Scottish Lighthouses

[GFS]

Any Scots among us? Can anyone suggest what organization would have been responsible for overseeing lighthouses during the 1920s? Would they be administered locally, regionally or nationally?

[neilford]

Lighthouses in Scotland are administered by the Northern Lighthouse Board.

Historical information can be found here.

Thanks to Google for this info.

- Neil.

[GFS]

So if "Something Bad" (criminal, outre or otherwise) occurred at a Scottish lighthouse in the 1920s, who would investigate? Local police? The army? Or would the board have its own investigators, I wonder?

[neilford]

Check out the Flannan Isles Mystery which kind of covers exactly what you looking for. Three lighthouse keepers disappear from a lighthouse!

It occured in 1900 so it's close enough to give you some pointers. (It would make a great start for a Gaslight scenario)

- Neil.

[GFS]

Check out the Flannan Isles Mystery which kind of covers exactly what you looking for. Three lighthouse keepers disappear from a lighthouse!

It occured in 1900 so it's close enough to give you some pointers. (It would make a great start for a Gaslight scenario)

- Neil.

My thoughts exactly. Thanks for pointing out the information!

[neilford]

Some possibly other useful sources:

http://freespace.virgin.net/karin.mc...ghthouses.html
http://www.michaelmillichamp.ukgateway.net/index.html
http://www.pbenyon.plus.com/RN/Light...ses_North.html

All thanks to Google.

- Neil.

[neilford]

One more:

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/

- Neil.

[Graham]

Check out the Flannan Isles Mystery which kind of covers exactly what you looking for. Three lighthouse keepers disappear from a lighthouse!

It occured in 1900 so it's close enough to give you some pointers. (It would make a great start for a Gaslight scenario)

- Neil.

I happen to agree, I started a thread about this in the Gaslight board last year.

I'm still working on a proper summary of the incident for that board.

Graham

[GFS]

I happen to agree, I started a thread about this in the Gaslight board last year.

I'm still working on a proper summary of the incident for that board.

Graham

Thanks for the information!

[GFS]

A couple of questions come to mind after digesting the material so kindly pointed out by Graham and neilford. Since they deal broadly with the use of paraffin (kerosene) and wireless, perhaps someone can shed some light on the following:

Does anyone know if Scottish lighthouses would have been using paraffin (kerosene) in the 1920s? From what I gather, electricity would not have reached remote and/or uninhabited islands -- and may still be absent, with solar panels doing the work for unmanned stations.

What about communication with the mainland? From what I've read, the lightstation on the Flannans was fitted with wireless at some point following the disappearance of the keepers. Would some, most or all manned lighthouses in Scotland have wireless in the 1920s, or would telephone cables have been installed?

[neilford]

What follows is conjecture:

My guess would be that most Scottish lighthouse, with the possible exception of those within very close distance of Glasgow and Edinburgh, would still be using paraffin in the 1920s. The most likely alternative would be diesel generators supplying electricity, but I have no idea how common they were in the 20s. Even today it wouldn't surprise me to find that some of the remotest lighthouses are still unconnected to the outside world.

I would expect the situation regarding wireless to be roughly the same. By the 20s most lighthouses would have had the technology. I think few, if any would have had telephones. In actual fact that situation may still prevail today as getting standard phone service to remote places can be a very expensive operation. The best a remote lighthouse could hope for would be a satallite telephonebut they are expensive compared to short wave radio and that works just as well.

As for the effects of these on adventures, early generators probably weren't reliable so a supply of paraffin and lamps would probably have been kept on hand and early wireless sets were prone to blowing tubes and the lighthouse may be waiting on replacements.

- Neil.

[phobia]

This post contains a spoiler for The Thing at the Threshold.




























The Thing at the Threshold has the group visiting a lighthouse located in Tearnmouth, England, in the late 1920s.

I quote:

...lighthouse is powered by sixteen central oil burners. with a relatively dated arrangement of prismatic lenses assembled in a circular bed of cement. The light source is a pencil width projection that can be directed manually around the full circumference, and at approximately fotry five degrees to its vertical axis.

Below this there are 3 floors in the lighthouse, the topmost containing supplies for the light. The others are living quarters and a drainage system to prevent flooding of the first floor.


The adventure also mentions that if the lighthouse stopped working for some reason, it likely wouldn't be investigated until passing seamen reported it was inactive. This would likely mean no radio, no phone, no electricity.

I suspect a group of veterans could make a night of this site alone. I'd say this will satisfy my players quest for knowledge of a lighthouse; which is of early construction and now clearly obsolete. After reading TatT I didn't feel the need to research the lighthouse further given the above info. The lighthouse occupies some portion of the chapter, perhaps at least an hour of play...

[phobia]

I would expect the situation regarding wireless to be roughly the same. By the 20s most lighthouses would have had the technology. I think few, if any would have had telephones. In actual fact that situation may still prevail today as getting standard phone service to remote places can be a very expensive operation. The best a remote lighthouse could hope for would be a satallite telephonebut they are expensive compared to short wave radio and that works just as well.

I suspect most homes more than a few miles from a town with a switching office wouldn't have a phone, let alone a remote lighthouse. I always play it that way... even electricity would be hard to come by more than a few miles away from a town or city.

[cynick]

What follows is conjecture:

My guess would be that most Scottish lighthouse, with the possible exception of those within very close distance of Glasgow and Edinburgh, would still be using paraffin in the 1920s. The most likely alternative would be diesel generators supplying electricity, but I have no idea how common they were in the 20s. Even today it wouldn't surprise me to find that some of the remotest lighthouses are still unconnected to the outside world.

Logical conjecture would be that they have some sort of independent power supply (a generator) in case of power failure.

[Graham]

I'm still working on a proper summary of the incident for that board.

The summary has been completed and can be read in this thread.


Edit, Added: Another couple of websites that might be worth checking for information are Bellrock.org a comprehensive website on the construction of this famous lighthouse, and Murder at Ross Island an account of a murder that took place at a Scottish Lighthouse in the 1960's.

Graham