Powerhouse

Powerhouse. Twin Lights Historic Site. , The building in front of you is the powerhouse. Inside the large double doors to your right were the engines and dynamos used to produce electrical power to light the lamp for the 1898 south tower Fresnel lens. This brick building, built in 1909, replaced a temporary wooden structure., The noise from the engines housed inside was incredibly loud. Local residents complained about the noise and the intensity of light coming from the south tower. Blackout panels were installed on the landward side of the south tower, but nothing could be done about the noise., In 1917, the machinery needed costly repairs. The Light House Board decided not to repair it, but replaced the electric lamp with an incandescent oil vapor lamp that was used until 1924 when commercial electrical power became available. The original machinery was removed in 1921, broken up and discarded because it was no longer needed., Today the powerhouse is used as an exhibit building to display Twin Lights' famous south tower Fresnel lens., [Captions:] , Letter of Complaint about the South Tower Beacon, July 26, 1898, The Hornsby Akroyd Company Advertisement , Hornsby Akroyd engines ran on kerosene and were used to turn electric dynamos that powered the south tower beacon. There were two of these engines in this powerhouse., Lighthouse Keeper Murphy Rockett Examining the South Tower Fresnel Lens, 1937 , At 25,000-candle power, this was one of the brightest beacons in the United States.