Original Hatteras Light Lens Found in Storage

WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC) & AP ^ | September 19, 2002 | The Associated Press

[Constitution Day]

The original lens for the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse, long thought lost to war or thieves, has been found in a climate-controlled storage building on Roanoke Island.

The 6,000-pound Fresnel lens is made up of 1,000 pieces of precision glass prisms. Lighthouse lantern rooms using Fresnel lenses captured and concentrated light from the prisms and bounced it through a panel, making the beam blink.

[Constitution Day]

Great pictures... thanks!

[Constitution Day]

Interesting.

Don't beacons today flash at set intervals in the same way, though?

[Mr. K]

Thanks for posting that picture! it is beautiful

[Jonah Hex]

COOL!!! Thanks for the ping, and a Brew-Thru bump to the top!

[Constitution Day]

Ooh, don't get me started on the Brew-Thru.

I had just had my '55 Chevy wagon painted a month earlier when I took it on vacation.
Some moron (employee) opened the beer cooler door right on my car.

That was when I was 17, and my 12 year old sister and her friend, who were in the car, learned some new words that day.

[supercat]

Hatteras? That's the one on wheels, isn't it?

I don't think it is anymore. Still, there is an interesting irony to the fact that lighthouses are to a ship the one constant in the world and yet this one moved a few years ago.

[sneakypete]

detective work by videographer and author Kevin Duffus of Raleigh,

Damn! A detective named "Duffus". I don't know who needs a name change more,him or NASCAR driver Dick Trickle.

[Constitution Day]

I think "Dick Trickle" needs it more.
I used to laugh everytime they mentioned his name during a race.

[sneakypete]

I think "Dick Trickle" needs it more.

And you just KNOW they call his son,"Little Dick" Trickle.

[Captain Beyond]

I like to find out the histories behind things and how they survived. You kinda figure something like that just gets taken, broken, lost, or sold for auction. It is a miracle that it did not end up in T.G.I.Friday's, Captain D's, or a Red Lobster restaurant as atmospheric ambiance. Now looking at Hooter's through the lens would be interesting, but I digress.

It makes one wonder how much other stuff is stored in warehouses across America that is just sitting there waiting to be found. Does the government catalog all this stuff in national data base? And if they do I wonder how hard it would be to access the lists?

[Jonah Hex]

Bummer. I always enjoyed shocking my dry Southern Baptist relations by wearing a Brew-Thru t-shirt or hat on my return from the beach. Of course, I didn't tell them I only got soft drinks(!).

[Constitution Day]

And you just KNOW they call his son,"Little Dick" Trickle.

I'd rather change my name to Bill Clinton! (well, almost)

[Constitution Day]

Now looking at Hooter's through the lens would be interesting, but I digress.

ROFL!!!

But seriously, I hate that too.
Once an object is put on display in a place like that, with no documentaion or explanation, it loses its historical context.

As to the lists, I wouldn't even know how to go about finding out what is stored and where.

Obviously, given this story, the govt. doesn't even really know!

CD

[StarfireIV]

I don't think many of them do. I know that in the state in which I used to reside, the beacon was put out in the late 1940's. The fresnel for Barnegat Lighthouse, Long Beach Island NJ, is now in a museum about 5 blocks away from the light. There is also another First Order Fresnel (Each "order" was based on the internal diameter of the lens with 1st being around 6', 2nd was about 5', etc.) in the Franklin Museum in Philadelphia. That one is still on its bronze roller equipped turntable and can be moved with just the push of a finger.

[Mudboy Slim]

"I suspected there were some pharologists on FR!!"

I always wanted to be a pharologist...MUD

[Mudboy Slim]

You spelled "HOO" backwards, dude...MUD

[backhoe]

My family's from Hatteras... my Grandfather's site:

http://www.rootsweb.com/~nchyde/ROLINSON.HTM
John W. Rollinson's Journal:
A Look At Life A Century Ago

[Mudboy Slim]

"Island Breeze!!"...Very Kewl!!

Great link, bh...you possibly up fer a roadtrip up north?! Is yer family still there?!

FReegards...MUD

[backhoe]

Bookmarked the link- thanks. No, my family's scattered to the 4 winds now, but they were among the first settlers there. I am the last one of that line left, and since I can't have children it's up to some cousins to keep the name alive.

[LiteKeeper]

Fantastic!

The Old Pharologist