All right. Recording 85? 90. 90. I'm so far off.
Well, that's because you're supposed to be 89
and I'm recording this early. Oh. Oh. I'll be
ready. Hi, everybody. I'm Emily. And I'm Vince.
And this is The Lighthouse Lowdown. So everybody
knows, ouch, I'm recording podcasts early, you
know, because we're getting married in December.
Yep. Big, big event. It's currently October.
Yes. And I'm thinking before and after, I'm not
going to be one, or I'm not going to really have
time to focus on anything else, you know? Yes.
Just going to put everything I have into this
one day. So I'm recording our episodes early.
Yep. Episode 80 today. 90. 90 today. Yep, we're
wedding planning. We're getting married in December.
Thank you to our listeners for still listening.
Last night we talked with our DJ, a good friend
of ours, about some music. Yeah, really good.
We're going to be dancing the night away. It's
going to be awesome. It's not going to be the
stuff you normally hear at a wedding. It's going
to be something. It's going to be a step up.
We should send him our intro song. Oh my gosh.
I'd be like, I just turned so red with embarrassment.
So I'm doing a series. I looked up Green Island,
the one in Taiwan, right? I don't know anything
about it. Taiwan is how you say it? Yeah, Taiwan.
You're like, I don't know anything about it.
I actually need help with something else. And
realize that there are other Green Island lighthouses,
like lots of other Green Island lighthouses.
So I'm doing a Green Island series until they're
all gone. Okay. It's like Snake Island. Exactly.
But there's several Snake Islands. Yeah. At least
the ones that I'm covering are pretty well documented.
So they're actually a little less stressful.
Yeah. Nice. So how many did you find? Well, you're
going to find out. Okay. They're just going to
keep going until they're done. Okay, here we
go. So the first one I'm covering today is the
one in Ohio. We had a small conversation about
Ohio right before this. But I'm going to do a
history buoy first. I do have one. And I'm going
to cover strontium. Strontium? Which is an element
on the periodic table. I would not have guessed.
It's how we got our lighthouse today. So I figured
I would go ahead and cover it. Strontium. Yeah,
we know the background of what brought us our
lighthouse. I can't wait to learn. Yeah. It's
element number 38, symbol SR, for those who know
anything about the periodic table. What's the
atomic mass? How dare you? I don't have it pulled
up. Turd. I thought you would have. Originally
called strontium before they, you know, like
put it into the periodic table. And then they
wanted to match all the alkaline earth metals
with EM at the end. And, you know, a lot of them
are EM at the end. Chemistry was very hard for
me. Me too. Says the chemical engineer. I cheated
my way through organic chemistry. Only at the
end. What? I had to. And just so everyone knows,
these are entertainment purpose only. These are
not real stories. Yeah, it's not real. Anyway,
so originally called Strontian after the town
in Scotland where it was first discovered in
1790, which the town wasn't called Strontian,
but I think it was like Stronta or Stront, Stronts,
something. Somewhere in Scotland. Yeah. Okay.
It's soft, yellow, silver in color. and forms
a dark oxide layer when exposed to air. So if
it's in a vacuum, it's like, here, I have a picture.
Just pretty yellow silver. Oh yeah, almost like
gold. Pale, yeah, almost like gold, but definitely
notes of silver in there. I do not like the texture
of what we're looking at. Yeah, it's chunky.
It's like small dried leaves curled up. I think
it looks more wet than that. Okay. I see what
you're saying. So when in a vacuum, this is what
it looks like, but it oxidizes. And it's like
really dark when it's in the air. Sure. Okay.
So the natural form of strontium is not actually
hazardous at all. Like you can touch it, whatever.
But the synthetic version is radioactive and
one of the most dangerous components of nuclear
fallout. And also it was used in the RTGs used
in Russian lighthouses. And you covered snaps
in episode. Which was the U .S. versions of RTGs.
I already forgot what that stands for. Radioactive
Thermal Electric Generators. Yeah, they were
mobile. That's what I think. They had a radioactive
isotope and it would slowly decay over time and
that process would create a small amount of electricity
for a local onboard. basically generator battery.
And so they took a small sample of radioactive
material and then they'd be able to run something
small and electrical for a really long time.
So there's episode 65. Go listen to it. But they
put these things in outer space. They put them
in lighthouses. They put them on buoys to be
long -term electrical power. Really kind of interesting.
Very cool. But dangerous. But that's, yeah, that's
one of the components. Strontium. But the synthetic
version, not the natural version. After its discovery,
the main use was in the production of sugar from
sugar beets. What? By a process called strontium
process. It's like this whole chemical thing,
lots of combining and, you know. So they would
use this artificial strontium. The synthesized
strontium? No. The synthetic one was radioactive.
They used the natural version for sugar beets.
Sugar beets. For the process of extracting something
from the sugar beet? Sugar, yeah. Oh. That makes
sense. You're like, oh. You didn't get beets
out of it? Oh. But that chemical method is now
obsolete, even though it was widely used the
mid -1800s to 1900s. Okay. So it was around.
I think it was actually like one of the... the
most used ways for them to get sugar out of sugar
beets, but now there's better ways. And then
after that, up to 75 % of strontium use was in
making the glass tubes in colored TVs early on.
Oh, okay. Because, I don't know if it was because
they were dark or something, but they stopped
x -ray emissions from those glass tubes. So essential
for a household item. So I don't have x -ray
emissions. So it's like a shielding component
of the glass tube. And I got kind of excited
because when it said that strontium was used
in glass, I was like, oh my gosh, is this going
to relate to like Fresnel lenses and stuff? But
no. Our lenses require a lot more purity and
clear glass. So obviously it couldn't be related.
But still pretty cool. I don't know anything
about how TVs work. And then we moved to different
display methods away from the glass tubes. And
now strontium is not really used for a lot of
things in our modern world. It's combined with
other things to make glow -in -the -dark toys.
So that's kind of fun. And they also do, they
use it in deep red colored fireworks because
when strontium burns, it's like maroon. Like
they do a flame test to figure out like what.
is in a sample or something and if there's red
like a dark red then it's strontium that's so
funny i always wonder what's in fireworks yeah
there's all kinds of stuff i mean each color
is just an element off the table yeah like yeah
we just blow it up yeah might as well for fun
and it's also used in the treatment of bone cancer
this was like a whole fun interesting like um
tangent i could have gone on because it's right
below calcium on the periodic table and so it
acts in a lot of the same ways which could be
terrible if it was like the radioactive version
yeah but the natural version it it like it's
absorbed into your bones in the same way that
calcium is just like a substitute and so um they
use it for bone cancer treatment yeah because
it's a it's like bioavailable for that purpose
yeah that's really interesting so One quick question.
Maybe you don't know the answer. You said natural
versus artificial, I think is the word. So it's
artificial, it's synthesized, it's made. Yes.
And it's probably radioactive because of the
process of how it's made. Things are radioactive
based on like electrons and stuff, aren't they?
Oh, imbalance of protons and neutrons. So it's
like unstable nucleus is why something is. Something's
radioactive, which is interesting. So it's like
the natural version is really stable, but if
you make it unstable, it's radioactive. So like
when we make it, when it's synthetic, it's because
we mess up the nucleus on purpose. There's got
to be some utility there. That's interesting.
Okay. And I do think the radioactive version
is maybe also used in bone. Bone cancer treatment
because it becomes a very targeted area for radioactive
treatment. Because it's absorbed by the bone
where it's needed most, that's where you can
target it with radioactive treatment. So I don't
know anything about it, but I think that's interesting.
And that's our history buoy, Strontium. First
time covering an element for our history buoy.
And that's how we got our lighthouse today, Green
Island in Ohio. Okay. Green Island is one of
21 small islands that make up the Erie Archipelago,
which I didn't know that Erie had an archipelago.
I didn't know there was one. So here's a little
picture I pulled up. Google does its best to
show all the islands, but obviously it's not
perfect. So if you zoom in really far on Google
Maps, that's when you can start to see how Green
Island is so tiny. On the map, it's not really
visible. So, but it's right off the coast, the
west coast of Put -in -Bay, which I just looked
up the pronunciation of. I hope that's correct.
Put -in -Bay, which is where our keepers go often
for getting off of the island. Okay. That's where
they always head. That's a close by. Yes. So
the island wasn't well known until 1820 when
the cliffs of the east end were discovered to
be laden with strontium. What? Where are we going?
Are we going to go mine the strontium? Well,
yes. They mined the island for strontium. And
it became the main American source of the element
and nicknamed Strontium Island because of that.
And also there was a bunch of, like, the picture
that I showed you is not how strontium looks
when it's mined. It's like in gems and stuff.
Oh, cool. It's like light blue crystals. Like,
pretty cool. I wish I had made a page of, like,
If you see it in nature, what does it look like?
And then they mine it and extract the strontium.
Yeah. Congress appropriated $5 ,000 for a lighthouse
on the West End due to this whole mining effort
that was happening. But the lighthouse wasn't
completed until November 1854 due to a cholera
epidemic, which I could also go on a humongous
tangent on because it was like years of... Because
it was in the water and nobody... It was like
still during the time when everyone thought it
was like miasma, you know, the air is dirty and
that's where you get it from. It's like, you're
drinking it. But this year is also when they
discovered that it was passing through the water.
Colorado's wicked. Yeah, they got a good grip
on it. Because there was a breakout not long
before this either, like maybe in the 30s, also
from the water supply. But they didn't figure
it out then. Like, shoot. Terrible. So the mining
was interrupted by the Colorado. The lighthouse
building. It took like four years because of
the color. Oh, God. The fourth order lens was
installed in the lantern room, and then they
discovered a defect in the revolving machinery,
and so then the light wasn't lit until 1955.
1855. It happens, you know, drawbacks. The setbacks
in construction, you know what I mean. Some machinist
made a mistake. Yeah. So can you believe this
picture was taken in the 1850s? Like 1858, I
think it was. They took this photo. I'm like,
we don't have a lot of photos that old. No, I
can't really tell. Are there people in the middle?
Yeah, I think there's a guy. Looks kind of like
a haunted film footage. It looks like, yeah,
someone's attempt at making a 1850s photograph.
Spooky. Black and white. Very low detail. High
exposure. Yeah, the... The lighthouse and the
keeper's house, I assume, are both visible, kind
of. It looks like they're white. They really
blend into the sky behind it. They're both made
of brick, and the lighthouse was attached to
a one -and -a -half -story keeper's dwelling
and is a round tower with an octagonal lantern
room with a 43 -foot focal plane. Cool. And it
had a fixed white light with a flash every 150
seconds. Interesting interval. Mm -hmm. We've
seen a couple of those before, just like bullseyes
on a normal lens. Colonel, it's Colonel, right?
Colonel. Colonel, yes. The Colonel of Corn. Colonel
Charles F. Drake was the first keeper and served
until 1864 when the lighthouse went up in flames
New Year's Day. No. And this, it's very famous.
Like in this area, this whole event was like
this humongous deal. Because it was one of the
coldest days in history ever in the area. At
25 below zero Fahrenheit. Pretty cold. A strong
storm had come through at the same time. So strong
that the waves were 30 feet tall. Oh my. On Lake
Erie. Like, that's crazy. And the keeper didn't
wake from the fire until it had consumed all
of the upper floors because the wind was so loud
that you couldn't hear anything. And it was like
sweeping away all the smoke. So they were just
like blissfully unaware of the fact that the
whole thing was going up in flames. It's getting
colder in here. And warmer at the same time.
Oh yeah, it's like I'm getting spots of hot and
spots of cold. Luckily, Charles Drake managed
to bundle up his daughter and wife and took shelter
in the outhouse where they hoped to survive the
freezing night because... Okay, you can survive
the fire, but you're outside in negative 25 degrees
Fahrenheit all night long. No way. With the wind
and it's like the storm, everything's wet, you
know? Yeah, nothing waterproof at the time, I
don't think. Yeah, and I think at first they
had tried to put out the fire with like pails,
but like, you know, what can you do? Eventually
it's a lost cause and their hands are probably
so cold. Their son, Pitt, was on Put -In -Bay
for a New Year's party. and had no choice but
to just wait until the storm subsided to go.
He can see the lighthouse in flames from where
he is, and he just has no choice. He tried to
go out, and everyone's like, you're just going
to kill yourself. He'll die. Yeah. That's crazy.
Yeah, they set out in the next morning when the
storm had subsided, and they said that the water
was slushy because it's mixed in with so much
ice. had been so turbulent that it just turned
into slushy. The outhouse was the only thing
left standing out of all the buildings for the
station, and though his family was suffering
from exposure, they were alive. I'm shocked that
they didn't go to the lighthouse. It's on fire.
Well, but it's not made of wood, right? I mean,
it has wood aspects. I mean, this is the 1850s,
so. Oh, yeah. Even if something has broken the
inside. They didn't have steel casings yet. Yeah,
the inside was probably made of wood steps and
stuff. The outhouse. That's crazy. I wonder where
it was in comparison to this. Not connected,
clearly. I wonder how the fire started up. Lantern?
Yeah, maybe. Cow kicked over a lantern. A classic.
But what's even more crazy than them surviving
in the only structure is that Charles Drake stayed
as keeper when the new lighthouse was built a
year later. And he stuck around for another like
six years. What does that year look like? What?
The year between having a building and not. Like,
oh, let's pitch a tent, honey. Yeah, I don't
know. We're going to build a new lighthouse.
Somewhere else. I don't know. I don't know. Like,
you'd have to get paid. That's crazy. I wonder
if you get compensated for, like, disasters like
this. I feel like not in these days. Because
they lost everything inside the lighthouse. It
was where they lived, so they just lost it all.
I know. But the new lighthouse went up in 1865.
Ooh. It is really, really nice. They really pulled
out all the stops. It's once again attached to
a keeper's house, but the tower was square and
made of limestone. And Charles Drake's wife...
Mary was officially the assistant keeper at the
new lighthouse, like listed and everything. And
they both left in 1871. So a couple of years
later. Yeah. This is a two car garage. It's probably
a boat. The ramp. I was going to say they're
on an Island. Why is there a garage? It is a
garage for boats. That's so funny. That's funny.
1887. The light was changed to a fixed with a
red flash every minute. So now we have red instead
of white flash. I like that. And they also added
a boat ramp and iron winch to make it easier
to get to and leave the station, along with an
iron oil house. Cool. That is cool. Heavy duty.
John Safe, who was keeper from 1899 to 1903,
used to bring his kids to and from school in
winter on Put -In -Bay, which is the closest
place for them to go to school. But in the winter,
he... Brought them by sled pulled by a team of
greyhounds. And apparently could cover the frozen
distance between the two islands in five minutes.
I'm like, whoa. That's crazy. Also greyhounds?
Yeah. I've never heard of greyhounds pulling
a sled. Sure. They're very thin dogs. Those are
the racing dogs. Yeah. But I mean. I guess if
they're not. If it's five minutes each way. That's
really impressive. I looked up sled dogs, and
of course, you know, it's all like the winter
stuff. I don't know. It's definitely greyhounds.
That's what they said. Cool. That's crazy. What
a weird life. There's a video on Reddit, r slash
greyhounds. There's a video of greyhounds pulling
a sled. There you go. Don't let anyone tell you
greyhounds can't be sled dogs. That's what it
says. Yeah, what the heck. Like, that's cute.
Proven in history. Yeah. Anyway, I mean, any
dog can be a sled dog if they're like in a pack.
I guess. I wonder how many he had. But they had
like a barn where you could keep livestock, or
in his case, dogs. The dog barn. The dog barn.
That sounds awesome. So that was just a cool
little fun fact. In 1905, keeper George Ferguson
fell very ill. and his wife Bertha had to fetch
a doctor from Put -In -Bay in a boat because
nobody else lived on the island, and there was
no way to communicate with the mainland or anybody.
Yeah, just had to make the trip. Yeah. So this
incident established a flag system on the island
to communicate with the keeper on South Bass
Island, which I don't know where it is compared
to this. Somewhere close by. Visible. Yeah. That
was for during the day, and then the light flash,
there was a light flash system by night to communicate.
It's pretty cool. It is cool. 1926, the lighthouse
was automated and active until 1939 when the
Coast Guard built an automated light on an 80
-foot skeletal tower. Also, it doesn't look like
our normal... It kind of looks like a cell phone
tower. This has a light on top and replaced...
In what year? 1939. Wow. This is very strange.
It's a skeletal tower. Yeah. Four sides. It doesn't
taper or anything. It's just square all the way
up. Like a tall rectangle. Yeah. There's a ladder
that goes all the way to the top. So kind of
crazy. It's kind of interesting. I don't know.
It does look like a large telephone wire support.
I don't know what I'm saying. I know what you're
saying. every once in a while your telephone
lines come to yeah the really big skeletal things
how tall is this thing 80 feet wow like our lighthouse
was they built it twice as tall as the lighthouse
was it's kind of crazy that's cool yeah and no
lighthouse but yeah whatever ruined everything
but okay and this was built a thousand feet southwest
of the lighthouse so not like right next to each
other but In 1961, the island was transferred
to the state of Ohio and became a wildlife refuge.
And in 1974, two fishermen landed on the island
and started a fire. Great. There's different
sources that say that it was on purpose or like
maybe not fishermen, but just like teenagers
or whatever. Well, they probably started a fire
on purpose. Well, if this is the version that's
correct, fishermen land are going to cook something,
build a fire or whatever. And then it gets out
of hand. But there also could have been like
vandals on the island. So I went with a nicer
one, which was fishermen. And this raged out
of control and only the shell of the limestone
lighthouse remained along with the oil house
and the well. And now it is taken over by vegetation
as, you know, many decades have passed since
then. I have some pictures of what we have left
on the island of Green Island Lighthouse in Ohio.
You can see the shell of the lighthouse survived
actually quite well. Yeah, all the stone. Looks
like most of the stone is still there. Obviously
no more roof or anything. Dang, that sucks. So
it probably burned the woods and everything that
was around here. Yeah. And also that tall tower.
The tall tower still is alive. That's surprising
because it's wood too. It's steel. What? Skeletal
tower. It looks a heck of a lot like wood. Really?
Yeah. My eyes aren't very good, I guess. That
looks like wood to me. Really? Yeah. That looks
like steel. Breeze deeply. It was also, I don't
know how far the fire went, but it definitely
got the lighthouse. No question about it. Well,
and in the photos of, you know, roughly today,
the lighthouse is totally in the woods. Yeah.
Surrounded by trees. So it may have been at the
time also. Yeah, I know that there were some
trees around when it was in service, but obviously
nothing like this. It's just like in the middle
of a little forest. It actually looks pretty
peaceful. But if I came across this, I would
think that this was like a church, like an abandoned
church or something, and then I'd be really spooky.
Church tower, yeah. Spook, spook. Oh, I have
another picture. Ooh. Yes. Here's our fourth
order lens at the National Museum of the Great
Lakes in Toledo, Ohio. And of course the Green
Island Lighthouse is on the Lighthouse Digest
doomsday list, which I will be covering in our
next episode. Shame. So yeah, that's Green Island
Lighthouse. Unfortunately, covering all the Green
Island Lighthouses means that some are no longer
in service or are on the doomsday list. And the
doomsday list, which we'll talk about next time.
Yeah. You said this one is on that list? Yes.
Okay. You're referring to another Green Island.
There is another Green Island on the list, but
I think they said that they took them both off
recently because they're so far gone that it's
completely unlikely that anyone will ever restore.
Dang. I know. So it's like they are doomed. It's
no longer a doomsday list. They're doomed. They
are, what's the word? Condemned. Yeah. Condemned.
Yeah. That's a shame. But we got to cover them
all. Bring light to all of our lighthouses. All
of the Green Islands. None of which probably
have green light lighthouses. Hey, you can't
say that. Hope they do. That would make sense.
I guess we're going to look at it and say, oh,
that's green. That must be Green Island. We do
have one coming. I know enough about all the
Green Islands to know there is one with a green
light. Nice. So it's exciting. A little series.
Part one. Do you already have the order worked
out of which Green Island is next and last? No,
I don't. So if there's anyone listening who's
a Green Island of any type fan, let us know.
Yeah, it's coming. It's coming for you. So that's
it. Make sure to listen to our podcast on our
website, thelighthouselowdown .com. We can also
leave us a review, watch our YouTube videos,
send us an email. We love all of it. And we'll
catch you next time on The Lighthouse. Blur.