Lighthouse

Object type (Freebase): Topic Building function Film subject Literature Subject Ontology Instance Thing Man-made Thing Concept Type/domain equivalent topic Building type Topic

Names:

Esperanto:
Lumturo
English:
Lighthouse
Chinese:
灯塔
Catalan:
Far
Italian:
Faro
Czech:
Maják
Indonesian:
Mercusuar
Spanish:
Faro
Russian:
Маяк
Dutch:
Vuurtoren
Portuguese:
Farol
Norwegian:
Fyr
Turkish:
Deniz feneri
Lithuanian:
Švyturys
Romanian:
Farol
Polish:
Latarnia morska
French:
Phare
Bulgarian:
Морски фар
German:
Leuchtturm
Danish:
Fyr (navigation)
Finnish:
Majakka
Japanese:
灯台
Hebrew:
מגדלור
Serbian:
Светионик
Swedish:
Fyr
Slovak:
Maják
Ukrainian:
Маяк
Slovenian:
Svetilnik

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mark dangerous coastlines, hazardous shoals, reefs, safe entries to harbors, and can also assist in aerial navigation. Once widely used, the number of operational lighthouses has declined due to the expense of maintenance and replacement by modern electronic navigational systems. In a lighthouse, the source of light is called the "lamp" (whether electric or fueled by oil) and the concentration of the light is by the "lens" or "optic". Originally lit by open fires and later candles, the Argand hollow wick lamp and parabolic reflector were developed around 1781 in Europe and deployed on the Cordouan lighthouse in France in 1782, with a rotating element being added in 1790. In the U.S., whale oil was used with wicks as the source of light until the Argand parabolic reflector...

Information taken from Wikipedia

Updated: 2013-02-09 21:15:13.337995 (UTC)