1.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
2.
Brick
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A brick is building material used to make walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Traditionally, the term referred to a unit composed of clay. A brick can be composed of clay-bearing soil, sand, and lime, Bricks are produced in numerous classes, types, materials, and sizes which vary with region and time period, and are produced in bulk quantities. Two basic categories of bricks are fired and non-fired bricks, block is a similar term referring to a rectangular building unit composed of similar materials, but is usually larger than a brick. Lightweight bricks are made from expanded clay aggregate, fired bricks are one of the longest-lasting and strongest building materials, sometimes referred to as artificial stone, and have been used since circa 5000 BC. Air-dried bricks, also known as mudbricks, have an older than fired bricks. Bricks are laid in courses and numerous patterns known as bonds, collectively known as brickwork, the earliest bricks were dried brick, meaning that they were formed from clay-bearing earth or mud and dried until they were strong enough for use. The oldest discovered bricks, originally made from shaped mud and dating before 7500 BC, were found at Tell Aswad, in the upper Tigris region, ceramic, or fired brick was used as early as 3000 BC in early Indus Valley cities. In pre-modern China, bricks were being used from the 2nd millennium BCE at a site near Xian, the carpenters manual Yingzao Fashi, published in 1103 at the time of the Song dynasty described the brick making process and glazing techniques then in use. He also had to know when to quench the kiln with water so as to produce the surface glaze, Early civilisations around the Mediterranean adopted the use of fired bricks, including the Ancient Greeks and Romans. The Roman legions operated mobile kilns, and built large brick structures throughout the Roman Empire, during the Early Middle Ages the use of bricks in construction became popular in Northern Europe, after being introduced there from Northern-Western Italy. An independent style of architecture, known as brick Gothic flourished in places that lacked indigenous sources of rocks. Examples of this style can be found in modern-day Denmark, Germany, Poland. A clear distinction between the two styles developed at the transition to Baroque architecture. In Lübeck, for example, Brick Renaissance is clearly recognisable in buildings equipped with terracotta reliefs by the artist Statius von Düren, production of bricks increased massively with the onset of the Industrial Revolution and the rise in factory building in England. For reasons of speed and economy, bricks were increasingly preferred as building material to stone and it was at this time in London, that bright red brick was chosen for construction to make the buildings more visible in the heavy fog and to help prevent traffic accidents. The transition from the method of production known as hand-moulding to a mechanised form of mass-production slowly took place during the first half of the nineteenth century. His mechanical apparatus soon achieved widespread attention after it was adopted for use by the South Eastern Railway Company for brick-making at their factory near Folkestone, the Bradley & Craven Ltd ‘Stiff-Plastic Brickmaking Machine’ was patented in 1853, apparently predating Clayton
3.
Masonry
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Masonry is the building of structures from individual units, which are often laid in and bound together by mortar, the term masonry can also refer to the units themselves. The common materials of construction are brick, building stone such as marble, granite, travertine, and limestone, cast stone, concrete block, glass block. Masonry is generally a durable form of construction. However, the used, the quality of the mortar and workmanship. A person who constructs masonry is called a mason or bricklayer, Masonry is commonly used for walls and buildings. Brick and concrete block are the most common types of masonry in use in industrialized nations, Concrete blocks, especially those with hollow cores, offer various possibilities in masonry construction. They generally provide great strength, and are best suited to structures with light transverse loading when the cores remain unfilled. Filling some or all of the cores with concrete or concrete with steel reinforcement offers much greater tensile, the use of material such as bricks and stones can increase the thermal mass of a building and can protect the building from fire. Masonry walls are resistant to projectiles, such as debris from hurricanes or tornadoes. Extreme weather, under circumstances, can cause degradation of masonry due to expansion. Masonry tends to be heavy and must be built upon a foundation, such as reinforced concrete. Other than concrete, masonry construction does not lend well to mechanization. Masonry consists of components and has a low tolerance to oscillation as compared to other materials such as reinforced concrete, plastics, wood. Masonry has high compressive strength under vertical loads but has low tensile strength unless reinforced, the tensile strength of masonry walls can be increased by thickening the wall, or by building masonry piers at intervals. Where practical, steel reinforcements such as windposts can be added, a masonry veneer wall consists of masonry units, usually clay-based bricks, installed on one or both sides of a structurally independent wall usually constructed of wood or masonry. In this context the brick masonry is primarily decorative, not structural, the brick veneer is generally connected to the structural wall by brick ties. There is typically an air gap between the veneer and the structural wall. Concrete blocks, real and cultured stones, and veneer adobe are sometimes used in a very similar veneer fashion
4.
Fresnel lens
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A Fresnel lens is a type of compact lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses. The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass, a Fresnel lens can be made much thinner than a comparable conventional lens, in some cases taking the form of a flat sheet. A Fresnel lens can capture more light from a light source. The idea of creating a thinner, lighter lens by making it with separate sections mounted in a frame is attributed to Georges-Louis Leclerc. The Marquis de Condorcet proposed grinding such a lens from a thin piece of glass. French physicist and engineer Augustin-Jean Fresnel is most often given credit for the development of the lens for use in lighthouses. According to Smithsonian magazine, the first Fresnel lens was used in 1823 in the Cordouan lighthouse at the mouth of the Gironde estuary, scottish physicist Sir David Brewster is credited with convincing the United Kingdom to adopt these lenses in their lighthouses. The Fresnel lens reduces the amount of material required compared to a lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. An ideal Fresnel lens would have many such sections. In each section, the thickness is decreased compared to an equivalent simple lens. This effectively divides the surface of a standard lens into a set of surfaces of the same curvature. In some lenses, the surfaces are replaced with flat surfaces. Such a lens can be regarded as an array of prisms arranged in a fashion, with steeper prisms on the edges. In the first Fresnel lenses, each section was actually a separate prism, single-piece Fresnel lenses were later produced, being used for automobile headlamps, brake, parking, and turn signal lenses, and so on. In modern times, computer-controlled milling equipment might be used to more complex lenses. Fresnel lenses are made of glass or plastic, their size varies from large to medium to small. In many cases they are thin and flat, almost flexible. Modern Fresnel lenses usually consist of all refractive elements, however many of the lighthouses have both refracting and reflecting elements, as shown in the photographs and diagram
5.
Light characteristic
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The graphic indicates how the real light may be identified when looking at its actual light output type or sequence. Different lights use different colours, frequencies and light patterns, so mariners can identify which light they are seeing, while light characteristics can be described in prose, e. g. Flashing white every three seconds, lists of lights and navigation chart annotations use abbreviations. The abbreviation notation is different from one light list to another, with dots added or removed. An abbreviation of the type of light, e. g. Fl. for flashing, the color of the light, e. g. W for white, G for green, R for red, Y for yellow. If no color is given, a light is generally implied. The cycle period, e. g. 10s for ten seconds, additional parameters are sometimes added, The height of the light above the chart datum for height. The range in which the light is visible, e. g. 10M for 10 nautical miles, an example of a complete light characteristic is Gp Oc W 10s 15m 10M. A fixed light, abbreviated F, is a continuous and steady light and it is most commonly used for a single-flashing light which exhibits only single flashes which are repeated at regular intervals, in which case it is abbreviated simply as Fl. It can also be used with a group of flashes which are regularly repeated, in which case the abbreviation is Fl. or Gr Fl. for a group of two flashes. Another possibility is a group, in which successive groups in the period have different numbers of flashes. A specific case sometimes used is when the flashes are longer than two seconds, such a light is sometimes denoted long flashing with the abbreviation L. Fl. If the frequency of flashes is large the light is denoted as a quick light, an occulting light is a rhythmic light in which the duration of light in each period is longer than the total duration of darkness. In other words, it is the opposite to a flashing light where the duration of darkness is longer than the duration of light. It has the appearance of flashing off, rather than flashing on, an isophase light, abbreviated Iso, is a light which has dark and light periods of equal length. The prefix derives from the Greek iso- meaning same, a quick light, abbreviated Q, is a special case of a flashing light with a large frequency. If the sequence of flashes is interrupted by regularly repeated eclipses of constant and long duration, group notation similar to flashing and occulting lights is also sometimes used. Another distinction sometimes made is between quick, very quick and ultra quick. This can be combined with notations for interruptions, e. g. I. U. Q. for interrupted ultra quick, or grouping, e. g. V. Q. for a very quick group of nine flashes
6.
Foghorn
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A foghorn is a fog signal that uses sound to warn vehicles of navigational hazards, or boats of the presence of other vessels, in foggy conditions. The term is most often used in relation to marine transport, when visual navigation aids such as lighthouses are obscured, foghorns provide an audible warning of rock outcrops, shoals, headlands, or other dangers to shipping. All foghorns use a column of air to create an audible tone. Some horns, like the Daboll trumpet, used vibrating plates or metal reeds, others used air forced through holes in a revolving cylinder or disk, in the same manner as a siren. Audible fog signals have been used in one form or another for hundreds of years, at some lighthouses, a small cannon was let off periodically to warn away ships, but this had the obvious disadvantage of having to be fired manually throughout the whole period the fog persisted. In the United States, whistles were used where a source of steam power was available, though Trinity House. Throughout the 19th century efforts were made to automate the signalling process, Trinity House eventually developed a system for firing a gun-cotton charge electrically. However, the charge had to be replaced after each signal. Clockwork systems were developed for striking bells. Captain James William Newton claimed to have been the inventor of the fog signalling technique using loud, the first automated steam-powered foghorn was invented by Robert Foulis, a Scotsman who emigrated to Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Foulis repeatedly presented his concept to the Commissioners of Light Houses for the Bay of Fundy for installation on Partridge Island, while the Commissioners initially rejected Fouliss plan, one commissioner eventually encouraged Foulis to submit detailed plans to the Commission. For reasons unknown, the plans were given to another Canadian engineer, T. T. Vernon Smith, the foghorn was constructed at Partridge Island in 1859 as the Vernon-Smith horn. After protest by Foulis and an inquiry, Foulis was credited as the true inventor. Foulis, however, never patented or profited from his invention, the development of fog signal technology continued apace at the end of the 19th century. During the same period an inventor, Celadon Leeds Daboll, developed a coal-powered foghorn called the Daboll trumpet for the American lighthouse service, a few Daboll trumpets remained in use until the mid-20th century. In the United Kingdom, experiments to more effective foghorns were carried out by John Tyndall and Lord Rayleigh. One of the first automated fog bells was the Stevens Automatic Bell Striker, some later fog bells were placed under water, particularly in especially dangerous areas, so that their sound would be carried further and reverberate through the ships hull. For example, this technique was used at White Shoal Light and this was an earlier precursor to RACON
7.
United Kingdom Hydrographic Office
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The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office is located in Taunton, Somerset on Admiralty Way and has a workforce of approximately 1,000 staff. The UKHO is the UKs agency providing hydrographic and geospatial data to mariners and they are a trading arm of the Ministry of Defence. They are responsible for support to the Royal Navy and other defence customers. Supplying defence and the shipping industry, they help ensure Safety of Lives at Sea, protect the marine environment. Together with other national hydrographic offices and the International Hydrographic Organisation, they work to set and raise standards of hydrography, cartography. Their market-leading portfolio of ADMIRALTY Maritime Products & Services is found on over 90% of the ships trading internationally. Relied upon by mariners for over 200 years, their portfolio provides the most comprehensive range of SOLAS-compliant charts, publications and digital services to crews, cargo. The Admiraltys first Hydrographer was Alexander Dalrymple, appointed in 1795 on the order of King George III, the first chart Dalrymple published as Hydrographer to the ADMIRALTY brand did not appear until 1800. He also issued sailing directions and Notices to Mariners, Dalrymple was succeeded on his death in 1808 by Captain Thomas Hurd, under whose stewardship the department was given permission to sell charts to the public in 1821. In 1819 Captain Hurd entered into an agreement with Denmark to exchange charts. This is thought to be the earliest formal arrangement for the supply of information between the British and any foreign Hydrographic Office. Hurd developed the specialism of Royal Navy hydrographic surveyors, Rear-Admiral Sir W. Edward Parry was appointed Hydrographer in 1823 after his second expedition to discover a Northwest Passage. In 1825 some 736 charts and coastal views were being offered for sale by the Hydrographic Office, in 1828 Captain Parry and the Royal Society organised a scientific voyage to the South Atlantic, in collaboration with the Hydrographers of France and Spain, using HMS Chanticleer. In 1829, at the age of 55, Rear-Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort became Hydrographer, during his time as Hydrographer, he developed the eponymous Scale, saw the introduction of official tide tables in 1833 and instigated various surveys and expeditions. Several of these were by the HMS Beagle, including one to Tierra del Fuego, in 1831 Captain Beaufort informed Captain FitzRoy that he had found a savant for the latters surveying voyage to South America, Charles Darwin. After completing extensive surveys in South America she returned to Falmouth, Cornwall via New Zealand, by the time of Beauforts retirement in 1855, the Chart Catalogue listed 1,981 charts and 64,000 copies of them had been issued to the Royal Navy. In the 1870s the Hydrographic Service supported the Challenger expedition, an exercise that made many discoveries. The cruise was named after the vessel, HMS Challenger
8.
Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society
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Founded in 2000 by Jim Weidner, K2JXW, the Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society is devoted to maritime communications, amateur radio, lighthouses, and lightships. Its members travel to lighthouses around the world where they operate amateur radio equipment at or near the light, collecting lighthouse QSLs is popular for some amateur radio operators. ARLHS is a organization with over 1665 members worldwide as of July 2009. A convention is held in October each year, in 2010 the gathering was in Biloxi, Mississippi. In earlier years it has held in Solomons, Maryland, St. Simons, Georgia, Port Huron, Michigan. The ARLHS has been featured in magazines, such as CQ. Jim Weidner is its founding President, and Jim Buffington, K5JIM, is Vice President, the club call sign is W7QF and the website is The ARLHS maintains a catalog of lighthouses called The World List of Lights. Its main feature is a short, and easily transmitted identification number for each lighthouse, the WLOL lists any lighthouse that is or was an Aid to Navigation and can reasonably accommodate an amateur radio operation. Lights that are no longer in existence, but were once an ATN, also show up on the list, with over 15,000 entries, the WLOL is one of the most complete lighthouse catalogs in existence. Amateur Radio Lighthouse Society Website ARLHS Convention web site Indias First ARLHS activation in Mahaballipuram, Chennai, India Aug 2008 Kadalur Lighthouse Centenary and ILLW operation Aug 2009
9.
United States Coast Guard
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The United States Coast Guard is a branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the countrys seven uniformed services. This has happened twice, in 1917, during World War I, created by Congress on 4 August 1790 at the request of Alexander Hamilton as the Revenue Marine, it is the oldest continuous seagoing service of the United States. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton headed the Revenue Marine, by the 1860s, the service was known as the U. S. Revenue Cutter Service and the term Revenue Marine gradually fell into disuse, the modern Coast Guard was formed by a merger of the Revenue Cutter Service and the U. S. Life-Saving Service on 28 January 1915, under the U. S. Department of the Treasury. As one of the five armed services, the Coast Guard has been involved in every U. S. war from 1790 to the Iraq War. As of 2014 the Coast Guard had over 36,000 men and women on duty,7,350 reservists,29,620 auxiliarists. In terms of size, the U. S. Coast Guard by itself is the worlds 12th largest naval force. Because of its authority, the Coast Guard can conduct military operations under the U. S. Department of Defense or directly for the President in accordance with Title 14 USC 1–3. The Coast Guards enduring roles are maritime safety, security, to carry out those roles, it has 11 statutory missions as defined in 6 U. S. C. §468, which include enforcing U. S. law in the worlds largest exclusive economic zone of 3.4 million square miles, the Coast Guards motto is the Latin phrase, Semper Paratus. In a 2005 article in Time magazine following Hurricane Katrina, the author wrote, the Coast Guards most valuable contribution to may be as a model of flexibility, and most of all, spirit. Wil Milam, a swimmer from Alaska told the magazine, In the Navy. Practicing for war, training for war, in the Coast Guard, it was, take care of our people and the mission will take care of itself. The Coast Guard carries out three basic roles, which are subdivided into eleven statutory missions. Both agencies maintain rescue coordination centers to coordinate this effort, and have responsibility for military and civilian search and rescue. The two services jointly provide instructor staff for the National Search and Rescue School that trains SAR mission planners and coordinators, previously located on Governors Island, New York, the school is now located at Coast Guard Training Center Yorktown at Yorktown, Virginia. The NRC also takes Maritime Suspicious Activity and Security Breach Reports, details on the NRC organization and specific responsibilities can be found in the National Oil and Hazardous Substances Pollution Contingency Plan. The Marine Information for Safety and Law Enforcement database system is managed and used by the Coast Guard for tracking pollution, the five uniformed services that make up the U. S
10.
National Register of Historic Places
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The National Register of Historic Places is the United States federal governments official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation. The passage of the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966 established the National Register, of the more than one million properties on the National Register,80,000 are listed individually. The remainder are contributing resources within historic districts, each year approximately 30,000 properties are added to the National Register as part of districts or by individual listings. For most of its history the National Register has been administered by the National Park Service and its goals are to help property owners and interest groups, such as the National Trust for Historic Preservation, coordinate, identify, and protect historic sites in the United States. While National Register listings are mostly symbolic, their recognition of significance provides some financial incentive to owners of listed properties, protection of the property is not guaranteed. During the nomination process, the property is evaluated in terms of the four criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places, the application of those criteria has been the subject of criticism by academics of history and preservation, as well as the public and politicians. Occasionally, historic sites outside the proper, but associated with the United States are also listed. Properties can be nominated in a variety of forms, including individual properties, historic districts, the Register categorizes general listings into one of five types of properties, district, site, structure, building, or object. National Register Historic Districts are defined geographical areas consisting of contributing and non-contributing properties, some properties are added automatically to the National Register when they become administered by the National Park Service. These include National Historic Landmarks, National Historic Sites, National Historical Parks, National Military Parks/Battlefields, National Memorials, on October 15,1966, the Historic Preservation Act created the National Register of Historic Places and the corresponding State Historic Preservation Offices. Initially, the National Register consisted of the National Historic Landmarks designated before the Registers creation, approval of the act, which was amended in 1980 and 1992, represented the first time the United States had a broad-based historic preservation policy. To administer the newly created National Register of Historic Places, the National Park Service of the U. S. Department of the Interior, hartzog, Jr. established an administrative division named the Office of Archeology and Historic Preservation. Hartzog charged OAHP with creating the National Register program mandated by the 1966 law, ernest Connally was the Offices first director. Within OAHP new divisions were created to deal with the National Register, the first official Keeper of the Register was William J. Murtagh, an architectural historian. During the Registers earliest years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, organization was lax and SHPOs were small, understaffed, and underfunded. A few years later in 1979, the NPS history programs affiliated with both the U. S. National Parks system and the National Register were categorized formally into two Assistant Directorates. Established were the Assistant Directorate for Archeology and Historic Preservation and the Assistant Directorate for Park Historic Preservation, from 1978 until 1981, the main agency for the National Register was the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service of the United States Department of the Interior. In February 1983, the two assistant directorates were merged to promote efficiency and recognize the interdependency of their programs, jerry L. Rogers was selected to direct this newly merged associate directorate
