Sisters Island c- 1927
photo courtesy of allen Smithman |
1. Sisters Island  Fog Horn & Light c. 1927
The fog alarm has to be kept going when it is foggy or snowing a blizzard. This alarm is also used when it is smoky in summer from forest fires. In the fog alarm building there are two big Fairbanks-Morse gas engines. It only takes one to run the fog alarm but when one breaks down the light keeper has to get the other one going. He then must fix the one that broke down in case the other fails, for the fog alarm must be kept going when it is foggy. The engine compresses air and when it gets to a certain degree it sends out a heavy blast at certain intervals. The Ballenas had 3 blasts in succession and The Sisters had 2 blasts in succession. These blasts are a guide to mariners as well as a guard (or warning) for they know where they are by the number of blasts.
The same applies to the light. Each lighthouse has a different number of flashes it sends out. a person might think on looking at the flashes of the lighthouse that the light or lamp itself is going around but it is not. The light (or lamp) stands still but there is a revolving reflector that goes around the lamp and it has a very strong magnifying glass. The Sisters had two and The Ballenas had three. When this goes past the light itself, well, it sends out the flashes. The fuel used for the light is petroleum vapour (or coal oil) [kerosene] and is pressure fed through a tube. Someone has to be on watch all night. a clock mechanism which has to be wound every 2 ˝ hours, rotates the lens. We had a tube burst one night and if no one had been on watch I shudder to think what would have happened. The whole lighthouse would have burned down for this one just had three minutes start and the whole tower was ablaze. If the one on watch had not the quick sense to turn off the flow of oil, well, we would sure have had the whole thing ablaze - tower, house and everything would have gone up in smoke, (for the tower was in the house but up oodles of stairs.) Of course all light towers are not in the house only where there's not room enough for a separate house and tower. - Elizabeth Kate (Stannard) Smithman (Wife of Henry Herbert Smithman who was Senior Keeper at Sisters Island 1927 - 1929). Story donated by grandson Allen Smithman. **********************************
If you wish to read more about her life on the lighthouses in her own words, please go to Life on a Lighthouse |
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 Diaphone Foghorn  'F' Type Diaphone |
2. 'F' Type Diaphone Foghorn c. 1969 The diaphone is a unique organ pipe. The theory was based on a design for the Wurlitzer pipe organ invented by Robert Hope-Jones dating from 1895. a special tone generator in the organ involved a piston vibrating inside a cylinder, which had slots through which air was discharged. The air passing through the slots caused a vibration which when amplified through a long cone (like a megaphone) created a powerful harmonic sound. Robert Hope-Jones also applied this principle successfully to foghorns, and this then became the most common type of navigational aid in the world. The 'F' type Diaphone apparatus was manufactured by Chance Brothers of Birmingham, England and was able to issue a tremendous blast of sound that could easily be heard at more than five miles (depending on size of horn and volume of air).
an important feature of the diaphone sound was that it was two-toned - a higher pitched note followed by a sound similar to a grunt. This grunt made the horn distinguishable as a land-based foghorn as opposed to a ship's horn which has a single tone. The diaphone was fed with compressed air from a compressor driven by a diesel engine. In the days before electricity the timing and control of the blasts was regulated by a belt drive running off the compressor which turned mechanical timers. Later, when electricty came to the lighthouses, the belt was replaced with electrical solenoids. an example of how far this sound travelled was shown to me on my first station, pulteney point. The senior keeper, Walt Tansky, was a Ham radio operator and at this instant was talking to another Ham in alert Bay, 10.5 miles (16.9 kms) away. "Walt, I can hear your foghorn!" said the friend. Walt disputed this and said it was blowing at the time he was keying the microphone. "No, I heard it from outside the window", said his friend. He told Walt to hold his mike outside his window the next time the horn blew. Walt did this and keyed the mike when the horn blew. The man in alert Bay, upon hearing the foghorn on his speaker keyed his microphone outside his window. Forty seconds later we heard the sound of our foghorn through Walt's speaker.
- John Coldwell (assistant Keeper to Walt Tansky on Pulteney Point 1969 - 1972) For an official version of the operation of the F-Type diaphone please check out the Chance Brothers manual here. |
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 Triple Island |
3. "automation" Comes to Triple Island c. 1950s
Ed and Eileen Hartt were lightkeepers for a number of years, on Lawyer Island , Triple Island, and Langara Island. The following is an excerpt from one of my mother’s manuscripts about life on Triple Island in the 1950s.
It shows how lightkeeper's wives often had to pitch in and help out - and how lightkeepers had to come up with some innovative solutions at times! My father was an extremely resourceful man, and devised one of the first power devices used on the light stations for rotating the light within the tower. His ingenuity came in useful in many ways on other occasions as well. What follows is just one example . . . - Jeannie (Hartt) Nielsen (daughter of Ed Hartt, Senior Keeper on Langara 1957 - 1963) The combination washing machine/spin dryer we had purchased, turned out to be real comedian in disguise. It's well worn casters (in fact, they were flat on one side) didn't prevent it from charging all over the kitchen, like a dog on a leash. It's long cord plugged into the light socket, hanging on the usual wire strung from the ceiling. It lurched and charged around the room with me in pursuit, trying to load it. Ed and the children thought it as hilarious when I missed the tub and my load of clothes scattered across the floor. One night as we sat at the table, Don (our assistant keeper) told us that the clock drive for the tower wasn't working properly. It had stopped half a dozen times the night before, and had to be constantly watched. Ed and Don went to inspect it, and I followed along. It didn't take long to find the problem. The pulleys through which the cable passed were so worn from the long years of use that they were binding. The gears also were well worn. Ed and Don put their heads together and came up with an alarm that would ring if the light stopped turning . It wasn't very long after we put the light on that night when we found out how well the alarm worked. The sudden loud jangle of the bell brought us all to our feet, and the three of us ran for the tower. Reaching the lamp room panting, Ed paused long enough to push the turn table and count to make the light revolve as it must. The men disappeared through the open trap door, and I was left to count and push, count and push. at first it was easy, but then my arm lost feeling, so I changed arms; then back again. It became agony, but I didn't dare stop. I wondered if they would they ever come back! At last I heard feet on the cement steps. Ed told me to leave the light and get on the radio. I was to inform Digby and the Department of Transport that the light was inoperable. My arms and back ached as the blood returned, and I hurried down to the radio room. "Prince Rupert Radio, Prince Rupert Radio, Prince Rupert Radio: Triple Island calling!" "Triple Island, Prince Rupert back. We have a message for you. Copy? Your light is burning steady. Do you copy?" I glanced out the window and saw the lights of the ship that had just reported our light, passing in the night. "Prince Rupert Radio, have copied. I want to send one to the main office and your station; light inoperable, worn gears. Signed Ed Hartt, Triple Island. Do you copy?" I looked out at the passing ship lights, and made a face at them, then went back to the tower room to tell the men we had been reported. "Wouldn't you know it?" Ed complained. "You don't see a ship or boat all day, and the second things go wrong, there's one right there!" "That's the way things go," Don agreed. That night turned into a nightmare for the two men, as they tried to keep the light turning. The weight would only drop about ten feet then stop, and have to be wound up again. as I walked bleary eyed through the kitchen the next morning, I found my rambling washing machine was not in its usual place. It had given it's life to become part of the electric drive Ed had devised to keep the light revolving. I found it's remains in the engine room, but it was in a good cause, as our light never burned steady again. - Eileen Hartt (Wife of Ed Hartt, Senior Keeper on Triple 1954 - 1957) |
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 First Narrows c. 1920 |
4. Life at First Narrows (aka Capilano) c. 1913
[Father (George alfred Harris)]. . . was given the First Narrows Light and Fog Station. I cannot remember but have a notion it was end of april 1915 when he took over. The light was first used May 17,1915 the day after my 17th birthday. The fog horn was started June 1, 1915. It must have been rather hard him living there by himself. I do not know the dimensions of the lighthouse but it was full of engines. Two engines were the same and were there in case one broke down, then an air compressor which was linked with belts to pulleys from the engine to the wall and then up to a higher pulley and across to the compressor, hence by pipes to the fog horns. Cannot remember how often it went but the people of West Vancouver called Point Atkinson the old cow and our horn the calf.
He had a small coal oil stove to cook on and had a canvas bag sort of affair with a single sized spring fitted into it and a mattress and his bedding. In the day time this was pulled up to the ceiling and at night. If I remember rightly it rested on part of one of the engines and the small table he had to eat on. If it was foggy he could not have his bed down and used to cat nap sitting in an old wooden rocking chair with a high back with his feet on what ever was handy. Mother made some sort of a pad to go on the back of the chair because he was so thin the wooden rungs made his back sore. . . I have forgotten all about the Light. Well from the engine room one climbed a ladder to the light and then dropped a trap door affair down. The lamp was a lovely brass lamp that held a certain amount of coal oil that would last so many hours. It was kept polished like a mirror. Around the outside of the lamp was very thick glass. I don't know how to describe that though. If I remember rightly there were 4 sections to these lenses and they were connected to a gadget that had to be wound up and it revolved slowly round to make an on and off appearance. Everything was cleaned and shone to perfection. All this had to be set down in a sort of log, time lighted and time turned off. My father wrote a beautiful hand and I would dearly love to have the book that he kept the times in. Just like copper plate writing. A separate book was kept for the on and off of the horn. Around the top outside the light was a platform and the thick plate glass there was cleaned every day. The salt coated it when the wind blew or it rained and was streaky. - Dorothy Mawdsley (Harris) Harrop (daughter of first light keeper, George alfred Harris, at Capilano 1913 - 1925) (with special thanks to alfred Harrop, grandson of George alfred Harris, for letting me post the text of the letter.) **********************************
If you wish to read more about life on First Narrows in her own words, please go to Life on First Narrows |
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 Aerial Highline  Canova inflatable heading down the highline at Quatsino (Kains Island)  Canova in the water at Quatsino (Kains Island) |
5. Highline Operation at McInnes Island
The highline (aka aerial line, or aerial) was literally the lifeline of the lighthouse in the days before helicopters. It was used and still is used to raise and lower supplies to and from the lighthouse. They were not installed at all lighthouse locations - only the ones with no other access to the ocean within a reasonable distance of the station. For example Cape Scott has a highline but also has beach access but no one would want to move supplies that distance by hand or by road so a highline was built. Some other stations with highlines are Carmanah , Pachena , Cape Beale , Quatsino , Green , Pine , and Bonilla.
The highline idea originally came from west coast hillside logging where it was used to skid logs down from the mountain-sides or pull logs into a sorting area. This was usually a pulley rígged to the top of a [spar] tree through which a cable (haulback) was hooked to a steam engine to haul the trees out of the woods. The return trip was usually done manually. The lighthouse highline was a bit more sophisticated machine consisting of a two-wheeled carriage through which the haulback(pulling/lifting) cable travelled lifting and securing the hook. The carriage travelled on a stiff wire fixed to the landward end, over the top of a mast, to an anchor in the earth. The seaward end was anchored to a rock or cement pillar in or near the ocean and usually crossed over an inlet or bay, providing access for the workboats. These lines were anywhere from 400 - 1000 feet in length and were at varying degrees of slope from the almost horizontal one at Ivory Island to the long steep ones at Carmanah, Pachena and Cape Scott.
The operation was simple - the carriage travelled by gravity down the line and was pulled back up by the haulback line attached to a winch drum in the winch shed. The winch engine was gas or diesel. Downward motion of the carriage speed was controlled by a brake on the winch drum. Engagement of the drum was controlled by a manually-operated clutch. at top and bottom of the highline were stops to halt and hold the carriage in position while the hook released and travelled down or up. The operation of the carriage itself was all mechanical and relied on springs (originally) and then bungie cord (elastic cord) to control the movement of the various trip levers. The bungie was the better choice as it did not stretch out of shape and lose its "springyness" which could result in a load falling from the hook (usually into the ocean!). The maximum lift weight for the highline apparatus was originally 1000 pounds but later strengthened to 1700 pounds. On some stations like McInnes Island the highlines were installed before any other equipment as this was the only way to move the building supplies up onto the island. In fact McInnes had two highlines installed - one to move supplies up from the ship to the top of the island and another stretching across the island so that supplies could be moved to build the light tower and engine room and the dwellings. With the highline the lightkeeper could move all of his furnishings off and on the station when transferring to another lighthouse. He could also bring in the monthly groceries from the workboat, deliver the outgoing mail and other things being shipped into the depot. He could bring up building equipment such as lumber and cement, sheet metal, and rolls of insulation. He could move the diesel engines out to the ship when worn out and bring in a new one. He could also raise and lower a small boat so he could go fishing. The highline had fixed stops on the line at top and bottom but a knowledgeable operator could drop or pickup a load anywhere throughout the length of the line. He could move loads of material from the landing deck to the ground for storage and then back again onto the deck for use. A very useful piece of equipment! - John Coldwell (Principal keeper on McInnes Island 1977 - 2001) |
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 Derrick at Boat Bluff |
6. Derrick Operation at Boat Bluff
The derrick is another lifting device used on stations that do not have a rock in the sea for a highline and where seas were also relatively calm. It was used like the highline to lift and lower items to and from the workboats or lower the keeper's boat or station boat in and out of the water. Definition - "a derrick is a lifting device composed of one mast or pole which is hinged freely at the bottom. It is controlled by (usually 4) lines powered by some such means as man-hauling or motors, so that the pole can move in all 4 directions. a line runs up it and over its top with a hook on the end, like with a crane. It was commonly used in docks." Derrick (Lifting Device), 28 april 2006 12:06 UTC, Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia By the way, to add to your list of unnecessary information, "the device was named after Thomas Derrick, an English executioner from the Elizabethan era because of its resemblance of the frame from which a hangman's noose hangs." (citation as above) Thanks to Mike Higgins, Principal keeper at Boat Bluff, I have some good photos to show you about the equipment and it's operation. I've explained where I can but I never ran a derrick in my life - 29 years on highlines! I'm hoping that Mike will fill in the blanks in the future when he has time. For now all I can tell you is that it runs with cables and hydraulics whereas the highline only used cables. Another very useful piece of equipment! - John Coldwell (Principal keeper on McInnes Island 1977 - 2001) - Mike Higgins (Principal keeper on Boat Bluff 2003 - present [2006]) |
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 Computer Screenshot  Seaspan Corsair  Seaspan Corsair  Computer Screenshot |
7. New Weather Reporting at Boat Bluff
The lightkeeper - many years ago he had no contact with anyone - now the whole world can communicate with him and through him! about five years ago the Canadian government decided to limit the weather report information put out by the lighthouse keepers to a very restricted set of criteria. Wind detecting devices (anemometers) were removed, pressure detecting devices (barometers) were removed and devices for measuring cloud height (ceilometers) were also removed. Basic weather training was kept to a minimum. The lightkeeper was left to his own devices to observe and report the weather every three hours to his designated Coast Guard radio station. No one was interested or affected . . . except those that used the weather reports! - the aircraft pilots, cruise ships, fishing boats, recreational boaters, and others that travelled the wind-swept and storm-lashed west coast of British Columbia. This coast is over 7,000 kilometres long from Vancouver, BC to alaska, USa (if you follow all its indentations), and sometimes these indentations are a life-saver when a storm blows up. On all this whole coast there are only two paved access road - one through to Vancouver in the south, and the other through to Prince Rupert in the north. In the middle is a rough gravel road to Bella Coola. anyone travelling this morass of islands called the "Inside passage" needs good up-to-date weather reports and needs them now! The only people on-site and available twenty-four (24) hours a day and also familiar with large sections of the coast are the lighthouse keepers. Mariners can access the lighthouse weather data twenty-hours a day from any Coast Guard Radio station where it is received every three hours except from 2200 to 0400 the next day. In the missing hours, a special request through the local Coast Guard Radio (MCTS) station will have them access the lightkeeper via a private telephone link and he will provide a local up-to-date "special weather report". How nice it would be to see what is actually going on at each station right at the present time. ********************************************
One of the lightkeepers on the Central BC Coast has taken it into his own hands and at his own expense to provide twenty-four hour up-to-date weather reporting through his own private weather station which is uploaded to the internet via satellite dish. Mike Higgins at Boat Bluff is now providing this service free of charge to all mariners on the Central Coast of British Columbia. a most valued service as I have heard, and also a controversial one as it is being monitored by Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and Environment Canada (EC). Mike has a graphic readout at the URL here and a text readout at the URL here. The text page contains the latest local weather report from the lightstation along with a condensed summary of the local conditions such as wind speed, pressure, rainfall and other pertinent details. This information is collected from a Davis Vantage pro weather collection system complete with weather collection software. Environment Canada has many automated sysems but none with the reliabilty of this one (a manned station). To put it into Mike's words, "The system I am using consumes more power than a simple solar panel/battery system will provide. It has multiple interfaced parts that will not run for more than a week or so without some form of human intervention (power generation, weather system, computer, satellite internet connection, webcam, and software)." So, a manned presence is required, but at what cost? The lightkeeper and power are already there. Mike said, "The biggest users right now are the small aircraft flying the coast; they absolutely love it. I use a piece of software called Google analytics to monitor who looks at my web pages and a large percentage of the traffic is small airlines and the Coast Guard helicopters." I asked Mike, "How do the boats access your weather data online? I know you have a website (URL) for them but do the boats have satellite internet connections or what? If so, I imagine it would not be useable when underway but only at anchor - true? So, your data is limited but useful. Only from a fixed (land) station would it be reliable? Just curious as people may ask." Mike replied, "Yup, it is virtually useless to vessels already at sea. The way vessels are using it now, is as you said, 'prior to departure'. Vessels with home offices are looking at the weather now and passing it on to the ships via cell phone or sat phone." "Cell [phone] on the Coast is really expanding, very surprisingly. Bella Bella has Digital Cell available now from about Walker Island through to Idol point. Klemtu is expecting Cell to be in next month and it should be available from just North of Jorkins point through to Boat Bluff. They can pick up Cell again around Bonilla. It would not surprise me at all if Telus put in a Cell site at Hartley Bay as well. That would give all vessels transiting the Central Coast cell every few hours after getting by Cape Calvert. So, they get it near port McNeil/Port Hardy, then Bella Bella, then Klemtu and maybe Hartley Bay and finally as they close in on Prince Rupert. pretty big change from when you were at McInnes for sure." (and all in the last five years!)
"The new Digital Cell phones can also download internet so my pages will be available to them if they want it." What a great system and all paid for by a private citizen. Mike estimates his outlay at just over $2500.00 CDN  and he pays about $60 CDN per month for the connection.
But,it doesn't end there! Mike is also providing internet access through a "hotspot" at Boat Bluff. He says: "I have a three watt booster and an antenna on the porch and if you have an external antenna you can get internet access a full mile away from Boat Bluff". Mike sent me a couple of photos (left) which show the Seaspan Corsair sitting just off the station. He says, "One of the pictures was taken just as he was leaving. The barge was drifting in towards the station and he had to run." Pretty nice service and all provided free of charge. and the governent wants to eliminate lighthouse keepers! - John Coldwell (Principal keeper on McInnes Island 1977 - 2001) - Mike Higgins (Principal keeper on Boat Bluff 2003 - present [2006]) |
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8. Chance Brothers - early Suppliers of Equipment for Canadian Lighthouses 
The graphic to the left appeared on The Lighthouse Society of Great Britain (LSGB) website. after much "Googling" for it I finally found "With regret, this website has been closed." The information below is printed with permission of Dr. Ken Tretheway. Dr. Trethewy's site had all the data from this book on line in PDF files which I am going to host here as they are priceless documents showing the inner workings of older British and Canadian lighthouses. If you click on the graphic (above) it will show the other book available from this website for which there is nothing available online in PDF or other format. The available PDF file can be read and saved from this link (2.45 MB), or from the still remaining page for the LSGB. The drawings below are all referred to in the PDF document but are not reproduced therein. - John Coldwell (Principal keeper on McInnes Island 1977 - 2001) | ||
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9. Fairbanks Morse Type "N" Gasoline Engine c. 1900s  Photo courtesy of Railroading Online website If you wish to see a 2X larger view of the labelled parts photo please click here. The following text is borrowed with permission from "Harry's Old Engine" website. I never had the chance to work with these monstrous engines and found this information very interesting, and wanted to pass it on here. Remember, he is referring to a farm engine, but I imagine the lighthouse engines were also close to 32 Hp.
"This engine is owned by Lew Donaldson of Dade City, FL (Or does it own him? We are all only caretakers.) I expect we'll see Lew at the Florida Flywheelers' shows up at the new Flywheeler park between Ft. Meade and avon park, FL. I look forward to seeing it again and pestering Lew for more information such as bore and stroke, crank diameter, etc. It was neat to either figure out all the parts and what they were for or if not, ask about them." "A whole series of type "N" engines evolved around this design, including match start. By the way, if you didn't want to deal with the match, you could always have someone trip the igniter. The problem is that you'd better trust both the igniter tripper and your own instincts of when to jump off! For the more cautious, there is a hand pump on the side that will pump a mixture of air and fuel into the combustion chamber while you hold the flywheel from turning. The ignitor or match can then be tripped to set off the mix." "Once rolling, you then have to mess with the fuel mix to get it to keep rolling and not smoke up the place at the same time. For running kerosene, a metal flex-pipe is connected from below the exhaust port to the base of the fuel mixer to preheat the fuel. Oilers are provided for the rings and an additional oiler feeds a slinger ring that is chambered through to the crankpin. These engines were designed to provide uninterrupted service over long periods." * * * *
The following video is not a Type "N" but a Type "Y". It is also not gasoline driven but oil (probably a form of diesel oil) and it is started by heating up the head (like the electrical glow plugs of yesteryear) but it shows how difficult it was to fire-up one of these monsters. The gasoline version would not require the pre-heating as gasoline is more volatile than oil. Note how the flywheel is spun counter-clockwise against the compression of the engine to get it to spin. The engine actually turned clockwise as you can see when it starts. - With thanks to Harry F. Mathews for permission to reprint this old information on how to fire-up the old Fairbanks Morse gasoline engines of the 1900s. |
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| John Coldwell (retired BC lighthouse keeper) Galvanistrasse 8 a-4040 Linz, austria Tel: +43 (732) 750515  |
9. Fairbanks Morse Type "N" Gasoline Engines c. 1900s
