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
Cape Meares Lighthouse - First Order Fresnel Lens
The Cape Meares Lighthouse was officially illuminated on January 1, 1890 and included a five-wick kerosene lamp as its original light source. In 1910, the light source was upgraded to a more efficient incandescent oil vapor (IOV) lamp system, which produced a cleaner and more brilliant flame. The light source was changed again in 1934 with the addition of electricity and in 1963, the Coast Guard elected to decommission the Cape Meares Lighthouse and replaced it with an automated beacon system. The automated beacon system is installed on a concrete blockhouse sited to the east of the lighthouse and today continues to provide navigational aid to local mariners. The original lighthouse optics installed were built in Paris, France and included a first order Fresnel Lens, the largest lens size made. The lens is comprised of hundreds of glass prisms ground and polished to produce a powerful light beam. The lens design included an eight-sided design with four primary lenses and four bull’s-eye lenses with red glass panels covering the bull’s-eye lenses, thereby producing a white and red light pattern. The signature pattern of the Cape Meares Lighthouse included 30 seconds of fixed white light from the primary lens followed by a red flash of 5 seconds from the bull’s-eye lens once every minute. The focal plane of the light source was 223 feet above sea level and was visible for more than 21 miles out to sea. Today, the Cape Meares Lighthouse greets thousands of visitors each year who are attracted to the lighthouse and the Cape Meares Area. Taking a moment to explore the first order Fresnel Lens in the lantern house enhances the interpretive experience while reminding us of the amazing design ingenuity that went into lighthouse optics for creating powerful light beams seen within the local shipping lanes off the Oregon Coast.
Photo of the trail heading west as its approaches the lantern house of the Cape Meares Lighthouse and its associated first order Fresnel Lens, the largest lens manufactured for lighthouse optics which included hundreds of glass prisms ground and polished to produce a powerful light beam.
Photo of the lighthouse optics of the Cape Meares Lighthouse featuring a first order Fresnel Lens built in Paris, France and an eight-sided design with four primary lenses and four bull’s-eye lenses with red glass panels covering the bull’s eye lenses.
Photo of the historic Cape Meares Lighthouse which produced a signature pattern of 30 seconds of fixed white light from the primary lens followed by a red flash of 5 seconds from the bull’s-eye lens once every minute coupled with the adjacent automated beacon system on top of the concrete blockhouse now in use by the Coast Guard for navigational aid.


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