Fog Signal Building

Fog Signal Building. . , In 1829, Congress appropriated $1,250 for a 600-pound fog bell for Beavertail. Prior to that time the keeper fired a cannon on foggy nights. That same year a fog bell house was built adjacent to the tower., Beavertail has probably seen more types of fog signals than any other New England lighthouse. An air fog trumpet powered by a horse driving a 10-foot wheel was added in 1851. This was followed by a number of innovations, with Beavertail usually one of the first to field-test new devices., In 1939, after the Great Hurricane of 1938 destroyed the fog signal building, the Coast Guard built this structure. It contained air modulated fog signal equipment, an emergency generator, an air compressor and compressed air storage tanks., Two large diaphone trumpets protruded from the south side of the building (you can still see where the trumpet openings were). These emitted a two-tone signal: a high frequency tone and then a low frequency "grunt." A siren compressor replaced the diaphones in 1962., Its use as a fog signal building ended in 1971 when an automatic electronic fog signal was installed across the road., (The foghorn) was installed in a house by the road so that the motorist had to drive directly in front of it. If the visitor listened carefully in a fog, he could hear a sound resembling the clanking of a chain in a dungeon. Then suddenly would come a blast that would shiver the timbers of a cast iron dog. , Bertram Lippincott, Jamestown Sampler