|
SEARCH ALF WEB
Help ALF
Today!
American Lighthouse Foundation, Inc.
P.O. Box 565
Rockland,
Maine 04841
Phone: 207-594-4174
Fax: 207-596-1091
info@lighthousefoundation.org
The American Lighthouse Foundation is a
Non-Profit 501(c)(3) Organization dedicated to the
preservation of America's historic
lighthouses & lightships and
their heritage.
|
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
| |
Maine Lighthouse Museum
Three Lenses on a New Path
|
|
| |
|
Lighthouse lampists Joe Cocking and Nick Johnston arrived
in Rockland, Maine on June 18 to begin the reassembly of three
lighthouse lenses, now on display at the new Maine Lighthouse Museum.
First, the Matinicus Rock 3rd order lens—a glass beauty
that served a windswept, 32-acre granite island 18 miles offshore in
Penobscot Bay, Maine.
Cocking had plenty of homework beforehand, and worked
closely with museum members Stephen Liberty and Ben Fuller. The
acquisition of the particular bearing was a critical first step.
Originally, the lens had floated on a bed of silver-white mercury, but
that had |
Photo by Ann-Marie Trapani
Joe Cocking of Lighthouse Lamp Shop, Inc.
stands next to a Fresnel lens display in the new Maine Lighthouse Museum
|
|
|
| |
been removed. They
installed a bearing so the lens could rotate again.
Original specifications called for the lens to be displayed and rotated on
the upper three feet of the pedestal. Lampists proposed a different idea to
the museum board. What about six feet, instead?
Cocking says, “The six foot pedestal gave a more accurate dimension to the
overall appearance of the lens when it was operational, and fewer
modifications to the drive assembly would be necessary.”
Pedestal in place,
Cocking and Johnston spent two days installing the |
|
| |
|
Photo courtesy Joe Cocking
Nick Johnston of Carolina Lighthouse Lens
Works readies the pedestal that supports the third order Matinicus Rock
lens display
|
old bowl, new bearing, float, and table. It worked, as
planned. Then, the installation of a complex drive system. A new motor
and BINGO! The lens’s smooth rotation commenced.
Next, Cocking and Johnston pulled apart the rotation
mechanism of Cuckolds 4th order lens. Cuckolds Lighthouse
served the |
|
|
| |
approach to Boothbay Harbor.
After a thorough inspection and cleaning of the mechanical rotation
mechanism, the lens was mounted, powered, and re-energized on its rotation
path.
Finally, the lampists mounted and secured to its pedestal Robinson Point’s
Isle Au Haut 5th order lens. Museum volunteer Captain Bob Pratt assisted in
the process.
By the end of the week, three of Maine’s old lighthouse lenses were on a
new, and public, path. Cocking and Johnston stood by, anxiously |
|
| |
|
watching that
all mechanisms were operating as they should.
Thirteen-hour
days paid off for meticulous lampists when the doors of Rockland’s new
lighthouse museum opened and visitors gathered in awe around the lens
display. Without the efforts of museum staff and lens |
Photo courtesy Joe Cocking
Joe Cocking takes a break from his work
on
the third order pedestal for the
Matinicus
Rock lens display
|
|
|
| |
professionals,
three Fresnel beauties would have remained eternally inaccessible to an
adoring public.
“It is an honor to be affiliated with the Maine Lighthouse Museum,” Cocking
says, “but equally important are the good friends we’ve made in Rockland.”
Cocking and Johnston have spent a combined 55 years of active duty in the
United States Coast Guard. They have studied in detail the intricate
specialty of
Fresnel lenses, and have worked on lighthouses and lenses nationwide.
|
|
| |
|
Photo courtesy Joe Cocking
Nick Johnston secures the third
order Fresnel lens to the pedestal
|
Since USCG retirement, each lampist initiated his own
lens restoration company: Cocking’s Lighthouse Lens Shop, Inc., in
Florida, and Johnston's Carolina Lighthouse Lens Works
Cocking says, “It is much more than mere work, it’s our
passion.”
|
|
|
| |
|
Photo courtesy Joe Cocking
Joe Cocking of Lighthouse
Lamp Shop, Inc.
|
Photo by Bob Trapani, Jr.
Nick Johnston of Carolina Lighthouse Lens
Works
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
