For the first decade of light keeping, it was the prerogative of ships’ captains to sound their horns when entering the harbour through fog. If the light keeper heard three short blasts of a ship’s horn, he responded by carrying a hand-horn outside. This horn was a system of twin bellows, worked by wrenching a handle back and forth. The keeper would pump away at prescribed intervals until signaled by the captain of the vessel to stop.
By the late 1800’s Burrard Inlet was fast becoming North America’s busiest Pacific port. CPR directors warned Ottawa, “Should any accident occur to any of the steamers in the Narrows, it would be a serious matter to a young town like Vancouver”, and lobbied hard for a steam foghorn at Pt. Atkinson. In November, 1888, two Neptune “Scotch Sirens” were installed in a white frame building some 200 feet west of the original tower. From that date until 1998, Point Atkinson’s foghorn provided a continuous acoustical back drop to the population of Vancouver. The new fog alarm building, equipment and winch for hoisting coal off work boats was erected on a stone foundation still standing at the end of a narrow bay just west of the station. The concrete and brick reservoir is behind it in the forest.
A type F diaphone fog alarm replaced the Neptunes on December 12, 1912. Diaphones were a Canadian invention, a breakthrough which led the world in aids to navigation technology. To this day they are the ultimate fog signal. In 1974 the diaphones were replaced with air-chime horns which ran off hydro with a diesel back-up. These were connected to a “videograph”, essentially an electronic beam that would automatically trigger the horns when fog came within two miles of the station. The videograph, however, was not completely reliable, because the beam could be triggered by bright sunlight or snowflakes, something the keepers were quick to note and record. This unreliability was much debated during the fight to save light stations from automation. The diaphones were later relocated to the site of the existing engine room, then removed in 1974. The original diaphone apparatus sits in storage at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
The air chime horns which replaced the diaphones were in turn replaced by electronic horns in June 1996 as part of the "automation" program. However, the electronic foghorns proved to be so ineffective they were removed two years later, leaving Pt. Atkinson both unmanned and silent.
By the late 1800’s Burrard Inlet was fast becoming North America’s busiest Pacific port. CPR directors warned Ottawa, “Should any accident occur to any of the steamers in the Narrows, it would be a serious matter to a young town like Vancouver”, and lobbied hard for a steam foghorn at Pt. Atkinson. In November, 1888, two Neptune “Scotch Sirens” were installed in a white frame building some 200 feet west of the original tower. From that date until 1998, Point Atkinson’s foghorn provided a continuous acoustical back drop to the population of Vancouver. The new fog alarm building, equipment and winch for hoisting coal off work boats was erected on a stone foundation still standing at the end of a narrow bay just west of the station. The concrete and brick reservoir is behind it in the forest.
A type F diaphone fog alarm replaced the Neptunes on December 12, 1912. Diaphones were a Canadian invention, a breakthrough which led the world in aids to navigation technology. To this day they are the ultimate fog signal. In 1974 the diaphones were replaced with air-chime horns which ran off hydro with a diesel back-up. These were connected to a “videograph”, essentially an electronic beam that would automatically trigger the horns when fog came within two miles of the station. The videograph, however, was not completely reliable, because the beam could be triggered by bright sunlight or snowflakes, something the keepers were quick to note and record. This unreliability was much debated during the fight to save light stations from automation. The diaphones were later relocated to the site of the existing engine room, then removed in 1974. The original diaphone apparatus sits in storage at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.
The air chime horns which replaced the diaphones were in turn replaced by electronic horns in June 1996 as part of the "automation" program. However, the electronic foghorns proved to be so ineffective they were removed two years later, leaving Pt. Atkinson both unmanned and silent.