Journal
The language of flashes
Every light has a rhythm of its own. A single flash every ten seconds, a group of three, an occlusion where the dark is …
Nominal range and the honest range
The charts give a nominal range that assumes clear air and a certain lamp intensity. In haze that useful distance can ha…
Stepped lenses
The Fresnel lens is a stair of glass that gathers light which would otherwise scatter upward or into the ground, and thr…
Keepers' logs
The logs were kept by the hour: wind, visibility, the minute the lamp was lit and the minute it was put out. The handwri…
Automation
When the last keeper left, the light did not go out — it simply stopped being watched. A photocell lights it at dusk, a …
A short gazetteer of coasts
A loose collection of mornings: the flat eastern sands where the light stands a mile inland now that the sea has retreat…