[MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> this lighthouse has saved countless ships and people's lives.

and it did that by taking a light from a little lantern and shooting it out for about fifteen miles.

i do that.

i'm alexis.

i'm visiting the marquette harbor lighthouse to learn more about how white houses on lake superior work.

and what i've been learning is so cool.

i wanted to bring you will on outside the white house in a minute.

but first, i want you to imagine something.

imagine you're on a big boat somewhere in lake superior and you're sailing in the middle of the night.

everywhere you look, you can see is dark water.

even the land in the distance is too dark to see.

clearly, even if you had a great map, it would be hard to know exactly where in the lake you are on a night like this, especially if you're a sailor in the past two didn't have a gps device, a smartphone or computer data help them out.

so how that sailors tell where they work?

well, that's where light houses like this come in.

white houses are built all along the coast on big bodies of water like lakes superior.

they have a tall tower like this one.

and inside that tower is a light.

the light is so bright that sailors can see it from far away at it has them where the land is or where dangerous obstacles are like a really shallow area of water that they should avoid at night or when it stormy.

many lighthouse is flash there light at a different speed and the different pattern.

so the captains on the ships would see a flashing light house in the distance and be able to figure out exactly where they work.

white houses were especially important in the days before computers, but sailors still look for them today.

this white house is in marquette, michigan, in the upper peninsula and it's called the marquette harbor lighthouse because it's well, it's on the harbor where ships come in to visit marquette.

the white house was first built way back in eighteen, sixty six to guide boats into marquette harbor.

and it's still doing that today when it's dark or story a light up and that power flashes every ten and a half seconds.

no other white house nearby flashes.

it's light in that pattern.

so the signal tell sailors there near marquette herbert today.

the lighthouse is the oldest, major building and market.

and there's no other lighthouse on the great lakes.

exactly like so you have inside.

but stu, okay.

this is the inside of the white house today.

it's a museum and you can visit here to learn more about lighthouse is shipwrecks and more.

the inside of the building is pretty big, but it's definitely not huge.

there's a basement, a few rooms on the first floor where i am at a few more rooms upstairs.

it feels a lot like somebody is home like someone could live here.

and that's because this white house used to be somebody's home.

let's head up into the tower will tell you more.

so this is the light that powers the lighthouse today.

it automatically and it runs on electricity.

when it gets dark.

a label inside this plans lights up and this pass to cap spends to make it look like the light is flashing on and off.

for the most part.

this like takes care of itself.

you can turn it on at night and then go to bed and not really have to worry about.

it always been true.

many lighthouse is used to use oil lanterns, which needed to be kept full of oil.

so for more than a hundred years, people were hired to live at the marquette harbor lighthouse.

it was their job to do everything from keeping the building clean and painting at the right color to taking care of the light so that sailors could see it from miles away.

these people were called lighthouse keepers at.

they often brought their families to live with them at the white house.

while their work housekeeper could be a tough job.

there was always work to do in the spring summer and fall and ships were traveling around the lake and then in the winter.

well, winter's on lake superior can get pretty snowy and windy.

so things got boring around here fast today, there aren't very many full-time lighthouse keepers left on the great lakes.

people in team still take care of white houses, but not a lot of people live at them anymore.

that's true at this lighthouse to nobody lives here these days.

but the building is well taken care of.

that was the question i had about lighthouse is is how they work.

like we saw this powerful electric light.

but in eighteen, sixty six with a slight house was first built.

most people didn't have electricity.

they use what when turns like i mentioned earlier, it's not only interns aren't very big.

you can, you know, pull them in your hand and they're light normally doesn't shine very far.

but this light sent out a signal for about fifteen miles.

so how well, let's head over to the market maritime museum.

i've got something to show you.

welcome to the market maritime museum.

you can learn all about lake superior here, but i want to show you this room specifically.

i wanted to show you these lenses.

they're called for now lenses.

and starting around eighteen, twenty, they helped lighthouse is shine their light to sailors miles away.

there are different sizes of for now lines depending on how far you need your like to go.

the market harbor lighthouse to stop what's called a fourth quarter lions about right in the middle as far as sizes of for now, let's go for now.

lenses are made of a bunch of carefully shaped pieces of glass arranged to started to do like this one.

then the lighthouse keeper would put their oil lantern on the stand right in the met together, the pieces of glass in the front.

ellensburg like a bunch of magnifying glasses.

the capture almost all of the light shining out in all directions from the oil lantern and then reflect that light into one super bright straight.

be like a giant flashlight.

this makes the oil entered way brighter than it would be on it.

so so great.

it can shine four miles.

now, the reason we're at a museum right now and not over at the lighthouse is because today most light houses don't have for now lenses like this.

they've been replaced by electric lights that use similar technology, but they're not quite the same.

still the general idea behind for now, lynn says has spread way beyond the lighthouse world.

engineers have taken this basic design and used it to make all kinds of things, including tools that have helped a satellite in space collect sunlight power its equipment.

today lighthouse is help ship stay safe on lake superior on the great lakes and on seas and oceans around the world.

and i love getting the chance to learn more about how they works and what it was like to take care of one.

if you ever get a chance to visit a lighthouse or lighthouse museum, try to see if they have the original for now lens.

and if it looks different from the ones we saw today, see if you can figure out why for now.

thanks for joining me on this trip to the market harbor lighthouse.

i'm glad you came.

>> this program was made possible by a grant from cta, the community telecommunications network,