Welcome to Spotlight. I'm Colin Lowther and I'm Lis Wade. Spotlight uses a
special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no matter
where in the world they live. One hundred years ago, the night was
dark, the sea was rough, the waves were high, and the wind
was strong. The sailor was worried. He had sailed a long way,
and he knew that he was close to land and dangerous rocks. If he
sailed too close to the rocks, they would wreck his boat. He could
drown. But then he saw it. He saw something that would keep him
and his boat safe. He saw a bright light in the distance. The
light was shining on and then off. He stopped worrying. It was a
lighthouse. This tall building, a tower with a bright light at its top,
would guide him. It warned those at sea to keep away from the
rocks around it. With its light, the sailor knew where to sail to
keep safe. Lighthouses like this have been a guide for sailors for hundreds of
years, But what is their future? Today's spotlight is on lighthouses. Imagine
a world without GPS or computers. How would you know where you are?
In the dark. Sailors depended on lighthouses for many hundreds of years. They
were built on the coast, on islands, rocks, and even the sea
floor. Lighthouses guided sailors. The lights showed sailors where to sail and where
not to sail, but lighthouses also helped sailors to identify where they were.
Each lighthouse was different, Each had its own colors and marks, and each
lighthouse had its own system or pattern of light flashes, so sailors knew where
they were just by looking at the lighthouse, both in the day and at
night. Before lighthouses existed, fires on top of hills sometimes guided sailors.
Later people built towers to make the fires more noticeable. The first known lighthouse
was the Faros of Alexandria in Egypt. It was built over two thousand years
ago. For many centuries, this lighthouse was one of the tallest buildings in
the world. It was about one hundred and six meters tall. That ancient
lighthouse no longer exists, but some other ancient lighthouses do. The Tower of
Hercules in northwest Spain is one such lighthouse. It was built by the Romans
during the first or second Sanctuary. This lighthouse is the oldest working lighthouse in
the world. Today it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Experts say that
the age of modern lighthouses began in the eighteenth century. In this period,
engineers improved the way that lighthouses were lit. Some lighthouses used coal fires to
create the important light, others still used wood fires, and some used oil
lights or even wax candles. But all all these forms of light produced smoke,
and the smoke made the glass of the lighthouse black and dirty. When
the glass was dirty, sailors could not see the light. But in seventeen
eighty two, a Swiss scientist solved the problem. He invented a method of
burning oil that did not produce smoke. Other engineers produced equipment to increase the
intensity or power of the light. Over the years, lighthouses used different methods
of shining a light out into the sea, but in every case someone needed
to look after the light in the lighthouse. Someone had to light it at
night, someone had to keep the equipment working, so lighthouse keepers were needed.
George Medlicott was a lighthouse keeper in the United Kingdom for thirty two years.
He told The Independent about his memories of living and working in a lighthouse.
It was not an easy job. Some of the lighthouses did not have
running water, working toilets or heating. Winters were not great. We stayed
in small rooms and often spent hours in the dark. Often a lighthouse keeper
had to live away from his family, but sometimes his family stayed with him.
Ebony Gregory had an unusual time as a child. Her father was an
assistant lighthouse keeper. She lived with him on a lonely island off the coast
of Australia. She told The Guardian about his job and how it affected her.
My father helped the head lighthouse keeper run and care for the lighthouse and
island. They took turns to turn the light on every night and off in
the morning. They cleaned the glass. They made weather reports. Our food
arrived by air every two weeks, along with any letters. If there was
bad weather, the food drops would be delayed. I did not have any
friends. A picture of my second birthday party shows no one my age,
just the two families on the island. But times have changed for lighthouses.
New technology for lighthouses and navigation has arrived. Soon there may be no lighthouse
keepers living in lighthouses. Many countries, including Australia, Finland, Ireland and
Japan, no longer employ lighthouse keepers. Punta Karrena is an important lighthouse on
the edge of the island of Capri in Italy. Lighthouse Keepers worked there for
over one hundred and fifty one years, but now its last lighthousekeeper has left.
Carlo Doriano was the last lighthouse keeper of Punter Karrena. He did not
want to leave. He felt that it was important to have a person in
a lighthouse in case anything went wrong with the te technology. As he prepared
to leave his lighthouse home and job, he talked with the BBC. He
remembered storm waves crashing into his window twenty five meters up the lighthouse. He
remembered storm winds that made the lighthouse shake. At first I believed these shakes
were small earthquakes or shocks, But over the years I have learned that the
anger of the sea is more beautiful than a quiet sea. It makes you
remember that nature exists, and that this mass of water is open and alive.
Only someone who lives alone can understand this. My heart is here.
When I can no longer keep the light, I think part of me will
turn off. Two. What do you think is lost when lighthouse keepers have
to leave? Do you think technology can do a better job guiding boats at
night? Do we even need lighthouses anymore? Tell us what you think.
You can leave a comment on our website or email us at Radio at Radio
English dot net. You can also comment on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash
spot Light Radio. The writer of this program was Katie Blake. The producer
was James Totten. The voices you heard were from the United Kingdom and the
United States. All quotes were adapted for the program and voiced by Spotlight.
You can listen to this program again and read it on the internet at www
dot Radio English dot net. This program is called Living in a Lighthouse.
Visit our website to download our free official app for Android and Apple devices.
We hope you can join us again for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye, h