Nobska Lighthouse’s Fresnel Lens
We periodically field questions from the community that lead us down all kinds of fun alleyways of history. We recently received the following inquiry:
“ I am a tour guide at Nobska lighthouse in Woods Hole. The lighthouse has a Fresnel Lens, installed in or about 1885. It is a ‘5th order’ lens which replaced an older 4th order lens that was installed in or about 1856. We are told the original, older, 4th order lens was manufactured in France and shipped here. My question is about the newer, 1885 5th order lens. To my knowledge we don't know if it too came from France or was manufactured closer to here. I understand that Fresnel lenses were produced in Sandwich. Have you any more information, or are there records of production of the lens for Nobska light in 1885? Thank you!”
Our collections curator, Olivia Padula, did some research and came up with the following answer:
At the time of the lens you are asking about, the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company would have been commercially producing pressed or mold blown Fresnel Lenses. Judging by the look of the documented fragments found discarded at the site of the factory, I think BSGC was making 5th or 6th order lenses. According to Volume 2 of The Glass Industry in Sandwich by Raymond Barlow and Joan E Kaiser, reproduced below, the lenses were pressed (as opposed to blown and then hand cut) at the time period in question. Colored fresnel lenses, typically used as port and starboard directional lights in marine navigation, were made by coating them on the smooth inside with a thin layer of colored glass, called flashing. And the authors offer evidence of the production of a lighthouse Fresnel lens, though for a lighthouse up in Maine, not in nearby Woods Hole.
I have not yet been able to find a specific invoice/order that documents the creation of a lens for your specific light house, but it is certainly possible that the Nobska light lens was indeed manufactured on Cape by the Boston & Sandwich Glass Company. The photo is of a Fresnel lens lantern in our permanent collection that was definitely made here in Sandwich, so we do know for certain the factory was making Fresnel lenses in this timeframe.
A Fresnel Lens marine navigation lantern (starboard side) from the Sandwich Glass Museum permanent collection.
Page 235 from Volume 2 of The Glass Industry in Sandwich by Raymond Barlow and Joan E Kaiser
