How Lighthouses Work

Like you fell in love with them and researching both like if I'm I grew up going to Honey Island, South Carolina, not every year, but we went quite a few times here Buford and they have a lighthouse and it was one of my favorite things to do as a kid, was climbing the lighthouse. And I would I if I'm near a lighthouse now ever, I will go climate but outside. I will seek it out and then

shimmy up the outside like Spider Man. Um. No, I will seek it out and go look at it and then climb it and um this article just made me love it even more. I have a precious memories lighthouse to marble Head Lighthouse near Kataba Island, which is where what state by Sandusky in Ohio on Lake Erie. And it was the same thing when I was a kid. We used to go vacation on Kataba Island, and um, we would go to that lighthouse every once a while.

I don't remember ever going inside, though it might not have been open, because there's no reason why you would go to a lighthouse more than once and not go inside climb it up. I don't remember every going in, or maybe you're just like, yeah, it looks nice from down here. Yeah, I would have climbed it. I was a climber. Yeah, me too. Um. But I think the other thing that factors in for me is I found

I really love antiquated systems that could still be viable. Yeah, like post apocalypse, you could fire up lighthouses again, you know fire yeah, and it would work. Yeah, it would. And I think that's a weird thing with me that I love. I love stuff that's still around that you could use if if need be. You know, I've never really looked at my environment that way, like to see what it was going to be standing after an apocalypse.

Maybe I should. Well I don't know about standing, but let's just let's say there was some weird domino effect type thing like that movie where electricity and internet and everything went out and people turned on each other. You could still light a lighthouse and fos could find their safe harbor. What movie are you talking about the domino effect? Oh? Really, there's a movie like that called that. Yeah, I didn't know that. I think it was called with Elizabeth Shoo

and agent Agent Cooper from Twin Peaks Kyle what's his face? McLaughlin? And he is so great? Is the mare um Portlandia? Yeah? He is good. I love that guy. I think it's called a domino effect. If not, that was the you know, essentially what happened there was a domino effect like a blackout, right, Yeah, that just like and it created a domino effected things kind of spun out of control. You're talking about Fury Road, right, So uh, Chuck. I love lighthouses too, but I knew

virtually nothing about them until researching this. And um, if you think about them though, it's like you were saying, after the apocalypse, you'll still they'll still be standing. You just need to replace the electricity with a fire and then you'd have basically what lighthouses have always been, which is some sort of highly visible signal. For most of the time, it was a fire, either a wood fire, coal fire, tar fire. Um that you could see that was meant to signal to ships that hey man, there's

some treacherous waters around here. It's one of the main things that they did. And as the light got better and better. One of the roles that um, lighthouses play was not just to say careful in this area. We went to the trouble building a lighthouse here because it's so treacherous. But also check out these rocks. See this with this light, there's some rocks there. Yeah, like literally lighting up a harbor. Yeah. Um, well, because there was

no light otherwise. Right. And then um, the other role that they play is in the daytime, right, because lighthouses I don't think that they actually keep them on twenty four hours a day, highly inefficient. On a cloudy day, if it's foggy, they'll turn it on and start sounding the fog horns, which we'll talk about. But um, for the most part in the daytime, it's off. But a lighthouse still serves a purpose during the day because they don't decorate them the way that they decorate them just

for looks. They do it so you can differentiate one lighthouse from another. Yeah, Like this one looks like a barber pole. So I'm near north Carolina is exactly right. And there's like a whole book called the light List where it has pictures of them and if you get your hands on that. I meant to look it up but ran out of time. I'll bet it's neat. I bet it's neat too. By the way, that movie is called the Trigger Effect. I have heard of that one. There was a movie called the Domino Effect, but it's

not the same one. What about the butterfly effects? Remember that garbage that was the couch? Right? Yeah? Man? Why does he haunt us? I don't know. It comes up a lot, all right. Where were we were we in the lighthouse? We were talking about the day mark? Yeah, yeah, yeah, pretty neat. But there's also what's called the light signature, right, yes, where that's um, that's we're going back to nighttime again. Ye sorry version the sun's going up and down, the

lights off. It got weird. It is a little weird. Sorry, Jerry, are you still here? So? Um? At night the light has its own flashing signature, light signature, and that's also in the light book too, And there's actually a number of different ways that a light can flash, right, who knew? I didn't know you've got the fixed and that is, of course, if you just have a light on saying we're open. Yeah, it shines continuously, come on in, it's the waffle house. You have the occulting light. I love

this one, the creepiest of all lights. Uh. It has longer periods of light than dark. Um. And then the flashes six six six uh, And a flashing light has longer periods of dark than light. So occulting and flashing or just sort of inverse of one another, there are two sides of the same coin. That's right. I can't have light without the dark is the whole premise. And then you have the isophase light that's equal light and dark with its uh signature blips, and then a group

flashing light super seventies. Yeah, it has a regular repeating number of flashing lights. It's the same pattern, right. Yeah. And there's actually really famous one of those, um, the Minnot's Ledge light in Boston. It was very famously known as I think it still is that I Love you light because of a flash one, then we flash four, and then we flash three, so I l O V E y O U. So it was like a very romantic light. That's how people took it. I didn't make that up. Oh see, I thought it was I hate

cal it could. That's the secondary way that it's known. The people Boston are known for their soft side. I know. So that's why I love you. Yeah, they're prone to break into sobs and the public on the street frequently just walking around thinking about the beauty of life. That's right, And hey, Boston, we'll see you this fall at the Wilbur Theater. I think it's still available. I just want to work that in nice um. And then finally we have our alternating I'm sorry. We have the Morse code um,

which is what it sounds like. It It mimics Morse code with stats and dashes, stats and dooshes. That's Marist code dots and dashes man um to spell out, you know, things like I love you. But that's not when Mino's ledged does. It's it's just it's just one, four and three, and people took it that way. I hate and when

its ledge, Actually it's pretty awesome to begin with. It's it's under ten ft of water at high tide and they had to build it I think in the nineteenth century, whenever the tide was out, so they only had like X amount of hours and the day during low tide when the ledge was exposed, it's still there. It's tough cookie, but josh, these are all sort of modern modern is modern ish, but um, although old, they can go back

to uh what comers Iliad? They mentioned a lighthouse. Yeah, crazy, and I mean like we're talking basically a huge bonfire on a cliff more exactly, you know, not like a well, not like Minot's ledge or anything. But the still qualifies as a lighthouse. It was the premise behind it, Yeah, exactly. I founded weirdly defensive just now about that still lighthouse. Yeah. Uh, like you said, you would have like either wood or

coal burning on a long pole. Uh. And then finally in the eighteenth century, um, they started using lanterns, which is a little more probably controllable. Yeah. The problem was that they kept running into, um was that the oil or coal would smudge the lantern, the glass around the lantern, and the so the glass top, the whole thing where the light is that you can walk around, and that's the lantern of the lighthouse. And if you're burning a

coal fire in there, it's gonna get sooty. Pretty quick. Yeah. One of the that's one of the main jobs of the lighthouse keepers to watch windows. Um. The problem is in between washings, which they did at least once a day normally, UM, the light would degrade as the soot built up. Uh. So they figured out, oh, we need better, better fuel than coal or tar. We thought they used tar. Let's burn the dirtiest thing on the plane. Inside. They

were working with what they had at the time. So they figured out, especially in New England, that they could um use things like blubber and lard, which they did from Wales, burns a lot cleaner. Uh. And then they also figured out, hey, you know what this flame is okay, but wouldn't it be great pre electricity if we had something like electricity to beam this thing out there? For miles and miles and a very smart physicists from France

named Augustine Fresnel. For Nell, I like, Fresnell, that's cool. For Nell said, all right, take my lens and do with it what you will, and he invent at the Fornell lens. He did and nineteen I'm sorry, eighty two, and it's like what you would think it would be. It's a bunch of prisms. Um through that through magic can cast a beam like twenty something miles out to

the ocean. It's amazing. They concentrate in the the gather light from the top and the bottom and in the middle and basically just shoot it all back to a single magnifying point. It just goes miles. Yeah. Yeah, and that really that changed everything and did a great job of handling the load until electricity would come around. And that's when everyone was like, you know what, we don't need these silly flames anymore. Let's just plug in a light.

But you can still use it for nell lens with the light and it's even brighter like today's modern lighthouses. Use um or have produced lights between ten thousand candelas and a million Candelas's candela? Did you see this reference? Like, this is the worst analogy I've ever run across. What did it say? A candela is one two d the brightness of a fifty watt light bulb. Oh okay, yeah,

I know exactly how much a candela is. I also saw that it's roughly the brightness of a candle, which makes sense, and that's a much better frame of reference. So the brightness of a million candles burning in the same place. That's how bright modern lighthouses are, not one two bulb. Let's take a break. Yeah, seriously, let's go find out who wrote that and write a strongly worded letter.

Well that got ugly, So we're I feel like we're still talking about the history of lighthouses, right yeah, um, well what they were, they were made of wood early on um. But the problem with a wooden lighthouse and a massive burning fire of tar is that they can burn down and be washed out to see, or in rough weather it can just be knocked plumb over by waves. And but like I said, they used what they had at the time, and over the years they got sturdier

and sturdier with steel and concrete and stuff like that. Well, even over even before, over the years before, over the years. Yeah. The Pharisa Alexandria, one of the seven Wonders of the ancient world, was this um lighthouse at the mouth of the harbor to Alexandria, Egypt. And it was around I'm not quite sure when it was around. I think the

which one the pharaohs of Alexandria to seventy BC. My friend, that thing was pretty sturdy it took a massive earthquake to bring it to It was made of masonry, it wasn't made of wood, you know. So it looks like lighthouse construction got dumber as the years went on, and then it got smart again. Then it got smart again. It just dipped down in the wood era and then came back up. Well. Um, what you you normally have is a lighthouse, which can be just a lighthouse, or

there might be uh a fog signal building. There might be a boat house. You might have a little house or apartment attached to it, and you might live there with your family on in a very remote part of the world. Um, all by yourself for with a couple of other dudes. Yeah, and take turns and take shifts. That's called a stag station. Yeah. And I think the other thing that appeals to me about lighthouses is I could have lived that life. Oh yeah, yeah I can.

I have seen myself dropping out and you got a neck beard. Yeah, so you needs like a cable net sweater and living up there all by myself corn cob pipe really yeah, throw my own crops and just sit up there and be quiet, no one bugging me. It's like it appeals. I did not know that. I did not picture you as a lighthousekeeper. I could totally do it, or a lightkeeper for short um and um. This is another thing that I thought was remarkable in this article.

You might as well mention it is it. If there is a lighthouse near you that nobody operates, it is possible that you could own that lighthouse. Yeah. On the National Historic Lighthouse Preservation Act of two thousand, it got a process together where the coast Guard, which is what runs the lighthouse, biz now a lighthouse racket. Um. They you can basically start a nonprofit or have a nonprofit and at no cost they will give you a decommissioned lighthouse if you maintain it and keep it open to

the public. Yeah. For the most part, it's like preservation society in this. But if nobody wants it, they put it up for auction and then you can do what you want to. You can live out my dream and I wouldn't have to do the windows either. I could just live up there and be a crusty old hermit. You know, we could do a Kickstarter to help you live out your dream. Chuck, Well, let's let's do a few more years of stuff. You should know first though, before you go. Okay, okay, um, all right, so back

to more modern times. Um, we're building them out of concrete and steel. At this point they're a little more sturdy. You got your little keeper's house. You're not getting paid much money. How much money, dude? Not much? So this article says that they earned about two annually in the late nineteenth century. I went on to the g wiz west Egg inflation calculator for eight in eight that was five grand. Today your provisions are covered though, right, Yeah,

but at the very least your room is. I don't know about board. I bet you they all the whale ard you can eat. Yeah, no, imagine they take care of stuff because you can't like leave and go shopping like imagine you just have everything shipped to you and um again ideal. I love that. Don't have to go out, you don't have to spend any money. It's like web van, yeah, coming to you. You're just you're banking that five five

grand a year essentially. Wow. Man, when you get into like lighthouse mode, you're lower in the standards like germanously you're like, man, I'm making five grand. People are bringing me food I don't have to talk to anybody. Yeah,

that's awesome. It's like your fantasy. That's hilarious. Um. So that lens we were talking about, we we didn't use that in the United States for a while because the way I read this is we kind of cheaped out when it was being run um by this guy Stephen pleasant from for thirty years eight eighteen fifty two, thirty two years he ran an efficient, some might say chintzy program to where he was like, you know, we don't need those fancy French lenses. Um, take these creddi versions.

They probably wouldn't even a lens. It's like a mirror, reflector or something. Maybe if that, yeah, maybe a piece of metal at somebody had to just stand behind the light with the reflected you're my mute assistant, right quiet. But then finally the US government got involved and said, you know what, we need to regulate this. Well, they were involved. That's why, Yes, from seventeen sixteen to seventeen

eighty nine, that was not run by the US government. No, it wasn't until alex Andrew Hamilton's almost got in a shipwreck off the coast of I think North Carolina, and he went back and said, hey, I think we need some lighthouses. The federal government needs to get involved. And so I think the nineteenth piece of legislation the US Congress ever passed was to establish the Lighthouse Board. Uh, the U S Lighthouse Establishment initially is what it was called.

And you know, socialist program. He said that the federal the federality is going to run this thing, uh and in charge now. And you know what, things um went downhill? Yeah, improved, proved everyone who's critical big government, right. Yeah, But there

were a lot of lighthouses at the time. By nineteen hundred, we had about a thousand lighthouses well, and by nineteen hundred government had reformed its reputation, Like seriously, the world ground for the mid nineteenth century, the US governed, the US lighthouse system was second rate at best. They just had a terrible reputation. And I guess it sounds like they got rid of Stephen Pleasant, whose name is basically

mud these days, and the quality went up. Yeah, and that's when they established the Lighthouse Board, which is I think what you were thinking to shape things up. In eighteen fifty two, they said let's get some for now lenses for all these lighthouses. Finally, Yeah, we can be like the rest of the world pleasant stead. Uh. Did

you know the Statue of Liberty was a lighthouse. I don't know if I knew it, but when I've read it, I'm like, well, yeah, but I don't know if it unlocked some memory or if I'm just like that's just too obvious. Yeah. I was like, surely I knew that, right, right, that was it. For fifteen years it was a lighthouse in New York Harbor, which is pretty neat. And then by nineteen thirty, when electricity was effective and rampant, UM, you didn't need these fires burning or candles burning or

whale blubber. No, but there were a lot of lighthouses where that were on like islands or on offshore like ledges like Minnow's Ledge or Eddie Stone in England. UM that were just like the technology to run electricity out there just was not around. UM. So they were still using oil of various types to to fuel these things well into the twentieth century, into the sixties, UM easily Yeah, and they were um still had people working there, um

living in the lighthouse or on the property. Uh. Into the nineteen sixties, it was definitely more rare, but um and night. Uh. That's when the Coast Guard brought about their lighthouse automation and modernization program, and that pretty much dwindled by the end of that decade. It dwindled it down to sixty that still had people working there. Yeah, sixty out of a thousand. Today, there's one in Boston, the Brewster Island, one little bruster, little Brewster Island was

refusing him a big Brewster. Well, there might be one Brewster's Millions Island, little Brewster. That's right. It was the first one in the United States. Uh, seventeen sixteen was when it was built, and then that one was replaced in Sight three and it's the second oldest working one behind Sandy Hook, New Jersey. Is the right, and the person that lives there is basically living there as a tour guide, not necessarily like guiding boats into harbor, although

they may do both. No, I think it's still working. Yeah, well then I guess they do both. I saw modern marvels on lighthouses, and they interviewed one of the light keepers on Brewster Island, little Brewster Island, and he he was They showed him like polishing the glass and everything. Yeah, but it's automated. I got delight itself. I see, I see, so they up keep into our guided right. Okay, but yeah, he's still I mean, he's providing a function there. Yeah,

that's not just show. Maybe I could That's what I could do. That think you should have heard that guy. He's like, I can't even begin to do it. But he was like a hardcore light keeper in Boston. Yeah, I can imagine, although I wouldn't be the best person, because Chuck silent lighthouse story isn't really You're just like you just sweep your arm in and turn out quietly. People ask questions, I just wrap them on the knuckles out. All right. I'm getting all excited thinking about the prospects

of living in a lighthouse. So I'm gonna go do some push ups and we'll come back right after this. So, Chuck, say that you did live your life as a lightkeeper, what would you what would it be like? Mm hmm. First of all, what's what's your family background? Uh? Well, my dad was a fisherman. Probably actually my my great great grandfather was a fisherman. My grandfather was a lightkeeper. My dad was a son of a lightkeeper and the

mom was Akeeper, pirate captain, pirate captain. Like, Gina Davis, Yeah, that was a good movie. She's awesome. Yeah she uh. Jesse Thorne interviewed her recently on his Bull's Eye show. She's just like the best, and they were all excited in the office. Everyone was like, oh, man, Gina Davis is the coolest she uh. Supposedly was known for bringing cookies to that she baked herself two interviews. Yeah, she's a MENSA member. Yeah, I got a lot going on there.

Julius Smith, who works at the maximun HQ and produces Judge Don Hodgman, said on her Facebook she was like, Gina Davis is like the coolest aunt of all cool aunts. Yes, she was in Beetle Juice. I mean like, yeah, it didn't get much cooler than that. She could she could just be a total jerk and she was still awesome and Beetle Juice. Um. So, anyway, hats off to Eugena Tavis. How'd that come up? I don't even remember now your mom was a pirate captain alright, Gina Davis? Was that

a shout out to Cutthroat Island? I guess the movie. You're the one that said it. I guess. Yeah, was that cut Throat Island? Huh? Is it the name of it? Yeah, it was that bad pirate movie. I loved it. That wasn't bad. It got bad pressed, it wasn't bad. It's funny you like some of the most legendarily bad movies of all times. It wasn't that bad. As far as just like critics and you're like, yeah, man Ishtar, I've

actually stayed away from his star. Also stayed away from Rock the Kasbo because I saw that it was basically an updated Ishtar. Did I even see that? I can't remember if I watched it one night Rock the Kasba, yeah, or if I wanted to and didn't like. That's how little of an impact it made. It's on Netflix. I think I actually did watch it, and it was just sort of like, yeah, not very good. Yeah, No, Ishtar is a pretty good code word to stay away from him.

I never saw Ishtar. What else do I like? That was bad? It was supposedly bad. I mean, like, just have you have you seen cuts Rhode Island? Sure, it's terrible, it's not um all right. So we were talking about the lineage, what might get you into the light keeping business. We were being coy and role playing, but that is true. People. It's a family business for the most part. Uh your parents or your father might have done it, or you come from a long line of uh seafaring types. At

the very least you feel close to the sea. Yeah, Like if you want to spend your time out there on a rocky point overlooking the waves all day long, like you probably didn't come from Kansas to do so, you know. Yeah, there they have wheat watchers. They just sit in the tower and watch the wheat and the flatness and they stand up all of a sudden they're like, oh my god, there's a wheat missing. There's a wheat. Um. One thing we keep saying is men. That's because most

of the lighthousekeepers were men, but not all. No, not all, and not all of them were necessarily white men either. There were some very famous legendary African American lightkeepers and um light life savers as well. Surfmen is what they were called to because supposedly you're just there to provide light and signal, but when the s hits the f right. UM, I think you can say a fan fan when the essets a fan. Brave lightkeepers were known to go out

there and provide rescue. Yeah. Um, and one of them was a woman named Ida Lewis, actually American hero. She grew up on Lime Rock Island, uh, near Newport Rhode Island in Newport Harbor, and her dad was a lightkeeper, so she followed that tradition and she actually started taking over the duties after her father had a stroke. Um and uh, she just became a lightkeeper, but a very famous one for her life saving skills. Rescued a dozen men over the years. No, actually eighteen affirmed. They think

it's as high as twenty five. They're I'm gonna say dozens. She Uh, she rescued her last person at age sixty three. Yeah. She's quite a lady, that's but for the most part, and and she's not the only one who saved lives,

like there were plenty out there that did. But it was not an expected role of a lightkeeper because the Coastguard had a life saver house usually nearby a lighthouse, because the lighthouse was there in the first place too, because there was a treacherous area, so it just makes sense to also put a life saving House there because even with the light the lighthouse itself, ship may still

run the ground and there may be rescuing. And if you want to be thrilled, there's a really neat um article that's posted on this podcast page about the p Island Um life Saving House. It was, um. But by the way that pre Coastguard, we had the U S Life Saving Service, which is what that term comes from. Yeah, and then they merged everything together under Roosevelt, and the the lighthouses and the life saving Service all came under the purview of the Coastguard. Right, we should do one

on the Coastguard. Remember that married couple that were both Coastguards. Yeah, that lobby dosts for many years until they gave up. We're still thinking about you guys, and we're still gonna do a Coastguard podcast eventually years and years later. Um. So, pre nine when they made the Coastguard is where you really can't find a whole lot of written history now while that has been lost to time and um they say here in this article that what we have now

our stories from families that remain lower. Yeah. Lore, it's pretty neat Yeah, and then chuck, um, so if you're in a lighthouse, even as remote and cut off as they are, if you hated it, you would still be like, at least I'm not working on a light ship. Yes, So before they had booies like modern booies. Today there's there's booties out there. They're basically like floating lighthouses in areas that require some sort of warning but are just too far off land to build the lighthouse. They put

booties out there. And today the booies are like sometimes something like forty feet in diameter. They're huge, massive things. Um. But before booies even they would use something called light ships. And it's exactly what it sounds like. It's a lighthouse on a ship and it's in a very remote area. You are out there for months at a time. Yeah, you just sail out and anchor down and live there right um, and the boats anchored all the time. You would have to like go to and from the boat

to the to shore. Um. But while you're working there, it's just mind bogglingly awful. There was a lot of like insanity. Yeah, that would happen, like when the fog rolled in before the evan of foghorns, you would have to yank the bells rope the fog bell rope um every ten seconds, twenty four hours a day, for as long as the fog was around. Every ten seconds you had to ring about. That was your job, and if you didn't then you were risking the lives of anybody

passing by in the area. So not cool, man, not cool at all. But the lightships, apparently we're just about as bad as it it got. As far as boredom, loneliness, isolation, hatred of bells, the lightship had it all. You hate bells. I didn't. I never worked on a lightship, but I'll bet they hated bells. You would hear that in your sleep. If you rang a bell every ten seconds for hours at a stretch, you're not going to get that out

of your head. And even if you did, when you tried to go to sleep, one of the guys on the next ship would be out there ringing the bell anyway. So, dregy nuts, let's talk about some famous lighthouses. Well, we already talked about the the Pharos of alexandria Um, which is the oldest known lighthouse and at the time they contend might have been the tallest thing on the planet. That's super tall. Yeah, and it was masonry to the found it in underwater ocean. They found pieces of it

and in Alexandria Harbor. I guess you mentioned Eddie Stone Light already in Plymouth, England, which is I guess that's where the fine gin comes from. Yeah, still hitting Plymouth up if anyone out there works for Plymouth. Oh man, it's such good gin. It's delicious. So is Leopold's Leopold Gin. Yeah, it's American gin really good, too good. That's that's my go to American gin. Nice, although I like most American gin's, but that's if you had st George. I love that stuff. Yeah,

there's three of them. One of them I do not care for it all really, but the other two I like. I'll bet it's the terror terr War. You don't like it's so got a weird taste, yeah, but love it. But its own thing, the fact that it doesn't have its own classification of gin like Old Tom or Jennifer or something like that. It should have its own thing. Yeah, like foot gin. I love that stuff. It's weird, dude, it's really good. You know what it's really good with?

Have you ever had um fever tree bitter lemon. No, it's like a lemony lemon, limy, citrusy drink, but without much sweetness. Um that with the territory war gin and juice. Yeah you know, but it's it's knock your socks off. Yeah, I don't care for it. And you know what, I'll just go ahead and bring you my bottle because I've had like two drinks out of it, so I did wrap my head around. I will you just can't do it. I will email you tonight as a reminder, say, hey,

I'll bring in that st George. Thanks man. And also, by the way, I am now on because you know, I drink the dirty martini, but I don't eat olives, which is a little weird, just like the juice. Yeah the brine, okay, um with a twist, it's a little different, I know that. And um, for years I would have empty jars of dry olives in my fridge and very little juice you know in there. Oh, I know what

you're talking about. Now. So now I bought dirty sue yeah olive juice, uh, and you can buy it in a bottle, and I bought a box of it, and it just sits in the cabinet my house, nice and so big. Shout out to Dirty Sue Olive brine, really dirty, is up your Martini? What's your gin that you used for this? Well? I mean I love Plymouth, I love Hendrix and our friends at Spring forty four. Gin dude sent us gin from a They said it's all about the water, and they have like the best water on earth.

They made some old tom gin. Yeah, and it is. It is delicious like it it made. I love Martinez. Is it's um old tom gin. Uh um, marischino liqueur, not the cherry stuff, but like the real liquor, and then um some sweeter mouth. It's like probably the most perfect drink anyone's ever made. It's very old um that maybe maybe the best Martinez of overhead. That was good stuff. Well, for a while lately I've been stirring. I got a little martini picture or a cocktail picture to stir um.

But I'm back to shaking now because I found out that bruising gin is a total myth. So James Bond wasn't cuckoo. No, you can't bruise gin. Yeah, that's all just garbage. Do you use orange bitters? In yours. No, really brightens it up, straight up dirty sue gin. I do use a little vermouth like I know that people don't like vermouth at all anymore. Really, Yeah, I see bartenders now don't use any vermouth. That's that's not a martini. Well agreed, that's a gin a child gin up with

some um. Just the one in the green Italian bottle? Is that Dolan Blanc? Yeah, that's good stuff. But I also found out recently that that vermouth is a wine and you don't just keep it on your shelf for two years. Uh, you keep in the fridge for maybe a month. Yeah, I didn't know that. So I've been drinking this old old vermouth. You still can, It's not like you can't, but just for the best possible impact, you want to just get that small bottle. I learned

that the hard way. I'm gonna start doing that. Man, we we should have our own cocktail show. We should because we've just talked. We talked about booze a lot. We don't need to. Let's drink about it. Has that covered a good friends that let's drink about it. Yeah, and thanks also to Ben who sent us um some ambler smooth ambler. Uh what was it called contradiction? That stuff is good too, that's right, man, booze talk on lighthouses. Who knew? Oh, I bet you there's a lot of

boozeing that goes on at lighthouses to time. They're not making amazing drinks with St. George and bitter lemon. They're just drinking that stuff straight out of the deer skin. Yeah exactly. Um, Where were we, Eddie Stone Lighthouse, Plymouth, England? Oh? Yes, this gut started. Um. This thing is. It's a it's a very rough area to have a lighthouse, and it seems like nature doesn't want a lighthouse there because over the years it has been knocked down and burned down

many many times. This dude, basically um went out there by himself, Harry Harry or Henry Winstanley in sixteen sixty six six and just started building this wooden lighthouse out and these rocks off the coast of Plymouth. Himself got captured by a French pirate, released and lit the thing in and he actually died. He deconstructed it and rebuilt it and died in the second version of it. It got swept away with him inside but he was a

pretty cool cat. That was seventeen o three. Then another one in seventeen o eight was built that burned down in seventeen fifty five. And then a guy named John Smeaton, he was an engineer. He built one that was built to last for a little while. He actually came up with what you think of as the modern lighthouse. It's stick at the bottom, tapers at the top, and then

it flares out right below the lantern. And the reason most lighthouses flare out right below the lantern is when a wave comes up and the waves can get that big, it won't ride up into the lantern. It will be thrown back out to see when it hits the flare. It's a water guard. Pretty much interesting. I did not know that here's a smart dude. Um So that one lasted for a hundred and twenty three years, which was, you know, as far as the Eddy Stone light is concerned,

an eternity. But eventually, uh the Trinity House, which is England's version of the coast Guard of the lighthousehouse, they said, no, let's let's tear that thing down. It's this long, but we think it might not for much longer. But then they built another one. This one actually they used almost a jigsaw puzzle foundation. Yeah, so when a wave hits it, it actually compresses together and becomes stronger when a wave s kicking into it. So that was there for good, wonderful.

We talked about Boston Light. There's also the Cape Hatteras on the outer banks of North Carolina, which is I believe the tallest one in the United States two feet and it's one of the most famous as well. It's the one with the black and white barber pole design. Yeah, that's sixty three for our friends everywhere else in the world. Did you know that one was in trouble The sea was encroaching upon it, and they got some money together. Congress did and moved it. Moved this lighthouse feet back

inland over the course of twenty three days. They slowly moved it on tracks. It was pretty amazing. It was on that modern marbles one. It's like fitz CARLDO. Sure, um, I got a few more fast facts unless you have something else, No, I'm done. Uh. Six hundred and eighty lighthouses remaining in the US estimated out of that original thousand plus thirty seven states have lighthouses, just not Kansas. Michigan has the most, don't they have all the states?

Undred and twenty in Michigan because of the Great Lakes, I would imagine makes sense. The East Coast says three one, West Coast only has ninety four. I guess there's just a lot more shipping and stuff. Huh, need to step it up West coast um and worldwide. Uh. We estimate seven more than seventeen thousand lighthouses in two d and fifty countries. M and the brightest one Oak Island in North Carolina, fourteen million candle power. You can see it

twenty four miles. Great. Yeah, that's a lot. Fourteen million candles all burning. And what's pretty neat? It sounds like a new religion. The Candela's really a million is one lighting their candle and I think you just established it reciting the the candela's prayer. Nice. See we just started a religion. Yeah that easy? Well you did? I just bore a witness. That's all right. You can be my

faithful assistant. Thanks can baptize you sure? Okay? Uh. If you want to know more about lighthouses, you can type that word into the search part house too. Horse dot com. And since I talked about baptizing Chuck, it's time for listener man. Since you talked about baptizing Chuck, that must mean it's hey, guys. I recently discovered your podcast and immediately fell in love. I'm thirsty for knowledge. Find it

quite impressive that you've become quasi experts. Not really, yeah, but I'm writing in to respond to the controlled burn episode. I used to work for my local county park system doing habitat and wildlife management, and controlled burns took up many days in the early spring for us. Our department only consist of about six to seven people, three of which were licensed burn bosses by the state. They make the burn plan, they light the fire, and basically coordinate

and oversee the entire operation. I would make everybody call me burn boss totally. Um. Additionally, local fire departments volunteer personnel and sometimes equipment. Uh so they lend out their stuff which is nice, and people such as water trucks to assist. We also had quite a large number of park volunteers that go through our training and help on fire line. On the fire line as well, that would be neat. I would do that, yeah, like a Saturday afternoon.

I'm sure it's different for each state and agency um, but our burn bosses go through training put on by the state in order to get certified. I can't recall this is mentioned, but another advantage of controlled burns is that the charred earth absorbed light because it's black in color, more than it normally would, causing the soil to heat more quickly and thus early germination for the desired species. I had not considered that we didn't mention that good

factoid there. Thanks for satisfying my wondering mind, Tracy comp and since that, Ohio, thanks a lot, Tracy. We appreciate that. We always love to hear from people who know what they're talking about. Burn Boss Colma. If you want to get in touch with us, you can tweet to us at s y s K podcast or hang out with us on Instagram s y s K Podcast. You can join us on Facebook dot com slash stuff you Should Know. You can send us an email to stuff Podcast at

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