Needles Lighthouse
| Needles Lighthouse | ||
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| Place: |
 England , Isle of Wight
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| Location: | At the west end of The Needles | |
| Geographical location: | 50 ° 39 '44 " N , 1 ° 35' 30.3" W | |
| Fire carrier height : | 31 m | |
| Fire height : | 24 m | |
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| Identifier : | Oc (2) WRG.20s | |
| Optics: | Fresnel lens | |
| Function: | Sector Fire | |
| Construction time: | 1859 | |
| Operating time: | since 1859 | |
| International ordinal number: | A 0528 | |
Needles Lighthouse is a lighthouse ( English Lighthouse ) of the same name at the foothills of White Cliffs . It marks the westernmost point of the Isle of Wight and, together with the Hurst Point Lighthouse, the western entrance to the Solent , a strait on the south coast of England .
history
The construction of the lighthouse was inspired by a petition that was sent to the English shipping authority Trinity House in 1781 by merchants and shipowners . However, the contract to build three lighthouses (Needles, St. Catherine's Point and Hurst Point) was not awarded until 1785.
The first Needles Beacon was erected on the tip of the cliff coast and it went into operation on September 29, 1786. With a fire height of 144 meters, visibility was often restricted by haze or a low cloud base . Because of this, Trinity House started planning a new lighthouse at sea level .
The current lighthouse was designed by civil engineer James Walker and erected in 1859 on the far end of the chalk cliffs. The construction costs amounted to 20,000 pounds sterling . The uniform round tower made of granite stands on a rocky foundation. The rooms for the beacon keepers are in the tower and the storage rooms were set up in the chalk cliff. In 1987 the tower was given a helipad .
Needles Lighthouse was automated in 1994 and is now overseen by Trinity House's Planning Center in Harwich . The last lighthouse keepers left the tower on December 8, 1994.
Since 1994 the lighthouse has been listed as a Grade II Monument on the Statutory List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest .
beacon
Needles Lighthouse was the last Trinity House beacon to be powered by its own 100V DC generator . A submarine cable was laid for automatic operation in 1994 , which now supplies the devices with 240 V alternating voltage . A lamp changer with two 1500 watt incandescent lamps and a battery-operated 24 V emergency light is used as the light source . The optics consist of the second-order Fresnel lens installed in 1859 and colored panes for the warning sectors. The sector fire is set up as follows:
- A red sector from the coast to true 300 ° marks the shallows of St. Anthony Rocks ,
- a white sector from 300 ° to 83 ° indicates the western approach to the Needles Channel ,
- a red sector from 83 ° to 212 ° marks the Shingles Bank ,
- a white sector from 212 ° to 217 ° indicates the course through the Needles Channel and
- a green sector from 217 ° to 224 ° marks the safe passage between the shallows of Hatherwood Rocks and Warden Ledge
Web links
- Needles Lighthouse. Trinity House , accessed August 29, 2016 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Needles Lighthouse. Historic England , accessed August 30, 2016 .