Barcelona (Portland Harbor) Light - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Barcelona Light, also known as Portland Harbor Light, is a lighthouse

Lighthouse

A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....

overlooking Barcelona Harbor on Lake Erie

Lake Erie

Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...

in the Town of Westfield

Westfield (town), New York

Westfield is a town in the western part Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 5,232 at the 2000 census. Westfield is also the name of a village within the town.- History :...

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

History

Westfield was once part of the Town of Portland and the natural harbor there was known as Portland Harbor. When the Town of Westfield

Westfield (town), New York

Westfield is a town in the western part Chautauqua County, New York, United States. The population was 5,232 at the 2000 census. Westfield is also the name of a village within the town.- History :...

was established formally in 1823, the harbor area became known as Barcelona.

The lighthouse

Lighthouse

was established in 1829 through the efforts of Thomas B. Campbell. The conical tower and attached keeper's cottage were constructed of fieldstone

Fieldstone

Fieldstone is a building construction material. Strictly speaking, it is stone collected from the surface of fields where it occurs naturally...

, with a natural, emplaced foundation. The light was emitted by eleven lamps with 14 inch reflectors. It was the first lighthouse in the world to be powered by natural gas

Natural gas

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...

, which Campbell transported from a "burning spring" about a mile distant by means of wooden pipes. Thirty years later, in 1859, the lighthouse was deactivated, but it still stands today, in private ownership.

The lighthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Historical information from Coast Guard site

Congress appropriated $5,000 on May 23, 1828, "for building a lighthouse at a proper site, at or near Portland, on Lake Erie, in the State of New York." The site was purchased for $50 and contract was made to erect a lighthouse and dwelling which cost $3,456.78. The first keeper appointed May 27, 1829, was Joshua Lane, a "deaf, superannuated clergyman, having numerous female dependents" whose salary was $350 per annum.
The first light apparatus was described in the contract as 11 patent lamps with 11 14 inch reflectors and 2 spare lamps. There were double tin oil butts for 500 gallons of oil. No mention was made at that time of equipment for burning natural gas.

On January 1, 1831, a contract was made to provide the light with natural gas "at all times and seasons" and to keep the apparatus and fixtures in repair at an annual cost of $213. This was described at the time as follows:
"The Lighthouse at Portland Harbor in the County of Chautauqua and State of New York, is now illuminated, in the most splendid style, by natural carburetted hydrogen gas. Ever since the first settlement of the country about Portland, it has been known that an inflammable gas constantly issued from the fissures of a rock, which forms the bed of a little brook that empties into Lake Erie, near the harbor, in such quantity as to be easily set on fire by applying a flame to it. This fountain of gas was known to the early settlers of the country by the name of the 'burning spring.’ No valuable use, however, was made of this gas until Mr. W. A. Hart, an ingenious gunsmith of the village of Fredonia, and some other young mechanics, five or six years ago, collected a quantity of similar gas from the rocky bed of Canadaway creek in a reservoir, and conveyed it from thence to all the principal stores, taverns, and shops in the said village, where it is still used instead of lamps."
In the fall of 1829, on completion of the lighthouse at Portland Harbor, several persons associated together for the purpose of conveying the gas from the "burning spring" to the lighthouse. They dug into the rock at the place where the largest quantity of gas was found, in the form of a common well, about 40 or 50 feet in diameter and 3 feet deep. Over this well they erected a cone of solid mason work, so tight as to contain the gas which should collect within it, and at the same time exclude the water around it. They inserted a pipe at the base of the cone; bent down the end toward the bottom of the well; and then extended the pipe along on the bed of the brook to its termination below the dam. From that point it was conducted by pipes buried in the ground the distance of 230 rods to the lighthouse.

A stand of lamps adapted to the reception, emission, and burning of the gas was next invented and constructed by Mr. Hart. These consisted of several horizontal arms extended like the radii of a semicircle, at the end of each of which a brass pipe was attached. The quantity of gas consumed by each burner was regulated by a stopcock. Each burner had a large and suitable reflector. There were two tiers of these lamps, seven on the lower tier and six in the upper, interspaced so that, when viewed from the lake at night, the whole tower represented one complete, constant and unwavering blaze.

"Altogether" the account continues "this is one of the greatest natural, philosophical and mechanical curiosities which the country can produce. As a light for a lighthouse it exceeds, both in quantity and brilliancy, anything of the kind I ever saw."

In November 1838 it was reported, however, that "Owing to a failure of gas, that may be attributed to the excessive draught, oil is now substituted. It is presumed, however, that the fall rains will replenish the stream from which the fountain is supplied, and thus prevent the escape and loss of the gas."
In 1851 the report read: "We have one lighthouse at Portland on Lake Erie, lighted with natural gas, carried a distance of 2 miles in pipes to the tower; and even here we are obliged to keep oil and lamps, as water frequently collects in the pipes, over which the gas will not pass, and whilst they are being taken up and freed from water, oil light has to be used. We have a contract for supplying this gas at the annual cost of the oil which would be required, if lighted with that material."

The Portland Harbor (Barcelona) Light was discontinued in 1859 and in 1872 the buildings were sold to the highest bidder.

History

Historical information from Coast Guard site

Further reading