Oregon Coast Real Estate Knowledge Center: Coast Photo Gallery featuring Online Image Tours of Key Points of Interest found along the Oregon Coast.
Coast Photo Gallery - Central Oregon Coast Lighthouses
Yaquina Bay Lighthouse - Fifth Order Fresnel Lens
The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was installed with a fifth order, non-rotating Fresnel Lens that could be seen out at sea up to 11 miles. At the time of construction, the Fresnel Lens was considered the standard for projecting a powerful beam of light and was the brilliant creation of Augustine Fresnel, a noted physicist from France. Through his studies with light patterns, Augustine Fresnel developed the lens system based on a series of hand-ground and polished lenses embedded in a cage of metal. The location of the prisms were carefully calculated and placed to achieve the desired results of light concentration. The combination of the light rays produced by the light source was directed outward, or by the angles of refraction and reflection within the prisms creating a concentration of the light rays that was projected out to sea. The Fresnel Lens was manufactured in different sizes (orders) to accommodate the location of the lighthouse and the power and distance of the light needed to be visible at sea. The Fresnel Lens used in the lighthouse was 2 feet high and 11/2 feet wide, a lens of the fifth order and it directed a steady beam of white light. The light source used in the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse was a single wick lamp burning whale oil as its fuel source. Today, the first floor Oil Room Exhibit offers interpretive information about the light-keeper’s various duties during the day and at night. The Oil House Exhibit has a Fresnel Lens similar to the one used in the lighthouse. When the lighthouse was decommissioned in 1874, the Fresnel Lens was removed and the location of the lens is not known at this point. As part of the tour, a stairwell leads from the second floor to the watch room and its exhibit area. The lantern house is built above and is not available for viewing. While the history of the lighthouse experienced both good and bad times, today it stands as a monument for the remarkable efforts of the concerned citizens who saved and later restored the lighthouse to its glory for all of us to enjoy.
Photo of the Oil Room Exhibit located at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse offering interpretive information about the lighting and upkeep of the light source as well as featuring a display of a fifth order Fresnel Lens similar in design to the one used in the original lantern house.
Photo of the curved stairwell leading from the second floor of the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse to the watch room on the third floor, a place where the keeper observed the operations of the light source plus a place to prepare the daily log of operations required by the Light House Service as part of the keeper’s duties and responsibilities.
Photo of the Watch Room Exhibit located at the Yaquina Bay Lighthouse depicting the perspective of the nightly duties performed by the lighthouse keeper in the 1870s plus a place for the keeper to watch the light burning above in the lantern house.


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