Hi everybody, I'm Emily and I'm Vince and this
is the Lighthouse Lowdown. I think that was an
accurate representation of Vince's caffeine level.
Welcome to another episode sponsored by caffeine.
Slightly ahead of schedule is how he's feeling.
It's been six weeks since I've had caffeine.
With exception to this podcast. Yeah. Just a
little treat every once in a while. We deserve
it. Today it's Dutch Bros. Dutch Bros. We got
a new one nearby. So we used to have to drive
about 15 to 20 minutes to go to a Dutch Bros.
So it'd be a very special occasion. And now it
could be an everyday thing. Uh -oh. No, because
we don't just get coffee there. We get delectable
treats. Yeah, they're blended sugary stuff. Caramel
deliciousness. Yeah. So what do we got today?
What's happening? Well, I have no history, Bowie,
because... Okay, skip it. I really put my heart
and soul into this episode. Oh, nice. Yeah. So
we'll just go right into it. Hang on, let me
tickle. What episode? This is 75? Mm -hmm. 75.
We are headed to Southeast Florida, just north
of Fort Lauderdale. And I have lots of pictures
for this one, courtesy of Ralph Krugler. who
pretty much gave us almost all the episodes.
Thanks, Ralph. This doesn't bode well. Pretty
much gave us all of the information for this
episode and sent us all the pictures that I used.
Oh, nice. So he's our sole source for today.
Yes, he is basically the sponsor of this episode
in knowledge. Is Ralph a listener too? Yes, he's
one of our listeners. Thanks, Ralph. Yeah. We'll
be hearing from him in the coming weeks, so shout
out to Ralph, who's... Exactly. Oh my gosh, that
was an extra long one. I cut it off early, too.
Okay, so we're going to Florida. I have a picture
of why we would want a lighthouse in this area,
and that's because there's three reefs that begin
at Hillsboro Inlet. That's the lighthouse we're
talking about today. And run in segments down
to Key West. So I found this cool little site
that it's supposed to be a reef finder. So like
if you wanted to fish or if you wanted to scuba
dive or something, you could find where there's
interesting areas to be diving or fishing. You
can see this picture, this map that I have up.
Hillsborough Inlet is up at the top. And then
the rest of it you can kind of see. where a lot
of shipwrecks have happened. And these are just
ones that they have documented right now that
doesn't even include all the shipwrecks that
have happened in the past. Dang. So that's a
long sandbar reef, essentially? Yeah, reef. High
spot. So this kind of just shows a reason why
you'd want a lighthouse up there. There's just
this area that's dangerous, and people traveled
along the edge of Florida all the time. The Gulf
Stream, which we've talked about in a couple
of past episodes, comes only seven miles off
the shore, which forced ships to come closer
to the coast, but then they would hit the reefs.
So we're looking at, what, maybe 25? Are these
all wrecks? Yeah. Wow. The little brown with
a stick, those are all vessels. And then I believe
the red squares are metal, and what looks like
piles of gold are actually concrete. So they're
just like a bunch of little... Points of interest
that they labeled on this map. It looks a lot
like a ship, that first symbol you mentioned.
Yeah, exactly. It's vessels, like sunken vessels.
Oh, that makes sense. Yeah. So obviously they
want a lighthouse here. And if you zoom in on
Google Maps and drag all down the east coast
of Florida, you can see at every inlet. there's
a lighthouse you'll recognize associated with
it. So like Jupiter inlet and, um, Oh, what's
the other one I saw that was like, Oh shoot.
Well, I know Jupiter. Yeah. We keep watching
the show full swing. Oh yeah. Golf on a pro golf,
especially it's on Netflix and they keep showing
Jupiter, Florida where a bunch of PGA players
live. And apparently there's a beautiful lighthouse.
We haven't covered Jupiter, have we? No, we haven't.
And it's a good one. Nice. The other one I was
thinking of was Ponce de Leon. Ponce de Leon.
Ponce de Leon Inlet. So anyway, I just thought
it was interesting. I was scrolling. I was trying
to find Hillsborough Inlet without having to
type it in on this interactive map. And so I
just scrolled and scrolled. And every time I
hit an inlet, I was like, oh, that one has a
lighthouse. It's got to find all the shipwrecks,
right? Exactly. So obviously this was a hotspot.
And so they wanted a lighthouse here. And all
the other inlets had lighthouses. The first proposal
for a lighthouse was in 1852, along with one
for Jupiter Inlet. But Jupiter was awarded a
lighthouse and Hillsborough was not. Just in
1800s? Okay. Yeah, 1850. My mind was wandering.
I'm looking at this image. I looked up and I
was like, he's zoned in on the map. I should
just cover it up. Well, and for those who are
just listening, you know, this is, we described
what we're seeing, but I've seen other maps like
this. And I was thinking back to... When we went
to the Outer Banks, which is in North Carolina,
the graveyard of the Atlantic, which is something
we kept seeing. And so many shipwrecks were up
there. And that's why there's so many lighthouses,
especially tall ones on the Outer Banks, the
tallest in the United States, right? Hatteras?
Yes. So anyways, I was thinking, where have I
seen this? And then I was thinking about all
the references to graveyard of the Pacific, graveyard
of the Atlantic, graveyard of the Keys. So, sorry.
It's nice to know what goes on inside your head
when you're zoned out. But anyway, so Hillsborough
didn't get a lighthouse at this first proposal.
And after years and years of captains and sailors
asking for lighthouses to mark the reefs, it
wasn't until 1900 that they actually went forward
with it. And the lighthouse board actually made
requests to Congress annually saying, quote,
the establishment of a light at or near Hillsborough
Point, Florida, would be of great assistance
to all vessels navigating these waters. That
seems like a good point. Exactly. Do you know?
This is a weird question. Was that a recurring?
You said it was yearly. Yeah. Did they send the
same? I'm sure the same. Do you try to make an
appeal every year? You wouldn't want it to turn.
I really want it. Yeah. You wouldn't want to
turn it into white noise where it's like, oh,
here we go. We got the same copied. So I wonder
if they tried to make a different kind of appeal
every year. But the gist of it is the same. Like,
hello. It was 50 years later before they finally
actually started to progress towards having a
lighthouse here. Oh, my gosh. So anyway, 1900,
the ship. Copenhagen struck a reef just south
of the inlet, and finally the state representative
introduced a bill for a lighthouse, and it was
passed. So that was the beginning of building
the Hillsborough Inlet Lighthouse. The budget
was $9 ,000. $9 ,000. $9 ,000. $18 buckskins.
I wish coffee had the same effect on me as it
has on you. And five doubloons. I feel like we
can comment a little bit. We're pushing the pace.
We can calm a little bit. I think I'm just excited
because I put a lot of feeling into this. Okay.
So I'm like wanting you to know all the information.
More footwork, more energy. One of those. More
footwork, more energy. Thank you. Exactly. The
budget was $90 ,000. And this is also my fault
because I put 90K and it kind of just destroys
getting it out correctly. Yeah. So that was for
the entire station. And after much deliberation,
the design of an octagonal skeletal tower was
chosen, which. In the 1850s. In 1900. Oh, it's
50 years later. Yeah. I have a picture. That
makes more sense. Oh. So here's a picture of
when it was being built. This is 1906. Looks
a lot like some other Florida lighthouses we've
learned about. I know. And actually, Hillsborough
is the sister lighthouse of Cape Charles, Virginia,
Hog Island, Virginia, and Cape Fear, North Carolina,
which I talked about in our last episode. having
the heaviest mercury float system in the U .S.
Cool name, too. But it's no longer there, so
it's kind of a bummer. There's actually a video
of it being demolished, which is interesting.
This image is black and white, 1906. April 14th.
That's the date right now. Pretty close. Okay.
I keep looking at expiration dates in the fridge.
Anyways, April 14th, 1906. There's an enormous
stack next to this. Is it like a manufacturing?
I have no idea. That's not something that's there
now. The stack is as tall as the lighthouse body.
Yeah. The tower, I should say. Don't know. Yeah,
maybe it was one of those situations where they
set up a bunch of stuff nearby. Like how they
used to make, I don't know how this would translate
to this, but when they used to make, my gosh,
like clay brick. manufacturing spots right next
to the lighthouse so that they could just use
the bricks right as they were finished. That's
right. Maybe, yeah, you build a whole construction
campus. Yeah, exactly. Cool. Beautiful photo.
Yeah, and there's a lot of them. So buckle down
because we've got some great pictures. So the
reason why they chose a skeletal lighthouse was
because it was lower cost, lighter in weight
overall, and better on sand, which is Hillsborough
Inlet is all sand. Better for that. And also
in hurricane winds, which this is a barrier island,
so there's nothing to obscure it from getting
full force of hurricanes. So that's why they
chose a skeletal light. And Ralph also said that
12 feet below the sand is a coral reef, like
a long dead coral reef. I'm like, how do you
know that? Is it all like radar? geo geotech
reports yeah anytime you go anytime you go build
a building um commercially now you know we we
scan and we thump and we it's not my it's it's
clearly it's not my field but there is there
are trucks that go out and actually pound the
ground oh and other sensors pick up the vibrations
and it helps to scan what kind of bedrock and
how deep it is and um Anyways, I'll get too far
off track, but I bet you. That's super cool.
They've done a bunch of reports for construction
in this area. Okay, that's awesome. And Ralph
also sent like a description of how. how this
structure moves with the wind and everything.
So he said, as the winds blow, the windward sides
tension rods tighten and the leeward sides slackens.
And this allows the tower to rock and the pressure
is removed from the center cylinder of the skeletal
tower. The lighthouse isn't welded or riveted.
It's slotted and screwed together. And every
piece tightens the structure from the legs outside
to the staircase inside. Huh. So that probably
allows for more movement than welding or rivets.
Yeah, where it's really firm. Yeah. And we were
learning, that strength and stress or strength
and toughness are not the same thing. Yeah. Right.
Material science. Cool. Yeah. It was actually
forged in Detroit and I, I wanted to draw its
path because it was forged in Detroit, set up,
taken down. So they put it together to, Oh, this
is in Detroit, this picture. Okay. Okay. So this
is where it was forged. They put it up and then
they took it back down and then they sent it.
to Hillsborough Inlet. And so they packed it
up, shipped it across Lake Michigan to the Mississippi
River and followed that all the way to arrive
in Miami. So anyway, I wanted to make a, a path
that showed the route that I had to take all
the way from Detroit to like Hillsborough. That's
a long way. Yeah. It's crazy. And they put it
on barges in Miami and then brought it up the
canal, which is now known as the Intracoastal
Waterway, which I'll show a pic. I'll show a
sliver of it in later screenshots. This is before
the interstate system. Oh. No, it was. Eisenhower.
That's a World War II thing. The Germans had
the Autobahn. And so when we were over there,
we saw how transportation worked and how that
state system made sense for highways and interstates.
So all little highways and roads to make it across
the country. Right at this time? Yeah. Interesting.
I guess that makes sense. Before World War II,
yeah. World War II seems really late for having
efficient roadways. Nuts. I guess it was all
trains and ships for a while, so checks out.
Checks out. And the tower was painted black on
the top two -thirds, including the lantern room.
And by the way, which is a really nice lantern
room. That's nice. Yeah, I just like the... Like
diamond shapes on like panels. The external glass.
Yeah. Really nice. Looks very expensive. Yeah.
And then the bottom third is painted white. So
it's very pretty, very clean. There were three
keepers cottages that were built with separate
kitchens attached with a breezeway. And rainwater
was caught off the roofs and settled in a cistern
under these breezeways. Each keeper also had
a storehouse. And on the back of that was where
they had like the bathroom. That looks like a
really nice keeper's apartments. Yeah. Well,
at the very least, they're very uniform and spacious.
Palm trees going on. One per family, which is
not something we see in a lot of lighthouses.
Rare. So those keeper's cottages were built in
1906, and then the lighthouse was the last thing
to be put up and finished in 1907. That's a smart
way to do it. Yeah. I feel like it's not always
done that way. No. I think, yeah. Can make it
difficult. It probably also makes a difference
that this was built somewhere else and then brought
over. Yeah. They were like, let's just finish
everything else while it's being built in Detroit
and then worry about that later. Which is funny
because the tower is the focal point of the station.
Yeah. For it to be the last thing that goes up
is kind of funny. The whole reason the keepers'
houses are there. Right. And actually, so this
lighthouse was supposed to be a first order,
but due to like a bunch of delays, they had to
choose between a first order beehive style lens
that was currently in storage, which it sounds
like the beehive style lens was like obsolete.
Like they didn't really have those anymore. So
they had to choose between that or a brand new
second order clamshell style, which we really
love. It's so pretty. that they could buy brand
new and was well within their budget because
they're planning on a first order lens. So second
order is going to be significantly cheaper than
that. The second order actually ended up being
brighter. And according to Ralph Krugler, they've
been the brightest active aid to navigation for
many years. And only two lighthouses are brighter
than this lighthouse, but they're privately owned
and only lit like for special occasions in Europe.
I'm really interested to know more about that.
Do you have any more right now? We can ask Ralph
when we talk to him. No, we'll have to ask him
more information. I pulled up a picture of the
lens that was purchased and then Ralph sent a
couple of good pictures. The middle one shows
what, you know, the bottom part, like the non
-frenel lens part, like the support structure.
You could see where there used to be clockwork
and then the mercury trough and... The drain
and floor lights. And I wasn't going to include
the floor lights, even though I really wanted
to, because I didn't have a reason to talk about
them. And then I included this picture that shows
the bottom half of the... I've never seen floor
lights. I know. It's a history buoy. So I saw
a little piece of it in there and I was like,
oh, I can include the picture. That's really
neat. So they're just holes cut in the floor,
little ones covered with glass. And this is very
similar to... When I did deck lights. With the
prism. Yeah, with the prisms. So it's kind of
the same idea, I'm sure, but pretty neat. Yeah,
it looks like the top of a salt and pepper shaker.
Yeah. It's much larger. So those. So cute. Presumably
those would light the area below for maintenance.
Exactly. Anytime they're checking stuff out.
That's awesome. Yeah. And I mean, you can see
just from the picture, he included how brightly
lit it is just from the lights overhead. It's
also cool to see a really, really old picture
of it before it was put in the lighthouse compared
to what it looks like in the lighthouse in the
current day. It all matches. If you look at it,
it all matches up. It's pretty cool. Did you
put these markups on this image? No, he did that.
He really helped us out. This is a man after
my own heart. Looks like an engineer did it.
Three -quarter horsepower pool pump motor. Where
clockwork was. Arrows. It's bold. It's red. So
helpful. I like this guy. I know. He has it all
figured out. And I wish we could have included
everything that he sent us because he sent, oh
my gosh, there's so much cool stories. If we
don't get to stuff, maybe we'll do a deep dive
someday as kind of bonus information. After we've
covered all the lighthouses in the U .S., we
can go back around and just include stuff we've
learned. Clamshells. Love them. Second order
clamshell was the selection. Yes. That's what
we went with and ended up being perfectly bright.
You didn't even need a first order. It functioned.
So they were planning on a first order and then
you said they had two options. The options were
a honeycomb. Because there were delays. It was
either you have one that's already in storage
and it happened to be this lens that they didn't
want. Or you could order a new second order.
So they went with that route. Our first day of
service was March 8th, 1907. The lens floated
on 450 pounds of mercury and had a 10 -second
flash, so it would do one rotation in 20 seconds.
It's a long flash. It's pretty fast. The lampist
who put the lens together installed a fifth -order
cable in the clockwork. And I had to ask for
clarification on this because we have not covered
clockwork yet, and so I was like, cable? I was
like, what? I just couldn't really even envision
it in my head. I, Ralph sent a picture of some
clockwork. It's not Hillsborough Inlet, but it's
an example of what it would have looked like.
And so there's this cable that holds onto the
weight and the weight slowly falling is what
turns the lens, like with all the gears and everything.
I mean, obviously the heavier the weight of the
lens, the thicker your cable needs to be so that
it doesn't. get messed up so they installed a
fifth order cable with a second order lens and
so the cable would get like bound up a few times
oh man um do you know what that means bound yes
like if something gets bound up yeah usually
uh binding refers to the crossover of cable so
instead of like if you reel that up it's like
let's say it's an extension cord you know you're
going to reel it up in the garage okay ideally
you'd go you know in an order like Reel, reel,
reel, so there's no crossover. And winches and
cables often work in a similar fashion to where
you set them that way, they reel and unreal,
but the binding may happen because the cable's
overly stressed or it's just not laid out well.
So it crosses over, and then if you have too
much crossover, the radius can build up too quick,
so you don't have enough room to collect all
the cable as it's reeled back up. As it goes
to unreal, now it's caught instead of continuing
to unroll. It's bound is the term used. You know
what's funny? I asked Ralph to explain it, and
he said that you would be able to tell me. Based
on what? What did you tell him? He listens to
our podcast, so he's like, Vince will be able
to tell you that. Nice. Well, Ralph. I was worried
about asking you in case you were like, I don't
know. I'm asking for a lot, but I would be really
interested to see if that's what he wanted. I
was going to get all excited. Oh, mechanical
engineers and gears. These are straight tooth
gears. Maybe you should do clockwork because
I don't know. I'm chemical. I don't know. I can
cover clockwork if we want. Okay. You should
do that because I did mercury float. So it's
actually, it's only fair. Yeah. I mean, this
is, looks like brass gear work. I know this is
not our lighthouse. I know. I wonder which lighthouse
it's from. Really cool. The race. I mean, I did
study this in school. just entry -level stuff
to get through a bachelor's, but the sizing of
gears and the number of teeth and how that system
comes together is really interesting to me. So
we will talk about it more when we get to clockwork,
and I'll probably get a little off the rails
talking about different components. I think it's
better to have too much detail. Yeah. And I'm
going to go on a really small tangent. Okay.
This is... Well, not this, but our lighthouse
was built in 1906 was the completion. Think about
material science. Like we didn't know almost
anything. We knew so much, you know, standing
on the shoulders of giants and all that. However,
one of the material science things that I find
entertaining is the Titanic, which sunk in 1913,
I believe. One of the things that happened, and
they didn't know this, the steel that the hole
was made out of was relatively pliable. So like
I said earlier, there's strength and then there's
toughness. Strength is resistance to forces.
Toughness is how far you can displace something
before it fails. Whether that's a seam that opens
or a crack or whatever it might be. And the whole
of the Titanic, when it got hit by the iceberg
or vice versa, it was cold enough because the
waters that it was in, that it split. It cracked
like a brittle rock or a piece of glass rather
than, the toughness being great enough to deform
and dent, which would have really helped them
out. But that was the ductile to brittle transition
temperature in different alloys and steels is
based on what temperature it's at, how it's going
to break. And so for a reference of where you're
at in history, 1906, 1913, and the people who
built the Titanic were in North Ireland, like
it was known to be the best. ship building one
of the best ship building areas in the world
and still is today yeah so like you know what
you know you don't know what you don't know yeah
and things have changed over time especially
in the 1900s where like a few years made so much
difference between our knowledge on subjects
and yeah like it was just everything everything
was like research yeah it always it breaks this
way i'm gonna write a paper and then someone
across the world who's also In that area reads
the paper and then validates it. And yeah, it's
like we talked about concrete and Portland cement
and arguing over who actually invented Portland
cement. Oh yeah. Yeah. So interesting. Cool.
So whenever the cable would get bound up, two
keepers would take the clockwork completely apart.
And the third had to hand turn the lens to make
sure that it flashed exactly 10 seconds every
time. And last time they had to do that for six
hours, like that six hours of a guy hand turning
the lens perfectly. Like you have to focus. You
can't just zone out. It has to be perfect because
people are counting on it. That sounds exhausting.
Yeah. So the next year in 1908, the correct cable
was supplied and thus did not have to worry about
that problem anymore. Really interesting. Yeah.
Okay. I'm going to pull up an overhead photo
because we were talking about the Intracoastal
Waterway. It's a horrible, blurry screenshot.
Lighthouse Cove Resort? I knew the second I pulled
it up. And if you go to the very bottom corner.
Oh, there's a golf shop down there. I took a
screenshot and I was like, I'll just do like
the tiniest little piece of this down. There's
a movie theater. Quit naming off stuff because,
yeah. I'll be talking more about some other stuff
in here. In this picture, from right to left,
we have the Atlantic Ocean, obviously. And then
we have the barrier island where we have Hillsborough
Inlet Lighthouse. And then we have the Intracoastal
Waterway, ICW. And then past the houses and the
highway and all of that is the Everglades. Nice.
So wildfires were really common in the Everglades
from lightning strikes, weirdly. Though people
tried to claim it was from the lighthouse lens
because it was right next, like, I guess you
would. Try to make a connection like that. It's
like chemtrails. Some people still today, maybe
I'll be wrong, but I don't think chemtrails are
a thing. But some people are just convinced.
Absolutely, yeah. Because there's lots of weird
things going on. When a plane goes through the
sky, there's two things that happen. They claim
one is there is condensate. Two, chemtrails.
So lighthouse causes fires. I had a friend at
work that... You know, all of our cars were disgusting
after it rained. And she was like chemtrails.
And I was like, we had record high levels of
pollen in the air yesterday. So it rained and
it's all on our vehicle. And it's windy. Anytime
it rains and it's windy and you live anywhere
near Kansas City, you get brown spots all over.
Must be chemtrails. But yeah, she's like chemtrails.
I shouldn't make fun because what if I'm wrong?
I know we could be. I wanted to make fun so bad.
But when there's other more plausible explanations,
I'm like, I'm not listening to that. I keep seeing
like conspiracy stuff on my Facebook and I'm
like, why am I getting targeted with this? I
don't believe in any conspiracy theories. We're
in that time right now when conspiracies are
alive. Now, a lighthouse somewhere, I am certain,
I ham certain. I ham certain. Holiday ham is
responsible for starting a fire. Of course. I'm
certain it has happened. Yes, it has, has, has.
Has, has. Two hases. Ham, has, has. You laugh
quietly away from the microphone. I'm trying
not to. I wanted to go down the holiday ham work
thing. No, don't. Don't do it. Yeah, so we'll
skip that. Ham gate. Okay, can I move on? Yeah,
the inner water work way. Okay, so yeah, anyway.
It's like there's whiskey in me. I know. What,
is there alcohol? Hang on. So they tried to claim
it was from the lighthouse lens, these wildfires,
but it's impossible because the lantern room
is curtained during the daytime. So that's the
end of that. But it's kind of fun for people
to have conspiracy theories. And the beam under
candle, oh my gosh, the beacon light would not.
be sufficiently focused to cause a fire and well
because it's supposed to focus inside to outside
so like sunlight beaming from the outside doesn't
really have the same effect as a lighthouse lens
and although it has happened clamshell lenses
are built to produce a light that goes horizontally
not focus on the ground yeah so yeah um i pulled
up pictures to show even in 1912 that you could
see the curtain in the lantern room that's so
it was pretty consistent this looks like a great
time to visit this place i know well oh oh i'm
at the end i'm gonna pull up their inlet view
cam they have like a little live cam it is so
beautiful i just can't believe that we're gonna
go to florida i can't believe that people get
to live there i'm so jealous It's so blue and
just like you can see the wind is blowing and
there's people out on their little boats. Like
when I was watching, there was some guy parasailing
in the background. I'm like, get out of here.
We just got our bleary trees and planes. Yeah.
Kansas City is not top of a lot of people's lists.
I do think it's a pretty great place to live.
It's definitely not landscape wise. Better than
other places to visit. If you're looking for
delicious food and cool bars. We have barbecue
that'll compete with the best cities. Museums
and stuff. Yeah. And you can live here. You can
afford to live here and you can buy a Mustang
and you can take once a year vacations to see
a lighthouse somewhere. Yeah, it's affordable.
There's no way I could live at Hillsboro Inlet.
Apparently it's pretty affluent. Well, I was
thinking, what's the enter something waterway?
Intercoastal. All the houses on there have got
to be awesome. They have their own dock. Take
your boat to go to the ocean. Yeah. To us, you
may be laughing. To us, that's like a totally
foreign. Very, yeah, novel idea that you take
a boat anywhere. A boat where? All right. I'm
just sad. Anyways, keepers often saw fires on
the mainland, and so they would just. keep an
eye on it or report it or whatever. Oh yeah,
from the tower. Yeah. But in 1921, Keeper Thomas
Knight, who was our second keeper at this lighthouse,
discovered the fire that he had been keeping
an eye on was actually on the barrier island.
So he's like, oh, oh crap. Oh, where are the
lighthouses located? So he and the two assistant
keepers packed up their families so that they
could run to the other side. And they went back
and returned to fight the fire's progression
so they could try and save the lighthouse for
me. Burned to the ground. So they went up to
the island to a strategic spot. And this is Ralph.
Cleared out a 10 -foot wide swath from canal
to beach. Dug it down three feet. Did a back
burn on the north and continuously doused the
south side with water. And when the fire arrived,
it died because there was no fuel. That is awesome.
So they did this all in one day and single -handedly
saved the lighthouse from being burned down.
By hand? Yes. With shovels. Shovels and axes.
These are real strong folks. Yeah. Burly men.
I'm looking at thick trees and brush. If that's
what they, maybe they chose a choice spot, but
if they did a 10 foot swath through that. Yeah.
Wow. Good for them. I know. Be exhausted afterwards.
That's awesome though. Yeah. I wonder if the
lighthouse probably wouldn't burn itself because
it's steel. Well, it'd get damaged for sure,
but all the houses would be lost. It'd be toast.
It'd be terrible. It'd be terrible, especially
because that's. All of their lives are in the
houses, too. It's just like living in a house,
so you lose everything. But the Inlet Island,
is that what it's called? Barrier Island. Barrier
Island. Most of it burned then, or a significant
portion? I don't know. The lighthouse was saved.
Who cares about the rest, you know? What else
of significance was on there? I don't know. But
actually, I don't know. At that time, what year
did I say? 1916 or something? 1921? How much
was it actually developed? There's probably not
that many people. Yeah, because our focus on
coastal living was not founded in the early years
because it was hard to live there. Maybe this
is stupid to say, but Lanai, the awful fire that
happened, was it last year? Is that what it's
called? I thought it was. Hawaii. We did the
lighthouse. I thought it was Lanai. Lahaina.
Lahaina. I don't know where Lanai's at. Lahaina.
I'm awful. No, I didn't remember either. All
I meant to say is a coastal community that's
densely populated today, it's hard to evacuate.
Right. Yeah, if there were people, it would be
a struggle. Even a guy that's 137 feet in the
air can't see that there's a fire coming on his
own barrier island for a while. be hard well
that's for people like that's not their primary
job yeah time they're going to be looking out
towards the water true and for ships and anyways
so a little more about thomas knight our second
keeper yeah he was one of the most commended
keepers in the service and um we could see that
from him putting out a fire by himself that's
so crazy yeah he came from a long line of lighthouse
keepers like his grandfather his father uncles
cousins like most of them were at cape um Cape
Canaveral, I think. Yeah. And Thomas followed
in his family's footsteps and served as first
assistant at Cape Canaveral from 1904 to 1911.
He had a brother who was kind of the black sheep
of the family. His name was Eugene Theodore Knight
and later known as Cap, short for Captain. That's
a cool name. I was going to go into his whole
background because he left at 13. He ran away
at 13 and ended up working on a lighthouse tender
for a while and then like... Has this huge backstory.
I included, well, let me just keep going and
then I'll tell you. So when Thomas was promoted
to Hillsborough, Cap moved to the area as a rum
runner. And legend has it that Thomas would flash
a signal letting him know when the coast was
clear for him to bring his booze that he acquired
in the Bahamas into the inlet. And so he would
sink those in watertight oil sacks just up the
canal attached to buoys. And so when someone
would place an order, he would row out, take
up the package, like take out whatever was ordered
and then sink it again. It's pretty cool. During
Prohibition? Yeah. Well, and even, you know,
rum running is bootlegging and whatnot has happened
outside of Prohibition as well. Just illegal
alcohol. But yeah, that was his, that was what
he was doing. And Tom served as head keeper until
1936. And he actually served at Jupiter Inlet
for just one year in 1919. So I'm not sure. Like,
not sure what happened there because Hillsborough
Inlet had a different head keeper for just that
one year. And then Thomas came back. So, don't
know. Weird. It's a history mystery. He retired
at 58 years old, but his retirement physical
presented like a 98 -year -old. Oh, no. So, he
had worked pretty darn hard. Isn't that crazy?
Well, this is because the entire lighthouse,
keeper's houses, and even the lining of the cistern
were painted with lead paint. And they repainted
those every three years. And so that, on top
of having a mercury float that he had to deal
with all the time, took its toll on his body.
And he passed away a year after retiring. So
at 52? 59. Retired at 58? Yeah. I mean, people's
life expectancy is going up. Maybe now it's going
down again because of our... Whatever the next
mercury is going to be, right? Whatever the next
lead paint is going to be. But that's tough.
He served through a couple of really powerful
hurricanes, one in 1926 and one in 1928. And
the Keeper's Cottages are on the highest point
on the barrier island. And on top of that, they're
three feet off the ground. And yet water still
came up between the floorboards during these
hurricanes. And mercury splashed out of the basin
from how much the light was swaying. And Keeper
Knight reported, quote, from 3 to 8 a .m. on
September 19, 1926, my birthday. I mean, not
the year, but the day. Solid green seas swept
entirely across the reservation, carrying away
the boathouse and the decking of the wharf. The
bank around the base of the tower was cut away
so that the concrete foundation was exposed to
a depth of eight feet. And at high tide, the
sea continues to wash around the base of the
tower. 15 persons whose houses were completely
destroyed were given refuge at the station during
the hurricane. Damage was also done to the dwelling
and supplies stored in the boathouse were lost.
Another instance of when hurricanes happen that
people can count on a lighthouse to withstand
the storm, which I think is crazy. I mean, it
makes sense that's what they're built for, and
we just talked about it earlier in the episode.
This one was selected specifically to handle
hurricanes. Wow. And most other structures, if
you exposed eight feet of their foundation, you're
either going to run out of foundation or that
structure is not going to be sound anymore. Crazy.
And I just think nowadays people wouldn't know.
Like if for some reason you get caught in a hurricane,
which is unlikely these days, you'd have to decide
to stay or like not have a means of escaping.
The lighthouse is probably your best bet for
making it. What was the recent hurricane in Florida?
Sanibel? Sanisbel? Well, Sanibel got washed almost
away from that one. Right, but one of the legs
broke. Yeah. There was an image of Sanibel, which
reminds me of this same style of structure. Yeah,
exactly. Where one of the legs had broken off.
Like several feet were missing. And it's still
there. Yeah. And they repaired it. But everything
around it was completely gone. Like the beach
was changed. The trees were gone. Keeper's Cottage
destroyed. Yeah, we looked at some overhead footage.
It was sad. That was depressing. Gosh, it's crazy
the kind of storms that can take place. Strong
lighthouses. Anyway, I mean, yeah, we've proven
time and time again that they'll stand up to
the storm. These hurricanes showed Cap, Thomas's
little brother, that his position close to his
brother on the inlet was too vulnerable. So he
chose a spot slightly further inland to build
a restaurant and beached a barge, like purposefully
beached, like grounded a barge. Breaking it down
to bare bones and building it into a restaurant
using bamboo, pine, and deck boards from ships.
Is it still there? Yes, it's still there. Did
I see it on the map? Yeah. I almost said something.
You said, don't say anything. I said, no, no,
no. I love restaurants and bars. It's called
Caps Place and it's still there today. And so
I have a photo, an overhead. You can see there's
like a little drop pin, the red one, where Caps
Place is. And then all the way at the bottom,
you have Hillsborough Inlet Lighthouse, the purple.
And so here's some pictures I just took off of
that people took to leave reviews on their website.
It has great reviews. And the only way to get
there, because I wish I had done more labeling.
The drop -in that says Cap's Place, that's where
you get picked up by a boat and taken to Cap's
Place, which can only be... It's in the water
somewhere? Yeah, it's to the right. See that
little island, right? The Naughty Dog Marina
Cafe. It's over there. That little house sticking
out on little, at the very top, there's like
a tiny thing sticking out into the water. That's
where you get off the boat and then Cap's place
is inland. That is really cool. So cool. I've
heard it's delicious and kind of expensive. This
is pretty neat. I know. There's also, I mean,
the naughty dog, big fan. That's where you and
I, if we were just browsing online, we'd be like,
Naughty Dog, we're definitely going there. We
know about the Salty Dog. This has got to be
close. Naughty Dog. Does it have a faux lighthouse
on it? Was there an explosion of poop nearby?
I totally forgot about that. Those of you that
know the Salty Dog Saloon. Yeah. There you go.
Or you can just go listen to our episode. Go
look it up. We talk all about it. Anyway, I thought
that was neat. Really cool bit of history that.
A rum runner built a restaurant out of a barge
that he beached, and it's still there today.
So is the barge still there? The restaurant is
built from the bones of the barge. Wow, that's
really neat. Awesome. Love it. The rebellious
younger brother of one of our most outstanding
lighthouse keepers. He's probably like, oh my
gosh, how did this happen? Moving on. 1932, the
lighthouse was electrified with the second assistant
position ending a year later. And so the primary
keeper's cottage was auctioned off. And so the
last two keeper's cottages were used for the
primary and the first assistant keeper. In 1944,
a concrete building was built as a generator
slash radio building, which, by the way, is Ralph's
office right now. No way. I'm like, that's awesome.
But anyway, radio towers sent a Morse code signal
up the coast to like say which lighthouse. You
know how they switch now to like radio positioning
and stuff. Visually, the lighthouse isn't as
useful as it used to be because we have radio
signals. But Hillsborough Inlet had the letter
Q for designating which lighthouse the radio
signal is coming from. I thought that was kind
of cute. Designation Q. Cute. The antenna was
actually taller than the lighthouse at 143 feet.
Oh my gosh. Like, how is that possible? Super
radio. Yeah. That's the type of radio that would
get through your bones. You know what a bag phone
is? No. So a bag phone was one of the first cell
phone, well, not cell phones, mobile phone that
you could have in a vehicle. I think they were
made for the military. Okay. But my dad had one.
He had a 1953 or 52 power wagon, which is a Dodge
truck. It was a military truck. I'm really sad
it's gone. But when he first got it, it had a
bag phone that was a part of the truck. So it
was permanently in the vehicle. You couldn't
take it out. It's powered by the vehicle. But
it worked on radio signal. So you could make
a call. And he said it was like ultra crisp.
Oh, really? Like mobile phones, cell phones didn't
catch up until like the 2000s. Interesting. And
this is World War II technology. Yeah. Maybe
a little later. And supposedly early communications
technology like that was like really like, I
don't know if radioactive, that's not the right
word. I should know this. It's like powerful.
Really powerful and had health concerns with
being around it. Interesting. And I would guess
some of the early 140 foot tall antennas are
similar to, maybe that's not true either. Yeah.
I think it was supposed. I'll have to do some
research. We'll get back to you on that. Okay,
excellent. Yeah, I'd like to know more about
that. I don't know anything about radios and
stuff. I actually don't even really understand
how it works. Yeah, I barely made it through
circuits and I'm an engineer. Oh, physics? This
is why I became a chemical engineer because I
just really sucked at physics. Everything else
is pretty focused on physics. Like if you do
civil engineering and mechanical and everything,
but chemical is as far away as you can get from
physics. So that's what I did. We used to poke
fun at the civil engineers and the structural
engineers because... mechanical engineers we
took statics and dynamics two different classes
that are kind of advanced physics statics we'd
look at like trusses and and things that don't
move yeah and then it's fairly easy for the engineering
students and then dynamics everything's moving
and all of a sudden everything that was assumed
to be zero in statics is now chaos you know momentum
and and it's really challenging but we'd make
fun of our civil and structural buddies because
Oh, is everything staying still or is your project
falling to the ground? Is the bridge moving?
Probably shouldn't be. Yeah. You know, we're
all the mechanical, like we were doing gears
and. That's funny. Lots of complex things, but
other engineers made fun of us too. Of course.
We need every type, so. Yes, absolutely. There's
no bad type of engineering. Wow. We got off topic.
Where am I? Let's see. 140 foot. Yeah. The assistant's
house. became the Admiral's house, which was
used by high ranking officials as a vacation
spot. Cause at this point it was now owned by
the coast guard. Oh, nice. It was a great perk
because it was obviously this land was close
to the public at the time and they didn't have
to stay in a hotel while they were visiting.
And there was like a boat for fishing and everything.
So is there a little fancy vacation house? Do
you know, is there a Navy base nearby? No, I
don't know that. I feel like it's so well developed
around here that there wouldn't be. I've been
surprised lately. How do I say this? Some of
the work that I'm involved in these days has
to do with military contractors. Not often, but
time to time. And the places I've learned that
there's Air Force bases, I've been shocked. Yeah.
Cape Canaveral is where SpaceX... Cape Canaveral,
I think, is where NASA had an operations. Okay,
because. Houston was, you know, Houston, we have
a problem, right? Yeah. But I think the launch
pad, one of the big ones at least. SpaceX just
took off from Cape Canaveral, I think. Is that
when they rescued the astronauts that were stranded?
I just saw it when I was like looking up how
to pronounce Cape Canaveral. And I didn't, it
was like, this is not the lighthouse I'm covering
right now, so I'm not going to go deep into it.
But anyway, since you mentioned it. I don't know
much about it. I just want, because the Admirals,
I wonder if there's a Navy ship here. You notice
this road that they have on here is called Jimmy
Buffett Memorial Highway. I didn't know that,
but that's awesome. Is Margaritaville at the
south side or the north side? Where is Margaritaville?
That's so funny. Can you imagine being so ingrained
in coastal ideas that you have a highway named?
A dude who's a singer who's a white guy is like.
We stand away again in Margaritaville. And we're
like, you know what? We should have restaurants,
bars, highways. Let's talk about Hillsborough
and the lighthouse. Then we're like, the highway's
named after Jimmy Buffett. It's literally like
a culture of drinking and driving a boat. Oh,
gosh. So funny. It's the American dream. Anyway,
I didn't notice that before. 1972, the light
was automated and all crew were dismissed aside
from one keeper and their family. And in 1992,
the light mechanism broke down since by that
point, 50 pounds of mercury had slowly evaporated
from the trough. Into the 90s? It stopped working.
Yeah, it probably ground out. 1907 to 1992, it
just slowly... That is nuts. Also, I don't know
how much 50 pounds of mercury is. There was 450
in this trough originally. So, I mean, whatever
it is, it was enough for the light to run aground
in... The bed. Don't change your oil, you know.
Yeah, if you're not topping off your mercury,
then it's going to run out. They installed a
weak temporary light at that point, and the U
.S. Coast Guard was going to remove the Fresnel
lens and give it to the Fort Lauderdale Historical
Society, who really wanted it for the museum,
which would be a good way to display history.
It's not like something evil, but definitely...
Did it disappear into the black market? It's
in someone's living room now? I want proof. If
you're going to keep using that as an example
that it's in somebody's living room, I want you
to give proof. Here's the deal. I, by trade,
design HVAC and plumbing. I worked in construction
for a little bit. So unless you're asking me
about those things, I'm just gunslinging. I'm
just out here. We are for entertainment purposes
and light level education. I'll just talk over
you next time you start to say it then. I have
a theory. No. That a bunch of nautical things
like old lanterns that are missing, lenses that
are missing, gear work, all these things that
are missing are in people's private collections.
Wait, like Cape Fear, the Fresnel lens was broken
up into individual prisms and scattered. Yeah.
And so now. You think they threw it in the trash?
No, they're slowly putting it back together by
finding the prisms. How cool. Very cool. Well,
I want to cover that lighthouse, but I just,
I thought about that, that it's like real. Yeah.
I mean, I've recently, I've bought a couple,
you know, to be fair, it's very expensive, but
a couple things for house decorations that are
from a ship salvage yard. Yeah. I don't know
if they want me to talk about them or not. So
I won't hear, but what do you think they're black
market or something? No, I just mean that that's
not illegal. And that's, that's what they do.
Salvage. Yeah. Like I bought, Brass cleats that
were on a ship. I brought a, so what is that?
A small port or starboard. It's red. Hang on.
No, I got it. Oh no, I don't got it. I think
it's starboard side. I know port is left and
right is starboard. I think that's red. It's
red because it's right. Well, it's a red lantern
and it was on a, it's on a, it's Japanese made,
but it was on a ship for, you know, 40, 50 years.
So anyways, the point is, imagine if you had
a lot of money. Portside is red. Portside light.
Thank you. Dang it. I was so certain too. I didn't
know. I got it wrong too. But the point is, we're
like, you know, I decorate the house. That was
a present for Emily, that lantern. And so, you
know, if we had millions of dollars, maybe somewhere
out there, not that it's illegal, but it could
be illegal. You never know. That people are selling
lighthouse. components you know for and how cool
would that be if you don't care about it you
didn't care about the history yeah then you'd
be like this is awesome and to be completely
honest i want a prism from a fresnel lens i want
one but if i found out that they were like we
have all we are the pieces are missing we're
trying to put it back together you know i'd be
the first person over there like let me see it
when it's done i will trade you this piece To
let me see it when it's done. Yeah. Public property,
in my opinion. Huh? It's really public property.
The significant stuff like this. Yeah, for sure.
Anyways, I cut you off again. No, you're good.
Oh, yeah. I was saying the Fresnelans, the historical
society wanted the Fresnelans. So the Hillsborough
Lighthouse Preservation Society was formed because
of this. And they convinced the Coast Guard that
it would cost them a quarter of the cost to restore
the lens than it would be to remove it from the
lighthouse. So when they went to do this, the
air in the lantern room was tested and found
to be toxic with mercury vapors. Because at that
point, the light was not accessed regularly.
And so it was just like this. Fume box. Yes,
exactly. So they decided to do a full restoration
instead of just doing the lens. So the HLPS installed
a track at the bottom of the mercury tub. This
is after they drained it and everything. And
they put in ball bearings that would rotate the
lens and then filled that with oil. On January
28th, 1999, they turned on the light. And exactly
a month later, the bearings were crushed under
the weight of the lens because they didn't do,
they didn't, the ball bearings weren't large
enough and they didn't find out. What year? 1999.
Guys, 1999, we're watching movies all the time.
Make sure that your ball bearings can hold. Most
of the engineering books that I reference are
written way before 1999. Yeah. Like what were
you basing your information off of that you know
how much this lens weighs? It's incredible to,
yeah. I mean, I was going to say, you know, the
oil will probably provide some buoyancy to take
load off and lubrication for the ball. Yeah,
but. Not enough. Everything's got to be... You've
got to have lots of... What is it called? You
have to be very conservative with your... With
the factor of safety. Yes. With your calculations.
Make sure you plan for it to be way heavier than
it actually is. And that's what they did when
they re -lit on August 18th, 2000 with larger
ball bearings that could handle up to 20 tons.
And it has been running well since then. No problems
at all. Now again... If somebody could give me
one of those ball bearings that's rated for 20
tons. Yeah. That'd be pretty cool. That'd be
awesome. I want a Fresnel lens prism, just one,
and you want a giant ball bearing. So smooth.
It's like a giant Fushigi ball. So smooth. I
have a picture I just pulled up of the Fresnel
lens. It's just so beautiful. And the first picture
is. Those are great photos. the current light
source, which is an LED, which kind of even hurts
to look at. It's so bright. Which is, yeah. That
was changed. I mean, a screen can't, you know,
a photo can't produce the same brightness that
the source has. Can't actually damage eyeballs,
but it hurts. It almost looks like a Doc Ock,
like an Ark reference. Too many movie references.
What I mean is like, it looks like an electrical
bolt or something. Oh, oh. The way the photo,
never mind. Just ignore me. May 21st, 2021, they
changed light source to LED, and that's what
we have now and in this picture. So these are
both photos from Ralph as well. Just like everything
else, nowadays, you can take a tour of the lighthouse,
but you must become a member of the HLPS beforehand,
which you can do on their website, which is linked
in our show notes. And it's $50 for one person,
but it gets significantly cheaper. the more people
you add, like if you do like a family of six,
it's like 150 total or something. Okay. Or like
two people is 75. So it's 50 % off one person
sort of thing. I'll be honest with you. That's
kind of expensive. Well, okay. So a membership
gets you a subscription to their newsletter,
which is called the big diamond. And I think
it's called this because the diamond pattern,
they have a big diamond on their front door,
which is pretty nice. I, there's so much. He
sent me so many pictures and all of them are
interesting. And so you can't really just, it's
hard to find places to put photos and talk about
photos that don't really go together except for,
you know, like they're scattered all throughout
like 125 years of history. So it's hard to, 125,
I don't know why it's 120 years of history. So
anyway, I was glad that it said that because
I was like, oh, I can include the picture of
the front door. It's a newsletter. Yeah. It's
a big diamond. Yes. And you also get free admission
to all tours with a boat ride, programs and lectures.
And then you also get timely updates to events
related to the lighthouse, which there's a lot
going on with it right now because it's undergoing
an extensive restoration. And we're going to
talk about that in our next episode. So hold
that thought for a minute. Okay. Can you give
me the letters again? Oh, HLPS. Hillsboro Lighthouse
Preservation Society. Preservation Society. Sorry,
folks. If you join that, you said you get free
tours? Yeah, free admission to all tours. But
you have to pay per person. $50 for a person.
Like, I would pay for a membership. And the membership's
$50? Okay. I get you now. Yeah. And it kind of
makes sense because you have to take a boat to
get there. Yeah. And then it's not just like
a park, like, hey, pull up, we're here. It's
like someone's going to meet you and give you
a tour. So I understand why the cost is a little
bit higher. Yeah. And plus that's a membership
for a whole year and everything. Great. Very
cool. I bet they have swag as well. So here's
the live inlet camera. Man. Just feast your eyes.
Gorgeous conditions. Look at the water. Palm
trees, lighthouse. Really pretty. Yeah, I could
watch this. Just pretend that I'm here. I'm glad
it's not like storming right now. That's what
I thought too. When I was researching this morning,
I was like, I hope this doesn't get like dark
and stormy by the time I pull it back up again.
Some giant lightning bolt. Yeah. I guess that
would be cool too though. So anyway, that is
Hillsborough Inlet Lighthouse. And we're going
to be going into more detail. In our next episode
with Ralph Krugler. Yeah, I get the, I hear from
you and I get the feeling that we're not covering
everything he said. No. Such a cool history.
I wish we could. There's just so much. Well,
let's try to leave, leave some time to talk to
Ralph because I have a feeling it's going to
go long. Are you going to drink coffee beforehand?
I just want to, we get, we rarely get an opportunity
to talk to Lighthouse. I was going to say owners,
but people executing the actual work. That's
another thing I'll just say generally is we've
met and had phone calls with several people in
this community. There's folks now, Upper Peninsula
folks. There's folks in the Bahamas we've talked
to, Florida, California is in the works. Yeah.
And the people we met in person, North Carolina.
Yeah. Boston area. It's like Carly and I went
and visited a lighthouse in. Oh, we crossed the
border into... You were in Delaware. We were
in Delaware. So whatever's south of that. I don't
know. New Jersey? No. Oh. Rhode Island? I think
it's New Jersey. No. Oh, wait. You guys are going
to be like, what? These folks are supposed to
be kind of smart. We say it every time. I'm bad
at geography. I can't remember anything. I'm
going over on my phone to the East Coast. South
of Delaware is Maryland. Rehoboth Beach is near...
Kind of near the border. So it's technically
in Delaware, but the street that it's next to
is Maryland. You've got to edit that. That was
crazy. You're going to lose all credibility.
The problem was that I couldn't remember the
name of the lighthouse right away. I was sitting
here thinking of it as you were looking. And
so I was like, if I could just remember the name
of the lighthouse, I could look it up and see.
Because I know that it's literally got a rock
outside that's... that's Mark's, um, the state
line from Delaware to Maryland. So I was like,
I know that it's right on the edge. So anyway,
I don't even know how I, I don't know any, what
I was going to say was that even when we went
to this lighthouse that isn't, doesn't have,
you know, feelers out everywhere and you haven't
heard of it really. Like most people haven't
heard of this Fenwick Island lighthouse. Even
there we show up and there's lots of people wanting
to hear about it. And the people who own it are
just, regular people like you and I who just
care a lot about it. And they're like, Oh yeah,
come back and see us. We got all this merch and
stuff. It's like this old couple. Yeah. Yeah.
All these folks we talked to, um, that's what
I was trying, I was going to get to. And I guess
I forgot to is they've been so nice to us and
they've been so interested. Most people are interested
in their lighthouse. That's kind of the start
of their passion, I think. But in general, the
history is there. Um, the modern interest today
in traveling tourism. Yeah. Um, keeping history
alive, you know, all that. It's really, it's
really been great. Lighthouse people are the
best people. This is the best community to be
a part of. I'm saying it right now. Thank you
for listening. Cool. Well, I mean, we do have
a lot to look forward to the next episode. Yeah.
Great. So yeah. And they have places to donate
and everything on their website, which is linked
in my show notes. So if you can help do it, the
restoration is expensive. And so, We'll be talking
about that next time. So we hope you stick around
and give us a listen. You can check out our Instagram
at the Lighthouse Lowdown where we post some
pictures from each episode. And you can go to
our website, thelighthouselowdown .com. You can
send us a voicemail, an email, and listen to
all of our episodes and watch our YouTube videos
for all of those. And you can also leave us a
review there, which we love those. And we hope
that you catch us next time on the Lighthouse
Lowdown.