uh, did you
know the Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse. I don't
know if I knew it, but when I 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. I didn't know. Yeah, I was like, I
(21:08):
surely I knew that, right right that 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
(21:29):
there were a lot of lighthouses where that we're on
like islands or on offshore like ledges like Minno's Ledge
or Eddie Stone in England. Um, that were just like
the technology to run electricity out there just was not around,
of course. Um, so they were still using oil of
(21:50):
various types to to fuel these things. Well into the
twentieth century, into the sixties, um easily, yeah, and they
were um still 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
(22:11):
that's when the Coast Guard brought about 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 interfusing it with
(22:34):
Big Brewster. Well, there might be one 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,
(22:54):
is the right and the person that lives there is
basically living there as a tour guide, not necessarily like
guiding boats into harbor. 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
(23:16):
Brewster Island, and he he was They showed him like
polishing the glass and everything. Yeah, but it's automated. I
got the light itself. I see. I see. So they
keep into our guided I think, okay, but yeah, he's
still I mean, he's providing a function there that's not
just show. Maybe I could that's what I could do.
Then you should have heard that guy. He's like, I
(23:37):
can't even begin to do it. But 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 a room and turns out quietly. People
ask questions, I just wrap them on the knuckles out
all right, I'm getting all excited thinking about the prospects
(23:59):
of living in a lighthouse. So I'm gonna go do
some push ups and we'll come back right after this. So, Chuck,
(24:25):
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.
(24:46):
My dad was a son of a light keeper, and
some mom was a keeper. Pirate captain. Pirate captain. Like
Gina Davis. Yeah, that was a good movie. She's awesome.
Yeah she uh see. Thorn interviewed her recently on his
Bull's Eye show. She's just like the best, and they
were all excited in the office. Everyone was like, oh, man,
(25:08):
Gina Davis is the coolest. She supposedly was known for
bringing cookies to that she baked herself to interviews. Yeah,
she's a MENSA member. Yeah, I got a lot going
on there. Julius Smith, who works at the Max fun
HQ and produces Judge Sean Hodgman, said on her Facebook
she was like, Gina Davis is like the coolest aunt
of all cool aunts of all time. Yes, she was
(25:31):
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 in Beetle Juice.
Um So, anyway, hats off to Eugena Davis. 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. You're the
(25:54):
one that said it. I guess, Yeah, was that Cutthroat Island? Huh?
Is it the name of it? 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 time. It
(26:14):
wasn't that bad as far as just like critics and
you're like, yeah, man Ishtar, I never saw. I've actually
stayed away from his star. I 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,
(26:34):
or if I wanted to and didn't. Like that's how
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 movie. 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 Rorod Island? Sure
(27:00):
it's terrible, it's not terrible. 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 the very least you feel
(27:23):
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 flatness and they stand up
(27:47):
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 um, light
(28:10):
life savers as well. Surfmen is what they were called too. Yeah,
because supposedly you're just there to provide light and signal.
But when the S hits the f um, I think
you can say a fan fan when the S s s
it's a fan. Brave lightkeepers were known to go out
there and provide rescue. Yeah. Um. And one of them
(28:33):
was a woman named Ida Lewis, actually American hero. She
grew up on Lime Rock Island, uh, near Newport, Rhode
Island and 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
and uh, she just became a lightkeeper, but a very
(28:54):
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 not gonna say dozens.
She uh, she rescued her last person at age sixty three. Yeah,
she's quite a lady, that's but for the most part,
(29:16):
And and she's not the only one who saved lives,
like there were plenty out there that did. But it
was not h an expected role of a light keeper
because the Coast Guard had a lifesaver house usually nearby
a lighthouse, because the lighthouse was there in the first
place too, because there was a treacherous area. So it
(29:37):
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.
(29:58):
But by the way that pre Coastguard, we have 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
(30:18):
do one on the Coastguard. Remember that married couple that
were both Coastguards that lobbied us for many years until
they gave up. We're still thinking about you guys, and
we're still going to do a Coastguard podcast. Don't worry
eventually years and years later. Um So, pre nine when
they made the Coastguard is where you really can't find
(30:41):
a whole lot of written history. Now, a lot of
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 they are, if
(31:01):
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 buoys
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 a lighthouse, they put booties out there,
(31:22):
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, you
(31:43):
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. But there was a lot of like insanity, Yeah,
that would happen, Like when the fog rolled in before
(32:03):
the evan of foghorns, you would have 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
a bell. That was your job. And if you didn't
then you were risking the lives of anybody passing by
(32:24):
in the area. So not cool, man, not 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. 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.
(32:46):
If you rang a bell every ten seconds for hours
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 shift would be out there ringing the bell anyway,
So you had draby nuts. Let's talk about some famous lighthouses. Well,
we already talked about the h the Pharos of Alexandria Um,
(33:11):
which is the oldest known lighthouse and at the time
they contend might have been the tallest thing on the
planet at fot that's super dull. Yeah, and it was
masonry too. They found it in underwater at the bot
the ocean. They found pieces of it and in Alexandria Harbor.
I guess you mentioned Eddie Stone light already in Plymouth, England,
(33:35):
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's gin. Yeah, it's American gin really good too good.
That's that's my go to American gin. Nice, Although I
(33:55):
like most American jin's, but that's been Have 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 Terry War. You don't like it's so got a
weird taste. Yeah, but love it. But I don't appreciate
its own things, the fact that it doesn't have its
own classification of gin like old Tom or Jennifer or
(34:17):
something like that. It should have its own thing like
foot gin. I love that stuff. It's 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 much sweetness. Um
(34:37):
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. Try to wrap my head around.
I will take you just can't do it. I will
email you tonight as a reminder, say hey, I'll bring
in that st George, thanks man. And also, by the way,
(35:00):
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 um
with a twist. It's a little different. I know. I've
I've had that and um for years. I would have
empty jars of dry olives in my fridge and very
(35:21):
little juice. You know it's in there. I know what
you're talking about. Now. So now I bought Dirty Sue
olive juice and you can buy it in a bottle,
and I bought a box of it and it just
sits in the cabinet my house. And so big shout
out to Dirty Sue Olive brine. Really dirty? Is up
your martini? What's your gin that you use for this? Well?
(35:42):
I mean, I love Plymouth, I love Hendrix and our
friends at Spring forty four. Gin, dude, send 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. Is it's
(36:03):
um old tom gin? Uh um marischino liqueur not the
cherry stuff, but like the real liquor, and then um,
some sweet vermouth. It's like probably the most perfect drink
anyone's ever made. It's very old. Um. That made maybe
the best Martinez I've ever had. That was good stuff. Well,
(36:25):
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've 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?
(36:46):
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?
(37:12):
Was 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, keep it 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, you want to
(37:34):
just get that small bottle. Yeah, I learned that the
hard way to. 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? Yeah,
that's true. Are 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
(38:00):
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 a lighthouse. But they're not making
amazing drinks with St. George and bitter lemon. They're just
drinking that stuff straight out of the deer skin. Exactly.
Um where were we? Eddie Stone Lighthouse, Plymouth, England? This
(38:24):
that 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 six and
(38:47):
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 hid. He deconstructed it and rebuilt it and died
in the second version of it. Really it got swept
away with him inside. But he was a pretty cool cat.
(39:09):
That was s 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 lighthouses. Stick at the bottom, tapers
at the top, and then it flares out right below
the lantern. And the reason most lighthouses flare out right
(39:31):
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 he was
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, an eternity.
(39:53):
But eventually, uh, the Trinity House, which is England's version
of the coastguard of the lighthouse, they said, no, let's
let's tear that thing down this long, but we think
it might not for much longer. But then they built
another one. This one actually they used almost a jigsaw
(40:15):
puzzle the foundation. Yeah, so when a wave hits it,
it actually compresses together and becomes stronger when a wave
smacking 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
believe the tallest one in the United States two eight
(40:37):
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 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 ac
(41:00):
inland over the course of twenty three days. They slowly
moved it on tracks. It was pretty amazing. It was
on that modern marvels one. It's like fitz CARLDO. Sure, um,
I got a few more fast facts. Unless you have
something else, I'm done. Uh. Six hundred and eighty lighthouses
remaining in the US estimated out of that original thousand
(41:22):
plus thirty seven states have lighthouses, just not Kansas. Michigan
has the most, don't they of all the states? 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 it up
(41:43):
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 candles, all burning and once
(42:06):
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
(42:27):
you did. I just bore a witness. That's all right.
You can be my faithful assistant. Thanks. Can I baptize you? Sure? Okay? Uh?
If you want to know more about lighthouses, you can
type that word into the search part how stuff works
dot com. And since I talked about baptizing Chuck, it's
time for listener, ma'am. Since you talked about baptizing Chuck,
(42:48):
that must 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 as I 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
(43:10):
controlled burns took up many days in the early spring.
For US, our department only consists 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 job totallywood um. Additionally,
(43:31):
local fire departments volunteer personnel and sometimes equipment. Uh so
they lend out their stuff, which is nice, and people
such as water trucks to assist. We all said 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. Sure, I'm sure it's different for
(43:51):
each state and agency. Um, but our burn bosses go
through training put on by the state in order to
get certified. I can't recall this as men and but
another advantage of controlled burns is that the charred earth
absorbs 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. I had not
(44:14):
considered that. We didn't mention that good factoid there. Thanks
for satisfying my wondering mind. Tracy comp and sent Sineta, Ohio.
Thanks a lot, Tracy. We appreciate that. Oh. We always
love to hear from people who know what they're talking about.
Burn Boss comp. Yeah. If you want to get in
touch with us, you can tweet to us at sysk
(44:35):
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 and has always joined us at our home on
the web, Stuff you Should Know dot com. Stuff you
Should Know is a production of I Heart Radio. For
more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio
(44:58):
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United States of Kennedy is a podcast about our cultural fascination with the Kennedy dynasty. Every week, hosts Lyra Smith and George Civeris go into one aspect of the Kennedy story.
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