Giant first order Fresnel lighthouse lens - photos

[Jon]

Giant first order Fresnel lighthouse lens.

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Previously:

Contact lens lathe - photo and videos
Lightbulb factory line - GIF
1938 lightbulb brightness testing machine - photo
Mortician contact lenses for keeping dead people's eyes closed - photo

[Hoosiersmoker]

They have one like that in the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum. It's pretty spectacular standing next to it. That area is touted as having the highest concentration of shipwrecks in the world (kind of an unprovable factoid) hence the many lighthouses, several of which are haunted of course. The abundance of shipwrecks is attributed to the shifting of the sand bars off Cape Hatteras. Ships would chart the waters in the area then return months later and run aground in the same place they safely passed through earlier. Shipwrecks still appear on the beaches along the Outer Banks (North Carolina) regularly. Reportedly, Hatteras / Okracoke Island was one of Blackbeard's favorite safe havens. One of my favorite exhibits at the museum was the stuff that floated ashore after a container carrying Frito Lays snacks fell off a freighter during a storm. They had weathered bags of Cheetos, Fritos and Doritos on a board with the story of how they washed up on the shore for weeks following the incident... far removed from Blackbeard's booty I grant you.