Lighthouses and Fresnel lenses

Or more reasons for why I want to live in a lighthouse.

I have always been fascinated by lighthouses. Always. Usually because they are built in the most wonderful places and I would just love to live there. For example one near San Francisco that has this view:

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Golden Gate Bridge

But then also because they can cast their beams of light over such long distances, even though they look perfectly harmless during daytime:

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Close-up of the same lighthouse as above

So this is what the inside looks like (pictures taken at the ThinkTank science museum in Birmingham, UK):

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The insides of a lighthouse

And the whole thing is only lit by a tiny lightbulb!

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And there is just a tiny light bulb on the inside!

Watch the movie below to see how the light is focused by the Fresnel lenses. Really fascinated how the light bulb is surrounded only by glass, but still the light is focused really sharply.

I have a Fresnel lense that I’ll play around with soon, so stay tuned for more on cool optics! :-)

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