LAMPS PUT OUT BY THE SUN.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXIX, Issue 46, 17 January 1913, Page 8

LAMPS PUT OUT BY THE SUN.

Two acetylene gas lights installed at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal to facilitate navigation at night have an ingenious arrangement by which they are extinguished automatically at sunrise and lighter again a.t dusk. Tlie device, which is described in the Engineering Supplement of 'The Times,' makes use of the heat radiated from the sun. A rod is coated with lampblack, so that it may absorb the heat rays from the sun readily. The heat, absorbed causes the rod to expand, and the resulting movement of the rod closes a valve. IVhen the valve is closed the acetylene gas supply is cut off and the light is extinguished. When the sun goes down the blackened rod cools and contracts; the valve opens; and the supply of acetylene again reaches the burner, where it is ignited by a small (lame that is always burning.