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Middle Bay Light, also known as Middle Bay Lighthouse and Mobile Bay Lighthouse, is an active hexagonal-shaped cottage style
Whale oil was the first fuel used and the lighthouse tenders worked in shifts making sure that the lamps did not go out and smoke the lens. In later years kerosene was used and eventually they were converted to electricity.
Alabama Lighthouse Association.
*
Lighthouse Friends, Middle Bay Light.
{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1885 National Register of Historic Places in Mobile County, Alabama Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Buildings and structures in Mobile, Alabama Alabama State Historic Sites Transportation buildings and structures in Mobile County, Alabama
screw-pile lighthouse
A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse which stands on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse to begin construction was built by the blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell. Constructio ...
. The structure is located offshore from Mobile, Alabama, in the center of Mobile Bay
Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The ...
.
History
The station was activated in 1885. In 1916 the keeper's wife gave birth to a baby that summer at the station. According to the Alabama Lighthouse Association web site, the keeper brought a dairy cow to the station and corralled it on a section of the lower deck because his wife was unable to nurse the newborn baby. All had to be evacuated when the station survived but was damaged by a hurricane that year. The light was automated in 1935. The lighthouse was placed on theNational Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
on December 30, 1974. In 1984 the lighthouse was stabilized by Middle Bay Light Centennial Commission in preparation for the centennial celebration. In 1996 the Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
loaned the original 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 c ...
to the Ft. Morgan Museum for public display. In 2002 restoration efforts were begun to repair the lighthouse.
In 2003, a real-time weather station was added to the lighthouse by the Dauphin Island Sea Lab and the Mobile Bay National Estuary Program. This program is now called ARCOS (Alabama's Realtime Coastal Observing System) and is still active today The weather station, one of seven in Mobile Bay, samples precipitation, total and quantum solar radiation, air temperature, relative humidity, wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, water temperature, salinity, water depth, and dissolved oxygen. These data can be viewed in real time. From late 2011 - mid 2014 currents and waves were also displayed.
Light
Whale oil was the first fuel used and the lighthouse tenders worked in shifts making sure that the lamps did not go out and smoke the lens. In later years kerosene was used and eventually they were converted to electricity.
See also
* Mobile Point Range Lights *Sand Island Light (Alabama)
Sand Island Light, also known as Sand Island Lighthouse (and historical light station), is a decommissioned lighthouse located at the southernmost point of the state of Alabama, United States, near Dauphin Island, at the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alab ...
* List of lighthouses in the United States
This is a list of lighthouses in the United States. The United States has had approximately a thousand lights as well as light towers, range lights, and pier head lights. Michigan has the most lights of any state with over 150 past and present l ...
References
External links
Alabama Lighthouse Association.
*
Lighthouse Friends, Middle Bay Light.
{{authority control Lighthouses completed in 1885 National Register of Historic Places in Mobile County, Alabama Lighthouses on the National Register of Historic Places in Alabama Buildings and structures in Mobile, Alabama Alabama State Historic Sites Transportation buildings and structures in Mobile County, Alabama