Lighthouses are iconic symbols of America’s coastline, and they have long been immortalized in paintings, photographs, and films. But have you ever wondered why some lighthouses are painted black and others white? The answer lies in their function. Lighthouses are built to guide ships safely to shore using a system of mirrors and lenses to magnify and reflect the light from a burning lamp inside. Their light can be seen for miles, even at night. And the color of the lighthouse is an important feature to distinguish it from other lights in the area.
Different colors indicate different things to mariners. For example, red lighthouses mark the entrance to a harbor or channel and white lighthouses warn of dangerous rocks or shoals. In order to tell one lighthouse from another at night, mariners use what is known as a “characteristic” or a “nightmark.” This could be the way that a lighthouse glows (fixed) or the pattern of its flashes. The Cheboygan Front Range lighthouse is a great example, as it has a distinctive pattern of on and off flashes every 7 1/2 seconds.
During the day, mariners identify a lighthouse by its color, shape, or paint job. For example, the Queenscliff High Light in Victoria Australia is painted with horizontal black and white stripes. The Bodie Island Lighthouse has a striped design, and the Cape Hatteras lighthouse is painted in a spiral pattern of black and white. During the time that mariners relied on these characteristics, they also had what are known as “lighthouse tables” that listed the nation’s lighthouses and their specific light and characteristic information.
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