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Souter Lighthouse
Souter Lighthouse is a lighthouse located in the village of Whitburn, Tyne and Wear, England. (It was generally known as Souter Point Lighthouse when in service). Souter Point was the first lighthouse in the world to be actually designed and built specifically to use alternating electric current, the most advanced lighthouse technology of its day. The light was generated by a carbon arc lamp: first lit on 11 January 1871, it was described at the time as 'without doubt one of the most powerful lights in the world'. After being decommissioned by Trinity House (the national lighthouse authority) in 1988, Souter Lighthouse was acquired by the National Trust, who now manage it as a visitor attraction with holiday lets. Location The lighthouse is located on Lizard Point, but takes its name from Souter Point, which is located a mile to the south. This was the intended site for the lighthouse, but it was felt that Lizard Point offered better visibility, as the cliffs there are high ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whitburn, Tyne And Wear
Whitburn is a village in South Tyneside in the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear on the coast of North East England. It is located north of the city of Sunderland and south of the town of South Shields. Historic counties of England, Historically, Whitburn was a part of County Durham. Other nearby population centres include Seaburn, Cleadon and Marsden, Tyne and Wear, Marsden. The village lies on a south-facing slope, part of Durham, England, Durham's Magnesian Limestone plateau, which overlooks Sunderland. The population for the combined Whitburn and Marsden Ward in the 2011 UK Census was 7,448. For much of its history, Whitburn was a fishing and agricultural community. The village contains three schools, three churches, cricket club, recreational grounds, a pub and a variety of shops. Etymology The first written instance of Whitburn is an the Boldon Book of 1183, where the village is recorded as ''Whitberne''. This name may refer to a stream or burn running through the vill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Collinson
Admiral Sir Richard Collinson (7 November 1811 – 13 September 1883) was an English naval officer and explorer of the Northwest Passage. Early life He was born in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, England, then part of County Durham. He joined the Royal Navy in 1823 at age twelve and rose in the ranks, becoming a lieutenant in 1835, commander in 1841, and captain in 1842. China Collinson was in command of the ''Lady Bentinck'', a vessel of 1800 tons burden and 520 horsepower, when it appeared with the ''Phlegethon'' off Chapoo in eastern China, causing a "sensation". On 1 April 1842, the British Plenipotentiary of Trade Henry Pottinger reported that Collinson, as commander of the ''Nemesis'' based in Chusan, had contributed to a successful skirmish with Chinese troops on the island of Taisam near Ningbo in February of that year. As commander of HMS ''Plover'', and with the aid of Lt Henry Kellett in HMS ''Starling'', he surveyed the China coast from 1842 to 1846, producing charts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Candle Power
Candlepower (abbreviated as cp or CP) is a unit of measurement for luminous intensity. It expresses levels of light intensity relative to the light emitted by a candle of specific size and constituents. The historical candlepower is equal to 0.981 candelas. In modern usage, ''candlepower'' is sometimes used as a synonym for ''candela''. History The term candlepower was originally defined in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, by the Metropolitan Gas Act 1860, as the light produced by a pure spermaceti candle that weighs and burns at a rate of . Spermaceti is a material from the heads of sperm whales, and was once used to make high-quality candles. At the time the UK established candlepower as a unit, the French standard of light was based on the illumination from a Carcel burner. They defined the unit was that illumination that emanates from a lamp burning pure colza oil (obtained from the seed of the plant ''Brassica rapa, Brassica campestris'') at a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Catadioptric System
A catadioptric optical system is one where refraction and reflection are combined in an optical system, usually via lenses ( dioptrics) and curved mirrors ( catoptrics). Catadioptric combinations are used in focusing systems such as searchlights, headlamps, early lighthouse focusing systems, optical telescopes, microscopes, and telephoto lenses. Other optical systems that use lenses and mirrors are also referred to as "catadioptric", such as surveillance catadioptric sensors. Early catadioptric systems Catadioptric combinations have been used for many early optical systems. In the 1820s, Augustin-Jean Fresnel developed several catadioptric lighthouse reflectors. Léon Foucault developed a catadioptric microscope in 1859 to counteract aberrations of using a lens to image objects at high power. In 1876 a French engineer, A. Mangin, invented what has come to be called the Mangin mirror, a concave glass reflector with the silver surface on the rear side of the glass. The two ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Third Order Fresnel Lens
A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design. A Fresnel lens can be made much thinner than a comparable conventional lens, in some cases taking the form of a flat sheet. The simpler dioptric (purely refractive) form of the lens was first proposed by Count Buffon and independently reinvented by Fresnel. The ''catadioptric'' form of the lens, entirely invented by Fresnel, has outer elements that use total internal reflection as well as refraction; it can capture more oblique light from a light source and add it to the beam of a lighthouse, making the light visible from greater distances. Description The Fresnel lens red ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Souter Lighthouse Generator
Souter (, ) is a Scottish surname derived from the Scots language term for a shoemaker, and may refer to: * A nickname for any native inhabitant of the Royal Burgh of Selkirk, in the Scottish Borders * Alexander Souter (1873–1949), Scottish biblical scholar * Brian Souter (born 1954), Scottish businessman * Camille Souter (1929–2023), Irish painter * David Souter (born 1939), former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States * David Henry Souter (1862–1935), Australian artist and journalist * John Bulloch Souter (1890–1972), a Scottish painter and sculptor * Tom Souter (1921–?), Scottish footballer See also * Souter Lighthouse Souter Lighthouse is a lighthouse located in the village of Whitburn, Tyne and Wear, England. (It was generally known as Souter Point Lighthouse when in service). Souter Point was the first lighthouse in the world to be actually designed and bu ... * Soutar * Suter {{surname Scottish surnames Surnames of Lowland Scot ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dungeness Lighthouse
Dungeness Lighthouse on the Dungeness Headland started operation on 20 November 1961. Its construction was prompted by the building of Dungeness nuclear power station, which obscured the light of its predecessor (dating from 1904) which, though decommissioned, remains standing. The new lighthouse (the fifth on the site) is constructed of precast concrete rings; its pattern of black and white bands is impregnated into the concrete. It remains in use today, monitored and controlled from the Trinity House Operations and Planning Centre at Harwich, Essex. History In all there have been eight lighthouses at Dungeness: five main (or 'high') lights (of which the fifth is still fully operational today), and three subsidiary (or 'low') lights. The addition of a subsidiary light became necessary owing to the constant accretion of shingle on the east side of the spit (an ongoing problem on this cuspate foreland), which gradually leaves each lighthouse at an ever-increasing distance fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Institution
The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, including Henry Cavendish and its first president, George Finch. Its foundational principles were diffusing the knowledge of, and facilitating the general introduction of useful mechanical inventions and improvements, as well as enhancing the application of science to the common purposes of life (including through teaching, courses of philosophical lectures, and experiments). Much of the Institution's initial funding and the initial proposal for its founding were given by the Society for Bettering the Conditions and Improving the Comforts of the Poor, under the guidance of philanthropist Sir Thomas Bernard and American-born British scientist Sir Benjamin Thompson, Count Rumford. Since its founding it has been based at 21 Albemarle Street ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English scientist who contributed to the study of electromagnetism and electrochemistry. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis. Although Faraday received little formal education, he was one of the most influential scientists in history. It was by his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct current that Faraday established the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Faraday also established that magnetism could affect rays of light and that there was an underlying relationship between the two phenomena.. the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica. He similarly discovered the principles of electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism, and the laws of electrolysis. His inventions of electromagnetic rotary devices formed the foundation of electric motor technology, and it was largely due to his efforts t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Foreland Lighthouse
South Foreland Lighthouses are a pair of Victorian lighthouses on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. There has been a pair of lighthouses at South Foreland since at least the 1630s. Even after the decommissioning of the Lower Lighthouse the pair continued to be used as leading marks, with Admiralty charts into the 20th century indicating that the 'Lighthouses in line lead south of the Goodwin Sands'. South Foreland Upper Lighthouse was built in 1843. It went out of service in 1988 and is currently owned by the National Trust. It was the first lighthouse to use an electric light, and was the site chosen by Guglielmo Marconi for his pioneering experiments in wireless radio transmissions. South Foreland Lower Lighthouse was built at the same time further down the cliff, to the east, where it still stands; decommissioned in 1904, it is now in private ownership. History The dangers posed to s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinity Buoy Wharf
Trinity Buoy Wharf is the site of a lighthouse, by the confluence of the River Thames and Bow Creek on the Leamouth Peninsula, Poplar. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The lighthouse no longer functions, but is the home of various art projects such as ''Longplayer''. It is sometimes known as Bow Creek Lighthouse. History In 1803, the site began to be used by the Elder Brethren of Trinity House, now known as Corporation of Trinity House. The seawall was reconstructed in 1822 by George Mundy of Old Ford. The site was used as a maintenance depot, and storage facility for the many buoys that aided navigation on the Thames; and the wharf for docking and repair of lightships. The original lighthouse was built by the engineer of Trinity House, James Walker, in 1852, and was demolished in the late 1920s. A second lighthouse, which survives, was built in 1864–66 by James Douglass for Trinity House. The lantern at the top of the tower came from the Paris Exposi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Frederick Hale Holmes
Frederick Hale Holmes (born 1812) was a professor of Chemistry at the Royal Panopticon of Science and Art and pioneer of electric lighting. Career In 1853 he demonstrated the ability of electro-magnetic generators to provide continuous current to power arc lighting and in 1856 patented a magneto to power an arc light for lighthouses which he demonstrated to Michael Faraday at Blackwall in 1857. His experiments with alternating current arc lighting at South Foreland Lighthouse in 1857-60 were the subject of a lecture by Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution The Royal Institution of Great Britain (often the Royal Institution, Ri or RI) is an organisation for scientific education and research, based in the City of Westminster. It was founded in 1799 by the leading British scientists of the age, inc .... One of Holmes' generators built in 1867 and used at Souter Lighthouse is displayed at the Science Museum, London. References {{Reflist 1812 births Lighting engineer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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