TBHLCC installs Prism at Pt Sur Lightstation

On July 1st, 12 members of the TBHLCC, the Pt. Sur Docents (volunteers from the Central Coast Lighthouse Keepers), and a small group of guest were on hand to witness the installation of Deck Prism number 96.

In an effort to help raise funds for their ongoing restoration, the CCLK has the “Buy a Prism” program, where they place a deck prism in the floor of the lantern room, in honor of the person or group, for a donation of $1000. The lantern room deck had spaces for 180 prisms, and it just so happened that the CCLK needed to raise over 150 thousand dollars to help fund the restoration of the lightstation. As of July 1st when the TBHLCC’s prism was installed the CCLK has received donations for approximately 140 of the Prisms.

The TBHLCC after their whirlwind tour of the west coast last year discovered that they had $2880 left over after all of their bills had been paid. During the last day of the trip those of us on the bus voted to divide the money evenly between 3 lighthouses. The lighthouses chosen where Pt. Sur, Pt. Arena, and Pt. Cabrillo At the next board meeting it was moved to add $220 to this amount from our general fund so that we could provide each light with exactly $1000. As it turned out this was also the price for “Buying” a prism at Pt. Sur. Originally the members of the TBHLCC told the CCLK to install our prism for us as we are all the way across the country and it would be very unlikely for a group of us to return to Pt. Sur. Things do have a way of working themselves out and when it was announced that Harbour lights was going to have it’s regional in Oakland, the Board of the TBHLCC decided to kill two birds with one stone and asked the CCLK if they could hold the placement ceremony during our time in California for the regional. So it came to pass that on a very beautiful Thursday, on the first day of July 2004, the installation ceremony took place.

Apon our arrival at the station we were led up the road to the lighthouse, and climbed into the tower’s watch room. Here the Docents unwrapped two prisms. One was the prism that will remain in the tower, and the second is engraved with the Prism number, the name of the donor, and the date that the prism was set. After a short speech, the head docent Joe, lead Wayne Hawes, President of the TBHLCC and Sharon Puls Vice President up onto the lantern deck and had them place the engraved prism into space number 96. After everyone got their pictures, they then removed the engraved prism, and Joe handed them the “real” prism and they placed it into it’s permanent home.

After the ceremony, the CCLK hosted a light lunch and showed off the progress of the last year's restoration work.

Prism number 96 held in the hand of Docent Douglas Williams.

Wayne, Sharon, and Joe place prism number 96 into it’s new home.

Prisms numbered 91 (one by it’s self in a row of one), 93, 94 (side by side in a row of four) and 96 (one in the row of three) in place in the lantern room deck.

Pt Sur Lighthouse, from the walkway to the rest of the station.

Are deck prisms valuable? It seems I've seen one now and then for sale in stores along the coast. I never knew exactly what it was. Were they also used in ships?

Maybe the ones I saw were just replicas. Inquiring minds on the East Coast, where the water is still cold but the weather has been more summer-like, would like to know.

Bob

Grest Pictures
Deck Prism's in my understanding were installed on ship's to allow sunlight to get below decks to provide light in areas that did not have port holes or any other openings for light.

Hank

The same applies with lighthouses. Many lights had grates in the floor of the lantern room like the ones at Pt Sur. I know for a fact that Anclote Keys has similar though smaller prism holes. They allowed light into the watchroom from the lantern room. We have to remember that in the days before electricity your sources of light were either an open flame or the Sun. The Lighthouse Board probably did not like the thought of an open flame in the watch room, as this was where the keepers usually stored an amount of fuel sufficient to run the light through their shift.

At Big Sur when they started to restore the tower, only 2 of the old prisms were still in the tower. One was badly damaged and the other was almost impossible to remove. They took this intact prism to a glassmaker and had 180 made to place in the tower. It was at this point they decided to place a prism for those people or groups that donated a minimum of $1000 to the restoration fund.

Nice photo and write-up Eric. John bought a prism similar to the ones shown when we were in Mystic, CT. We use it for a paper weight in the office.

Nice pics and write-up Eric. MJ and I wish we could have been there with all of you to see this wonderful lighthouse again. Congratualtions to TBHLCC.

Ron
(CT Keeper)

do we have 100 wackos that may be interested in donating $10 each to sponsor a prism from the forums? count me as number one

I'm 2. Great idea, Jim!

Make me 3. Good Idea. The CCLK can and will make very good use of any donation we make to them.

Jim,

I'll be #4. I'd suggest though that you start a new thread with this theme so people can more easily find it and respond.

This thread is a bit old and not everyone will keep coming back to read new posts.

Dennis

Hey Jim
Count me as #5, it's a great Idea. And since I live in California about 2 hours from Big Sur I've been there several times. But not in the last couple of years. But if we do this, I would love to be there for the setting of the Prism.

Count me in....
Derith

Put us down as #7 and #8.

Count me in too ...any excuse to go back to Point Sur :rolleyes:
Ruthie

Continue your count off at this new thread

Eric, one thing I'm curious of. How are the prisms held in place? Are they just held in by gravity, or is there some kind of substance more permanently keeping them in place?

You know I can't remember off hand. I'll ask some of the other members that were there and see if anyone remembers a mention of any substance.