Old Lamp from the Lighthouse
I quickly went through the Valentia Island Lighthouse. It wasn’t very big. You basically run go to the top of the lighthouse and come back in. There are some stuff inside the lighthouse to make the entrance fee more worth it. There is lighthouse stuff on exhibit here. There were mechanisms here which I think make the light turn. Come of think of it, I never really thought how light houses work. I would imagine that it was two lamps on opposite sides of each other and they are rotated by this mechanism. However, it seems I was mistaken, at least for this one.
Rotating Mechanism at Valentia Lighthouse
One of the exhibits show an old lamp from the lighthouse. I was surprised to see that there seems to be shades which surround the lamp. There would be slots where the light can pass through. I realized that this one rotates not the light but the shades which is much lighter. The lamp would just be one large light source. By rotating the shades, the light would appear to be rotating when in fact it would just be a controlled revealing of light. It was an interesting thing to see. There were also exhibits of the radio which they used back then. I’m not sure if it is still used these days since there is satellite communication.
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