Whitby High Lighthouse And Fog Horn

For those that may be unaware of how a foghorn sounds:

One reporter, after hearing a siren for the first time, described it as having “a screech like an army of panthers, weird and prolonged, gradually lowering in note until after half a minute it becomes the roar of a thousand mad bulls, with intermediate voices suggestive of the wail of a lost soul, the moan of a bottomless pit and the groan of a disabled elevator.

The propagation of sound is not a constant, especially during periods of fog. Cold and warm layers of air cause sound to deflect, skip, bounce, echo and sometimes stop cold. The sound from a fog signal might be heard at one mile, not at two miles and again at three. A mariner thinks he hears a fog signal from one direction, when in fact it originated some 45 degrees to the right...or 30 degrees to the left. And distances cannot be determined with any accuracy. Not only is it hard to tell the distance one hears a signal, it is impossible to predict that a signal can be heard at a certain range. A signal “rated” for four miles might be heard at only two miles or, given the right atmospherics, 8 miles.

The History of Fog Signals by Wayne Wheeler

Originally, it was one of a pair of towers aligned north-south and known as the twin lights of Whitby South the present lighthouse) and Whitby North (since demolished);] together they were sometimes referred to as the High Whitby lights. The North Light was of a similar octagonal design to the surviving South Light, but taller at 20.5 m (67 ft) (so that, although the North tower was on lower ground, the two lights were on the same focal plane).Their purpose was to show a fixed pair of lights which, when in transit, lined up with Whitby Rock (an offshore hazard to shipping). Each was equipped with a paraffin lamp and a large (first-order) fixed optic designed by Chance Brothers.

A pair of single-storey keepers' cottages was attached to each tower. In 1890, a more efficient lamp (a powerful eight-wick mineral-oil burner) was installed in the South Light, allowing the North Light to be deactivated: an occulting mechanism was also installed, which eclipsed the light once every thirty seconds, and a red sector was added marking Whitby Rock. The North Lighthouse was then demolished (but its lantern and optic both went on to be re-used at a new lighthouse then being built at Withernsea).

Whitby High lighthouse was electrified in 1976 (after which the 'Hood' paraffin vapour burner, which had been the active light source up until that point, was donated to the Whitby Museum)

Wikipedia

Whitby Lighthouse was automated in 1992 and is monitored and controlled via telemetry link from the Trinity House Central Planning Unit at Harwich.

Character - White and red isophase every 5 seconds

Range of Light - White Light 18 nautical miles; red light 16 nautical miles

Trinity House