I just received my Oct-Dec copy of "The Keeper's Log", the quarterly publication of the USLS. In it is an article on fresnel lens restorations at the Ponce Lighthouse. Haven't read it yet but I.O. gave it a look tonight after I told him about POTTAWATOMIE's plans.

In the portion of the article that deals with work done on the Cape Canaveral lens it says, "Acrylic was used in some areas because of the difficulty and expense of replacing the missing prisms with optically correct glass. The Corning factory had tried making replacement glass for this lens and found that a single prism could cost as much as $5,000!" I suppose the design of the lens helps dictate the cost. But after reading this except from this article it sure seems that the new planned lens would most likely be acrylic?

This article also tells the story of the restoration of the 1st and 3rd order lenses that served/serve Ponce. It seems that glass was used for the replacement prisms but another factor involved was the intented use of the lens. For display purposes the prisms don't have to be "aimed" but they do if the lens is to be used in a working lighthouse. So...if the proposed replica lens is going to be "functional" I sure hope that means the light will be restored to the tower!

IMO, you can spend all the money in the world to restore a lighthouse but if the lantern room is dark it's just a restored building. Of course it's not feasible to relight every lighthouse but if there is a functioning light on a nearby skeletal tower, why not transfer the light back to the lighthouse if possible?