dgadee
Well-Known Member
From the 1980s I remember the old whistling and moaning buoys. I think they were lit with acetylene. Did they flash or was there a continuous low level of light?
Gas Buoys
- Thread starter dgadee
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RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
They flashed as well. I remember one of the NLHB boats with a gas tank on deck.
dgadee
Well-Known Member
What controlled the flash? Battery and timer?
AngusMcDoon
Well-Known Member
A pilot light was alight all the time. The gas for the main light filled a small reservoir for each flash sequence which when full was released in stages to make the sequence. A quick release burnt rapidly to make a short flash and a slow release to make a long flash. Things got complicated with multiple mixed length flashes. Then the sequence repeated.
Flashing sequences used much less gas than occulting ones. A relic today is occulting lights are still rare.
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RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
I don’t know, but google AI suggests it was a diaphragm that inflated, then released the gas, ignited, burnt for a period, then the diagram retracted and repeated. No doubt there was a sequence of ports that allowed metered gas at a certain flow rate, and of course springs. It suggests the light was extinguished and relit each time.
dgadee
Well-Known Member
Just reading Maurice Griffiths again which led to my question.
RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
They did hiss when up close.
Davy_S
Well-Known Member
From what i remember, the lune horn buoy in the lune deeps, had a solar powered light, but the horn/whistle was produced by swell action, air was forced up the buoy making the noise, it could be heard from a couple of miles away.
mjcoon
Well-Known Member
In my childhood I just about remember playing with carbide to make (wetted with water) to make rather dirty acetylene. This was how, e.g., bicycle lamps would work using a dripping water tank. So no acetylene tank as is used for clean gas for a blow-torch! I suppose on/off patterns could be done by clockwork; not as complex as a real striking/chiming clock...
wikipedia.org/Carbide_lamp
Lucky Duck
Well-Known Member
The Warner buoy in the Eastern Solent was another example (marked on the charts as Whis IIRC) but the sound signal seems to have been removed. There was also one in the Thames Estuary towards the North Foreland but for the moment I can only think of ones with Bells as a fog signal that remain.
Plum
Well-Known Member
As said by others, the lights had an acetylene pilot light that ignited pulses of gas to produce the visible light. The mechanism that produced the pulses of gas in the correct time sequence and durations was powered by the pressure of the gas. They were very reliable and, obviously, worked constantly day and night. However, despite some research, I have not been able to find an actual mechanism in a museum or managed to find a drawing, cross section or explored view that illustrates how the mechanism worked.
dgadee
Well-Known Member
My first trip on a sailing boat was overnight from Ramsgate to Brighton. Weird going down past the Goodwin sands and hearing all the moaning and whistling.
Delivery trip for a colleague's new boat. Diesel leak, flat battery, etc. Sailed into Brighton in a F7. It's a wonder I ever got on a boat again
Delivery trip for a colleague's new boat. Diesel leak, flat battery, etc. Sailed into Brighton in a F7. It's a wonder I ever got on a boat again
mrming
Well-Known Member
I did the same last week!
michael_w
Well-Known Member
IRRC the gas firing mechanism was invented by the same chap as AGA cookers. He was blinded by an explosion and whilst sitting around in his kitchen he understood that the work involved in a coal range needed a re-think. this explains the the lack of controls or indicators on an AGA.
Plum
Well-Known Member
You are right, just found this but still no explanation of how the mechanism works Gustaf Dalén - Wikipedia
dgadee
Well-Known Member
It seems he won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his 'sun valve' which switched off the light in daylight.
