Lighthouse Terms

Throughout this blog and in my book, The Wickie, I used terms that relate to lighthouses. We all want to understand the meaning of words we read to enable us to enjoy the read without our mind stumbling for a definition. My purpose in this post is to define terms that some folks may have been uncertain of their meaning. Terms like: Lantern Room, Watch Room, Service Room, and Wickie. To help in this endeavor, the picture below of the Umpqua River Lighthouse identifies where the aforementioned rooms are located in the lighthouse. Click on the picture for an enlarged view to enhance reading the names.

 Lantern Room: Glassed-in housing at the top of a lighthouse tower containing the lamp and lens.

Watch Room: The room immediately below lantern room where some supplies and oil were temporarily kept and where the keeper prepared the lantern for the night, and after that stood watch. The clock mechanism or works used to rotate the lens was also kept there. 

Service Room: Next level below the watch room. Storage for tools, brushes, etc used to perform service and maintenance to the light, lens, and clock mechanism.

Wickie: A nickname given to the lighthouse keepers. The name was created from the task the keepers did of trimming wicks of the lamps. (After electric lamps replaced oil lamps, the  keepers no longer had to trim wicks, so the name has not been used for many years.)