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WE
ARE AN ISLAND RACE
We live by the sea and come from a long line of seafaring
people.
Lighthouses are reminders of who we are and how our
forbears lived.
This is
an appeal for someone
to take the initiative
and form a not-for-profit organization,
(Friends of the Elie Lighthouse), for the purpose of restoring the outward appearance
of
our Stevenson lighthouse to the look of how it was designed and
built and as it stood on the Elie Ness for the first half of its lifetime.
The lighthouse is
currently operated and administered by The Northern Lighthouse Board.
Today,
on
October 1, 2008 the lighthouse has shone its reassuring light
for every day of the last 100 years. Imagine that day 100 years ago
when the building of the lighthouse was finished and the lighthouse was
lit for the first time enabling it's rotating beam to sweep the darkness
.
When the lighthouse
was built it was topped with a
distinctive glass lantern house and it was crowned by a sloping copper
roof and a weather vane.
The lighthouse was pristine and looked like a traditional lighthouse.
To me
there's
nothing more sad, lonesome and forlorn than a lighthouse that's been decapitated and
Winged Victory in the Louvre our lighthouse isn't.
Leaving
the top of our lighthouse off is no different than
if the Nelson Column, Big Ben, the Scott Monument or the
steeple of the local church had their upper sections removed, for whatever reason, then
were left that way.
The
present-day topless look of the lighthouse came about as a result
of the rotating flashing light being automated.
The entire upper lantern house structure
was removed
including the system of fresnel
lens that surrounded the acetylene gas flame
and the rotating light beam. (Acetylene gas for the light source was generated at the
lighthouse by equipment that added water to calcium carbide.)
In its place was installed a
flashing electric light bulb. When this happened an iron stairway was
attached to the upper structure of the lighthouse and a
wooden shed was erected alongside.
The
lighthouse doesn't have to look like it now does. Lighthouses around the world have been converted from flame to the
flashing light being created by means of an intermittently flashing
electric light. When this new technology was embodied into
these lighthouses their original
external
appearances were carefully and meticulously preserved so each lighthouse
would have
the best of
both worlds.
After the
"deed" as I paused in my search
for rubies at the Lady's Tower nearby the inspirational aura that our lighthouse had emitted
became a thing of my past. Each day after the deed, in my naivety,
I expected the top to the lighthouse to be put back on but the
days went into weeks, then months, then years.
Each
summer one lady artist would set up her easel and lovingly
make one more painting of the lighthouse. After the beheading she never
made another and I well understood why.
The
lighthouse, at one time, fulfilled the utilitarian purpose of protecting
and guiding mariners.
With the technological advancements of Radar and
Satellite Global Positioning it's day of maritime usefulness is about
over.
In this world of rapid
change lighthouses transcend
physical maritime utility.
Lighthouses are more than just guiding lights that shine in
the darkness.
During the hours of
daylight, as our lighthouses stand steadfast on
windswept promontories, lighthouses make a statement of solidarity
and permanence and are a source of
inspiration whether viewed by the eye of the beholder or the brain of the absentee.
The
celebration of the 100 year anniversary which will occur on the 1st. of October 2008
would be the ideal time for someone to launch a public appeal as to
restoration.
However nothing will change
unless
someone or some entity cares enough and comes forward to make it
happen. It can be done.
Money
wise it wont take much to restore the "look" and the aura of the
lighthouse. What it will take is desire and effort.
A source of restoration funding could be the national
Heritage Lottery
Fund
which provides funding for worthwhile historical, restoration
projects.
The lighthouse
is a visible link to our Scottish History and Maritime Heritage.
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The
first one hundred years
The
First of October 2008 has come and gone.
There are only a handful of locals who know and remember the lighthouse as
it once was and the coastguards who were the lighthouse keepers. John
McKevlin and Ernie Gillard whose fathers were coastguards and keepers
of the light were two of my school classmates.
Each
night as I was put to bed I counted the intervals of time as the
reassuring and rotating beam of light reflected it's pattern on to the ceiling of my bedroom. In no
time each night I was sound asleep.
The
lady artist I referred to above was
my silver haired mother.
At age 93 she painted her
next to the last painting for me. It was of the nearby Lady's Tower. At
age 94 and from memory as her eyesight
was failing she painted for me what was to be her last one. It was of the Auld Kirk
at St Monans, the ancient church where she was baptized, married and
finally laid to rest in it's churchyard.
My
first grade teacher Miss Mowat was quite impressed when I first
attended her class and she discovered that because of the lighthouse I knew intervals of time and
that I knew how to count.
Before
the lighthouse was modernized the
operation of the lighthouse was highly labor intensive. The light had to be tended and serviced 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The lens'
required that they be kept polished. The gas generator was required to be kept
constantly cleaned out and supplied with new batches of calcium carbide.
The residual sludge from the spent carbide had to be kept removed. There
were two nearby holding ponds for this sludge which as a byproduct had
considerable value. Used as a paint on exterior surfaces of buildings
the sludge dried to form a completely waterproof, long lasting and
brilliant white coating. When villagers needed white paint to paint their
white houses
they just arrived with whatever containers and wheelbarrows they had on
hand to carry home the sludge that was free for the taking. The sludge was used
to coat the lighthouse itself and ended up on many of the houses in the
village. Indeed there are likely a few houses that still have external walls and
interior ceilings
that are so coated.
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I've
been asked, numerous times, "Why do you care? What's it to you?" I care
because the lighthouse isn't a case of out of sight, out of mind. The lighthouse is and has been a part of me for the
84 years
that I have been on this earth. It is a part of my being, whether I like
it or not ---- even though I've been away from it for 56 years and see
it up close maybe once every 5 years. It is a part of me. It's message and inspiration
became imprinted on me as it does on everyone who sees it.
We
should restore the outward appearance.
The
Lighthouse on Elie Ness as when it was built.
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