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Stephen Pleasonton
Stephen Pleasonton (1776? – January 31, 1855) was the first "Fifth Auditor" of the U.S. Treasury Department; he is historically significant for his role in saving early American government documents from possible destruction, but is chiefly remembered today for his singularly bureaucratic work in overseeing the Treasury Department's Lighthouse Establishment during most of its existence. He was also the father of Union Civil War Generals Alfred Pleasonton and Augustus Pleasonton. Early career Little information has survived regarding Pleasonton's early life and career. He is known to have begun work as a clerk with the State Department. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1800 along with the U.S. government, still remaining there in 1814, when he saved the Declaration of Independence and other bureaucratic papers from being burned by British forces. In 1817, President James Monroe named Pleasonton to the new position of 'Fifth Auditor' in the Treasury Department, which he wou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leesburg, Virginia
Leesburg is a town in and the county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States. It is part of both the Northern Virginia region of the state and the Washington metropolitan area, including Washington, D.C., the nation's capital. European settlement in the area began around 1740, when it was named for the Lee family, early colonial leaders of the town. Located in the far northeast of the state, in the War of 1812 it was a refuge for important federal documents evacuated from Washington, D.C., and in the American Civil War, Civil War, it changed hands several times. Leesburg is west-northwest of Washington, D.C., along the base of Catoctin Mountain and close to the Potomac River. The town is the northwestern terminus of the Dulles Greenway, a private toll road that connects to the Virginia State Route 267, Dulles Toll Road at Dulles International Airport. Its population was 48,250 as of the 2020 Census and an estimated 48,908 in 2021. It is Virginia's largest incorporated Adm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Congressional Cemetery
The Congressional Cemetery, officially Washington Parish Burial Ground, is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street in Washington, D.C., in the Hill East neighborhood on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American "cemetery of national memory" founded before the American Civil War, Civil War.National Historic Landmark Nomination, p. 4 Over 65,000 individuals are buried or memorialized at the cemetery, including many who helped form the nation and Washington, D.C., in the early 19th century. Christ Church, Washington Parish, Christ Church, an Episcopal Church (United States), Episcopal church, owns the cemetery. The Federal government of the United States, U.S. government has purchased 806 burial plots, which are administered by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Veterans Affairs. Located about a mile and a half (2.4 km) to the southeast of the U.S. Capitol Building, the cemetery is historically associated with the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Lighthouse Board
The United States Lighthouse Board was the second agency of the U.S. federal government, under the Department of Treasury, responsible for the construction and maintenance of all lighthouses and navigation aids in the United States, between 1852 and 1910. The new agency was created following complaints of the shipping industry of the previous administration of lighthouses under the Treasury's Lighthouse Establishment, which had had jurisdiction since 1791, and since 1820, been under the control of Stephen Pleasonton. The quasi-military board first met on April 28, 1851, and with its establishment, the administration of lighthouses and other aids to navigation would take their largest leap toward modernization since the inception of federal government control.Amy K. Marshall "Frequently Close to the Point of Peril: A History of Buoys and Tenders in U.S. Coastal Waters, 1789–1939'", A Master's Thesis In 1910, the Lighthouse Board was disestablished in favor of a more civilia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresnel Lens
A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections. The simpler Dioptrics, dioptric (purely refraction, refractive) form of the lens was first proposed by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, and independently reinvented by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. The Catadioptric system, catadioptric (combining refraction and reflection) form of the lens, entirely invented by Fresnel, has outer Prism (optics), prismatic elements that use total internal reflection as well as refraction to capture more oblique light from the light source and add it to the beam, making it visible at greater distances. The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augustin Fresnel
Augustin-Jean Fresnel (10 May 1788 – 14 July 1827) was a French civil engineer and physicist whose research in optics led to the almost unanimous acceptance of the wave theory of light, excluding any remnant of Isaac Newton, Newton's corpuscular theory of light, corpuscular theory, from the late 1830s until the end of the 19th century. He is perhaps better known for inventing the Catadioptric system, catadioptric (reflective/refractive) Fresnel lens and for pioneering the use of "stepped" lenses to extend the visibility of lighthouses, saving countless lives at sea. The simpler Dioptrics, dioptric (purely refractive) stepped lens, first proposed by Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Count Buffon and independently reinvented by Fresnel, is used in screen magnifying glass, magnifiers and in condenser lenses for overhead projectors. By expressing Christiaan Huygens, Huygens's principle of secondary waves and Thomas Young (scientist), Young's principle of interference ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Coast Pilot
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label that was previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sperm Oil
Sperm oil (see also: Spermaceti) is a waxy liquid obtained from sperm whales. It is a clear, yellowish liquid with a very faint odor. Sperm oil has a different composition from common whale oil, obtained from rendered blubber. Although it is traditionally called an "oil", it is technically a liquid wax. It is composed of wax esters with a small proportion of triglycerides, an ester of an unsaturated fatty acid, and a branched-chain fatty alcohol. It is a natural antioxidant and heat transfer agent. In the late-18th and early-19th centuries, sperm oil was prized as an illuminant for its bright, odorless flame and as a lubricant for its low viscosity and stability. It was supplanted in the late 19th century by less expensive alternatives such as kerosene and petroleum-based lubricants. With the 1987 international ban on whaling, sperm oil is no longer legally sold. The oil from bottlenose whales was sometimes called "Arctic sperm oil." It was cheaper than but inferior to true ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Winslow Lewis
Winslow Lewis ( Nathaniel Winslow Lewis; 11 May 1770 – 20 May 1850) was a sea captain, engineer, inventor and General contractor, contractor active in the construction of many American lighthouses during the first half of the nineteenth century. Life and career A resident of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, Lewis began developing his ideas during the embargo of American shipping during the Napoleonic wars. He created Lewis lamp, a new lighting system based on Argand lamps; in 1812 the United States Congress purchased his patent rights for the system. In so doing, it awarded him a contract to equip all American lighthouses with the lamps; the fitting took four years. In 1815 Lewis won another contract with Samuel H. Smith, Commissioner of Revenue, which gave him a monopoly over the provision of winter pressed Sperm oil, Spermaceti oil for lighthouses throughout the eastern seaboard.Amy K. Marshall,"Frequently Close to the Point of Peril: A History of Buoys and Tenders in U.S. Coastal ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Carolina
North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the southwest, and Tennessee to the west. The state is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 28th-largest and List of U.S. states and territories by population, 9th-most populous of the List of states and territories of the United States, United States. Along with South Carolina, it makes up the Carolinas region of the East Coast of the United States, East Coast. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the state had a population of 10,439,388. Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh is the state's List of capitals in the United States, capital and Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte is its List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States. The Charl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diamond Shoals Lightship
The Diamond Shoal Light is an inactive offshore lighthouse marking Diamond Shoals off Cape Hatteras. History Diamond Shoals, which extend many miles out from Cape Hatteras, is considered to be one of the most dangerous spots on the Atlantic seaboard. While a light was exhibited from the cape itself from 1804, its range was insufficient, and a lightship was stationed on the shoal itself in 1824. It was driven off station numerous times, eventually being wrecked near Ocracoke Inlet in 1827. Various buoys were placed beginning in 1852, but all were short-lived. In 1889, Congress authorized construction of a permanent lighthouse on the shoal, at a cost not to exceed $500,000. The firm of Anderson & Barr, which had constructed the Fourteen Foot Bank Light in Delaware Bay in 1885-1887, was awarded the contract. A caisson was constructed in Norfolk, Virginia and towed to the site in June 1891. It was sunk into the shoal on July 1 and immediately began to tilt due to the sandy bottom ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
