#BLACK AND WHITE SPIRAL GIF DRIVER#
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The beacon was then moved to a skeletal steel tower until 1950. Today, electricity provides the rotating power and a photocell turns the light on and off.ĭue to threatening beach erosion, the Bureau of Lighthouses decommissioned the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in 1935. Damaged by vandals, the giant glass Fresnel lens had to be replaced by a modern aero beacon in 1950.

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When the lamp was electrified in 1934, the manual mechanism was no longer needed. The Fresnel lens usually took 12 hours for a complete cycle. The keeper had to manually rewind the clockwork apparatus each day. The Fresnel lens installed in the 1870 lighthouse was powered by kerosene and could be seen approximately 16 miles from the shore. There are 269 steps from the ground to the lens room of the lighthouse. The tower’s sturdy construction includes exterior and interior brick walls with interstitial walls resembling the spokes of a wheel. This height was needed to extend the range of the light-beam from the tower’s low-lying beach site. It is the tallest brick lighthouse in the United States and measures 198.49 feet from the bottom of the foundation to the top of the pinnacle of the tower. The lighthouse is a conical brick structure rising from an octagon-shaped brick and granite base and topped with an iron and glass lantern. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse as it looks today The Lighthouse Board assigned each lighthouse a distinctive paint pattern (daymark) and light sequence (nightmark) to allow mariners to recognize it from all others during the day and night as they sailed along the coast. The Cape Hatteras Lighthouse received the famous black and white stripe daymark pattern in 1873. The 1803 lighthouse was demolished in February of 1871. The new lighthouse was lit on December 16, 1870.

Granite plinths (rock layers) were placed on to the top of the timbers. This meant that layered 6 foot x 12 foot yellow pine timbers were laid crossways in the foundation pit below the water table. Working with the natural conditions, the foreman, Dexter Stetson, used a “floating foundation” for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse. The ground water levels on the Outer Banks are quite high and, therefore, when they began digging out the pit for the lighthouse foundation, it filled with water about 4 feet down.

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Since the lighthouse was built before the present-day pile driver was perfected, an interesting problem immediately arose. The Lighthouse Board prepared plans and specifications and construction on the new lighthouse began in October of 1868. At the same time, the tower was retrofitted with a first order Fresnel lens, which used refraction as well as reflection to channel the light, resulting in a stronger beam.īy the 1860s, with the need for extensive repairs, Congress decided to appropriate funds for a new lighthouse. The newly extended tower was then painted red on top of white making the lighthouse more recognizable during the day. In 1853, following studies made by the Lighthouse Board, it was decided to add 60 feet to the height of the lighthouse, thereby, making the tower 150 feet tall. The first Cape Hatteras lighthouse after improvements

Black and white spiral gif