Speaker Meeting, 6.15 for 6.30pm

It was appropriate that Past President David Collett had been asked to run this meeting.  His Rotary classification is “Visual Communications” and our guest speaker, Jan Blankenstein, had for a short time been in the visual communication business too.  He was a lighthouse keeper, or more specifically an OLK – an Occasional Lighthouse Keeper.

How did Jan come to be an OLK?  Some 45 years ago whilst working in the far north of Scotland a friend, who worked at Cape Wrath lighthouse, asked him if he would like to join the team.  In the mid 1970’s when Jan was there the team consisted of a PLK (Principal Lighthouse Keeper), two ALK’s (Assistant Lighthouse Keepers), and one OLK.  The light was switched on at sunset and extinguished at sunrise.  That meant that in the winter months the Cape Wrath light was operational for some 18 to 19 hours in 24.

The first ever lighthouse tower, thought to be 330 feet high, was the Pharos of Alexandria which was built nearly 2,300 years ago.  Up until the late 18th century the light in lighthouses was created by wood or coal fires. With the advent of oil lamps better light was produced and then improved still further by the invention of vaporised oil burners.  Gas, and then electricity, brought further improvements.  The light was magnified by mirrors which required cleaning and polishing every day.  In the 19th century Augustin-Jean Fresnel developed a lens, the so called Fresnel lens, which greatly extended the length of the light’s visibility.

The Cape Wrath Lighthouse is located at the most north-westerly point in Scotland, 120 miles north of Inverness and 10 miles from any village.  It was built in 1828 by Robert Stevenson.  Five generations of the Stevenson family built some 200 lighthouses, mainly in Scotland.  The light at Cape Wrath was originally a paraffin lamp with red and white reflectors. This was replaced by mercury vapour lamps in 1978 and in 1980 an electrical power beam was installed.  Currently, the light characteristic is four white flashes every 30 seconds and with its Fresnel lens it is visible for 28 miles.  A fog-horn was fitted and in use until 2001.

Before automation there were plenty of jobs to keep the team busy.  The duty keeper had to make sure the light was functioning properly at all times, there were the mirrors to polish and the clockwork turning mechanism to wind every hour.  The vaporised paraffin lamp to prime, the diesel oil tank to keep topped up to keep the generator running, the foghorn to check and weather reports to do every 3 hours.  Coaling and provisioning were annual events.  

In the picture above Rotarian Jan (a member of Swindon Rotary Club) is wearing his Northern Lighthouse Board cap.  On the table is a battery operated emergency light for use when lighthouses suffer a power failure.