Finally a "First" For Fresnel Fans

Tony Constantino sends along this "Christmas Gift" for Harbour Lights Fresnel Fans:



Click here to see the full size page .

Tony sends his regrets that the planned special Lighthouse Legacy will not make it into distribution to Collectors Society members by email until sometime after January 10; seems the dog ate his homework the IT guy who is responsible for lists and batch emails had the audacity to take a Christmas vacation!

COOL!

Wow, this will be the ninth lens produced by Harbour Lights. I can still remember when we suggested that maybe replicas of the Fresnel Lenses would be a wonderful thing to add to our collections.

Who says Harbour Lights doesn't listen?

Bob

This would be a great item for HL to have at the ST Augustine lighthouse festival this coming March.
I wonder if there is some correlation of this coming to dealers at the time of St Augustine’s lighthouse biggest event (7,500 people).
I hope so. And I hope We will have a signing there like we use to.

You know I will have to buy this one. It is my closest lighthouse. I will have to figure out how to get it in a double digit.

This is definitely the way for Harbour Lights to kickoff the New Year! Now hopefully you'll be able to get it in the next few months. Timing is everything and I'm sure that HL made this specifically for the St Auggie event, Daniel.
Bob

AWESOME!!!!!!

This is pretty special. We knew we had a lens coming in '07, but who would have thought we would get a FIRST FRESNEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here's some facts I've collected about the actual lens at St. Augie:

1) The lens is constantly white, when lit, with a bright flash every 30 * seconds.

2) Before electricity, the keepers had to wind the clockworks system that kept the lens turning. Weights were suspended from the rotating mechanism at the top, through the center of the tower. They hung just above the weight well in the bottom of the tower. In the lens room the keepers cranked this weight up to the first landing. Once wound, it would run close to 3 hours. This equipment is no longer in the tower.

3) The lens in the lighthouse ís the original first order Fresnel lens dating to 1874. It stands 9.5 feet tall and contains 370 hand-cut prisms, including three bulls-eyes, set in brass frames.

4) Today a 90-second lens rotation, with the three evenly spaced bulls-eyes, results in a night signature of one fixed light, white flash every 30 seconds. The beam can be seen a maximum of about 20 nautical miles, or 21.5 statute miles out to sea.

I'm guessing that this latest gem lights up and flashes, but the HL flyer doesn't say. Curious and hoping it does.

Merry Christmas, Harbour Lights, and THANK YOU!

Judy (definitely a Fresnel fan!)

* FLASH Pattern: Today a 90-second lens rotation, with the three evenly spaced bulls-eyes, results in a night signature of one fixed light, white flash every 30 seconds. From:
St. Augustine Lighthouse & Museum

What a perfect addition to the Fresnel collection that Harbour Lights has crafted!

Most of your information is included in the full size PDF page, Judy. But where did you get the above? I don't think that is correct.

The mechanics of doing that would be very difficult. The entire lens is sitting on the pedestal which rotates on 'chariot wheels'.

In some other lenses with 'bulls-eye' panels, the prisms above and below the midpoint are curved to match the round shape of the bulls-eye panels.

See the Official Collectors Guide, pages 390-399.

Correction made within my post, John. It should have read 30 seconds. As to the mechanics, I will research that some more, and let you know.

Judy

Harbour lights has made a great choice for their lens this year.
Lets hope they do a follow up with a super St Aug event promoting this lens.
A two day-er at the Lighthouse festival would be great, just like the old days.

St. Augustine Lighthouse Event - Saturday, March 17. Mark your calendars. Tony says "Yes, the Fresnel lenses will be there!" and so will Bill Younger!

Do I feel a WACKO weekend gathering coming on? Perhaps a WACKO pre- or post- tour? Post your responses here

Wow, this is a cool piece!

To make the next post look better on the lighter background.. I put in this post..

Paul
May I ask how many years you have been taking pictures of Harbour Lights.
How about a little auto biography of when you started taking pictures of HL and how it started.

I started shooting HL pieces almost as soon as I started collecting them in December of 1996.. At first I shot them for a photo inventory of my personal collection...after the first Reunion and meeting John in person (we met on the internet when I started my collection) things changed.

I shot pictures of the first Reunion and John posted on the website... and around that time I came up with the cloud background and the silver base to shoot the lighthouses setup. John and I had tried different looks but decided the clouds really worked nicely..

I had all but the original Hatteras in my collection by December of 1997... I shot them all on the cloud background for both my inventory and what has become the catalog, which John carried over to the HL website.. For a few years I took the cloud setup on the road to Rosemont Show and shot the new HL releases before the show officially started..

I have been shooting AP's for the HL catalog since 2000 since the AP's came out before the releases. During he past few years Harbour Lights has graciously given me a set of AP's for shooting the lighthouses for their website..

Working on the HL Collector's Guide last year, I re-shot my whole collection since I had upgraded my digital cameras (3 times) and vastly improved my Photoshop skills over the years.. Since we wanted the whole 2006 set of lighthouses in the Collector's Guide, I shot paint samples of a couple of the late releases..

This year I also shot the paint samples for the on-line catalog of the 2007 HL releases, which of course,includes the new Fresnel in this thread.. I have been sworn to secrecy about the rest, so don't ask, but they are really nice!!

The fact that Bill and I became close friends (as well as being a close friend of John) starting with our first meeting, had a lot to do with my continued involvement with Harbour Lights photograpically. It was a natural the combining a Professional Photographer who had a complete collection (now including CH1) of Harbour Lights products to provide a catalog of Harbour Lights..

Thanks Paul
Very interesting
Hopefully you guys put this info in the HL Book.

I might take Paul's story a step back further,

Back in the AOL days, having only known some of the others thru the boards. John had asked me to take some pictures of the new releases at Rosemont to post to either the AOL boards or his very early BB (I can't remember which). When I went to Rosemont I met Paul for the first time (John had asked Paul take pictures too) and also met Mary H. (bright eyes) for the first time too (John had asked Mary take pictures too...) John was covering ALL of his bases. I think that would have been summer of 96' of maybe 97'. I think I met Tim there that same year...or maybe it was the following year.

Any of the people mentioned above can maybe correct as remembered.

Mark

It had to be 97 for Rosemont, Mark, since I got my first HL's in December of 1996..

I like this! I guess they ran out of "variations on a theme" for St. Augustine. This looks like a great bird-stone situation...there's still a piece for the event like (a bit too) usual, but it's satisfying the collectors too.

I like this "compromise." HL(/we) gets the St. Auggie piece, and we get the first order lens we've always wanted. It looks like a good situation of "the new HL" listening to both our complaints and desires and putting them together in a way that pleases all.

I also totally dig the huge pedestal. If you're doing a 1st Order, you gotta do it all the way!

Even though I know I'm not going to be buying one, I'm satisfied with the way this satisfied a lot of the desires expressed on the CF/collecting community. It's gotten to the time where LHM is beyond any Y&A "leftover plans" and have started developing the collection themselves. If this is a precursor of things to come, I think there might be a few more collector wishes coming true in the next few years.

Mark - not absolutely certain, but I think this is Rosemeont '97. And congrats on the cheesehood, your lordship!

__
/im

Paul, I like all the information you put here about youself and Harbour Lights. I printed up the info and have put it with my Official Collectors Guide. I have one fresnel lens and probably won't be buying another however, this one is a beauty.

OH YES - Roger want

I think my first Rosemont show was 1998 and I asked Paul, Mark, Mary and maybe others to take photos at 1997. I did go to Long Beach in 1997 as I recall.

I remember Jim Rutherford telling me I really should go to the Rosemont show because it was the 'big one'.

Again, another step in the right direction for Harbour Lights. This fresnel lens is awesome and has been requested by collectors for many years.

I love it and welcome it to the rest of the fresnel collection. However, I am still looking for a fresnel lens (any order will do) that incorporates "RED" resin along with the "CLEAR"!

HL's, Please consider the RED for a future edition to the Fresnel Lens line....