ere 
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A METHOD OF USING COMMON PETROLEUM AS THE 
ILLUMINANT FOR BEACONS AND BUOYS BY WHICH 
A CONTINUOUS LIGHT MAY BE MAINTAINED, DAY 
AND NIGHT, FOR WEEKS OR MONTHS, WITHOUT 
THE NECESSITY FOR THE ATTENDANCE OF A 
LIGHT-KEEPER. By JOHN R. WIGHAM, M.R.1.A., 
Member of the Council of the Royal Dublin Society. 
¢ 
[Read January 22; Received for Publication January 24; Published June 12, 1896.] 
Tue placing of lights on the beacons and buoys which mark the 
rocks and the shoals of our navigable rivers and estuaries, and 
show the safe channels by which these dangers may be avoided, is 
becoming an important branch of the system of general coast 
illumination of every civilized country, and is increasingly claim- 
ing the attention of Harbour Boards and Nautical Authorities. 
The lights for such purposes do not need to be of high illumi- 
nating power, not requiring to be seen from a great distance, but 
the isolated positions in which they have to be placed, and the 
impossibility of providing for them the attendance of light-keepers, 
make it imperative that these lights should be so constructed that 
they will continue to burn without any such attendance for long 
periods, say for weeks or months, as may be required by the 
difficulty of access or otherwise. 
Hitherto buoysand isolated, or partially isolated, beacons have 
generally been illuminated by compressed oil-gas which is capable 
of maintaining the light for a considerable period of time, and when 
the compressed gas is exhausted, a further supply is brought along- 
side, by boat or steam tender, and the empty receiver of the beacon 
or buoy is replenished, the new supply of gas being brought to 
it from a special gas making establishment on shore. All this 
renders the illumination of the buoy or beacon by compressed gas 
expensive and troublesome and a less expensive and simpler plan, 
such as that about to be described, very desirable. 
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