Njal wrote in post #19330393
From https://williamsugghistory.co.uk/lighting/columns-brackets/
"Here we have another ‘find’. This extraordinary post is clearly the same design as the others. It was found at Lydney Harbour on the river Severn where it acted for many years as a warning light. In the close-up you can see the remains of a circular lantern base on a typical 4 legged mounting ‘frog’.
An archive picture indicates that this was a globe lamp with part of the glazing blacked out. In its original gas lit state the open flame burner would have been mounted rigidly on the gas pipe passing up the post. Ignoring the crudely added electrical insulators, presumably from a later overhead wiring addition, the wheel and pinion are driven by a shaft passing up the outside of the post from a crank handle. The ladder was obviously mounted permanently to enable the operator to clean the lantern glass and attend to the burner – maybe even lighting it every time it was required – in this clearly exposed location. Exactly how and when it was operated has not been discovered as yet but by rotating the lantern with the crank the light could be made to flash across the harbour in the same way as a lighthouse. Under what circumstances this manual operation was used is unknown although fog seems to be quite likely"
From https://williamsugghistory.co.uk/lighting/columns-brackets/
"Here we have another ‘find’. This extraordinary post is clearly the same design as the others. It was found at Lydney Harbour on the river Severn where it acted for many years as a warning light. In the close-up you can see the remains of a circular lantern base on a typical 4 legged mounting ‘frog’.
An archive picture indicates that this was a globe lamp with part of the glazing blacked out. In its original gas lit state the open flame burner would have been mounted rigidly on the gas pipe passing up the post. Ignoring the crudely added electrical insulators, presumably from a later overhead wiring addition, the wheel and pinion are driven by a shaft passing up the outside of the post from a crank handle. The ladder was obviously mounted permanently to enable the operator to clean the lantern glass and attend to the burner – maybe even lighting it every time it was required – in this clearly exposed location. Exactly how and when it was operated has not been discovered as yet but by rotating the lantern with the crank the light could be made to flash across the harbour in the same way as a lighthouse. Under what circumstances this manual operation was used is unknown although fog seems to be quite likely"
Thanks Neil. All very interesting.
That link is well worth a read.
