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Toledo Harbor Lighthouse’s 1904 lens closer
to home
By J. Patrick Eaken
Press Staff Writer
news@presspublications.com
The Toledo Harbor Lighthouse’s original 1904 Paris Barbier and
Bernard Fresnel Lens is moving closer to home.
The lens that provided the historic lighthouse’s light across Lake Erie is currently resting in the Quilter Lodge at Maumee Bay State Park. The Toledo harbor light marks the entrance to the Toledo shipping channel from Lake Erie through Maumee Bay and into the Maumee River.
Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Society director Sandy Bihn promises the day will arrive “when,” and not “if,” the lens will rotate again in the historic lighthouse.
The Toledo lighthouse is located on a crib about five miles from the marina at the state park. The lens is a Third-and-a-Half Order Fresnel lens that has since been replaced by a 300-mm modern plastic optic.
The original lens used a series of prisms. Beginning with a small flame, the prisms amplify the flame into a light show visible from 16 miles.
The lens consists of a large bulls-eye of 180 degrees, which used to have a half cylinder of ruby glass, and two smaller bulls-eyes of 60 degrees each. The lens produced two white flashes followed by a red flash and is 72 feet above normal water level.
The light replaced the Turtle Island Light that had marked the entrance to the Maumee River since 1831. As marine commerce and the size of vessels increased, there was a need for deeper water in Maumee Bay. In 1897, the Corps of Engineers dredged a shipping channel through Maumee Bay.
James Woodward, the lampist moving the lens, used to serve on the Tupelo from 1963-64, whose duties included servicing the light. In 1995, Woodward moved the lens from the lighthouse to the Coast Guard and then the lens was moved to COSI.
This is the second time Woodward has moved the Toledo Fresnel lens. He has moved many other lenses, including Cape Hatteris.
Last Tuesday, Woodward began training members of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Society on how to properly clean the lens, training required by the Coast Guard. The lens will soon be enclosed in glass for preservation.
Putting the lens at the lodge at Maumee Bay State Park allows visitors to see the lens anytime and it will help to have an important part of the lighthouse on shore, Bihn said. She said the society hopes that having the lens at Maumee Bay will assist with efforts to restore the lighthouse.
Woodward said after the lighthouse society is finished cleaning the lens and has it in working order at Maumee Bay, it should not be displayed so the light shines directly in anyone’s eyes.
“When it rotates, you don’t want more than a 40-watt bulb, and you want it out of the focal point and not in the perfect center of the light. It should be set low, that way the light goes up,” he said, adding that if you shine the light directly at someone standing adjacent to it, it could be blinding.
Woodward said even if you shine the light in another direction, you can still see the colors created by its prisms, which reflect and bend light in different directions.
Woodward told members of the Toledo Harbor Lighthouse Society that the lens is brittle, and has to be treated with care. The glass is encased in mostly bronze, with some brass and wooden wedges to help perfect the angles of the prisms.
“When you get this thing going, you are not going to believe the difference between the way it looks now and the way it will look then,” Woodward said. “It is going to look like a gem. It is going to look like a diamond.”
Woodward, who goes by the nickname “Woody,” arrived with assistant Kurt Fosburg from Marquette, Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. He said there were only three lenses like Toledo’s Fresnel lens in the world.
The U.S. Coast Guard owns the Toledo Fresnel lens and leases the lens. The lease expired with COSI in December 2007. The lighthouse society is now leasing the lens from the Coast Guard.
“I was so glad when I learned that this group wanted the lens,” Woodward said. “I was upset the day I found out this was going to COSI, and that was in 1995. A lens like this does not belong in a children’s museum.”
Bihn said, “It could have been worse. It could’ve been where it wouldn’t have been heated. The fact that it is one of three types of lenses is unique, and the fact that the lighthouse is unique will help us to get noticed.”
Bihn says the lighthouse has also been described by lighthouse experts as architecturally unique.
“We have a really special place, and we have a really special light, and I think the two go hand in hand,” Bihn said, adding that if the lens is ever re-installed in the lighthouse, it will help make it “historically correct.”
The lighthouse has 70 windows which are to be restored, and once that is complete, Bihn said, “It would make that lighthouse so different, then we can get inside and get the restoration going.”
The restored lighthouse will be used for public viewing, education, research, and emergency preparedness. The TLHS, a nonprofit organization, got title to the lighthouse in 2007.
Bihn added that the society has set a goal to get the lighthouse nominated for a national competition once restoration, which could take years, is complete.
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