Could everyone write one simple essay about something that once happened in Saltaire…that they saw or were a part of…and put it on one big website? Somebody should collect a lot of stories before we all forget. Otherwise it is like a line in “On The Beach” : The history of the war that now would never be written.” -(JO'H)

Friday, January 29, 2010

Stunning Trivia Question: A Gigantic Barber Pole?


Above, item in the Suffolk County News, September 19, 1891












Article below:


South Side Signal, Sept 11, 1875
















What's wrong with the above pictures?




Fire Island Light is one of the most painted and photgraphed of all American lighthouses. Over the last 150 years, postcards have been sold showing the lighthouse from every conceivable angle and vantage point, and some from some pretty inconceivable viewpoints.






Three above postcards cause one to wonder: What was that artist looking at? --other inaccurate postcards? Did they have Photoshop a hundred years ago? The one with the waves lapping the base of the lighthouse might be taking poetic license, but it was copyrighted 1897, six years after the stripes were painted.


The image from Charles Nordhoff's article in Harpers adds some detail to the area below the walkway but is otherwise fairly accurate depiction of the lighthouse and the keeper's house.









Name the last year that the Fire Island Lighthouse did not have stripes.


Image at left: Long Cut T Card, late 1800's.













Answer to above: 1891 and 1986.

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

1752?

Anonymous said...

452BC?

Anonymous said...

1066?

Anonymous said...

1492?

Anonymous said...

1620?

Anonymous said...

This is actually a trick question -
It depends on whether you're looking for the answer of when it was changed from its original single color or when it was being renovated and the entire structure was sandblasted to its brick base or whether one considers the color scheme to be bands rather than stripes.

Anonymous said...

1891?

Anonymous said...

1891?

Anonymous said...

10,000BC

Anonymous said...

65 million years ago when the dinosaurs became extinct?

GOTTFRIED MAHLER said...

WHAT LIGHTHOUSE??

GOTTFRIED MAHLER said...

WHAT LIGHTHOUSE??

BOB HODGES said...

STRIPES?? WHAT STRIPES??

jimmy said...

Dear anonymi:

In all those years that you mention the lighthouse did not have stripes. When it was originally built by Chariots of the Gods, it had stripes, but the dinosaurs chewed off the paint so they decided to paint it cream color.

But my question was when was the last year it did not have stripes?

Anonymous said...

This is obviously a trick question - the correct answer would be dependent on when the stripes were added to replace the original creme color structure(around 1891) or when the outer stucco facade was removed during the early to mid 1980's restoration of the lighthouse. In that case I would assume the stripes were removed around 1985

Frederick Dominy said...

Jim whoever you are - if you want to be entirely specific the stripes on the FI Light are arranged HORIZONTALLY. Were the stripes to be arranged like a barber pole they would be alternating red/blue/white in color and placed on the tower in swirls like a Christmas candy cane. Also, the stripes(and exterior stucco facade) were most probably removed in 1985. The lighthouse was renovated in the period 1984-early 1986. The time needed, funding, weather conditions conducive to performing exterior work would dictate that the facade be laid bare long before the May 1986 relighting ceremony. Accuracy Jim, accuracy!

Anonymous said...

I have some of the fallen crust (black) from when the light house was renovated back in '86-

jimmy said...

Are you one of those prehistoric dinosaurs? Our scientific advisory board told me that the only animals able to reach as high as the black stripe were very tall diplococcuses.Even tyranasourous rex could only reach the white paint. We think that is why the dinosaurs died out. Life on Fire Island can be very stressful.

Anonymous said...

excuse me- about the predating/dating the archeology of the light house

Anonymous said...

Jim - Whoever did your research on dinosaurs is in error - it's diplodocus(both singular and plural) - they existed in the Jurassic period some 150M years ago as opposed to Tyrannosaurus Rex which existed in the late Cretaceous some 65M years ago. An interesting fact believed common to both species is that they reproduced in much the same way as current Fire Islanders - that is by laying eggs in shallow nests and letting the warming rays of the summer sun incubate and hatch the eggs. Studies are ongoing as to how same sex dinosaur couples reproduced.

jimmy said...

I assume by "current Fire Islanders" you are referring to the horseshoe crabs who do just as you descrbed under the full moon every June.

Anonymous said...

The waves lapping at the base of the lighthouse might not be 'artistic license'. It was built at the end of the island at the time. (fields 1-5 didn't exist at the time).
Also, the height of the base, suggests that it wasn't far from the waters edge at the time it was built.