Christine Whelan, FEO, December 19, 2024, VOL. 6 ISSUE 8
Point Abino Lighthouse Preservation Society (PALPS) member Brian Smyth and retired president Rick Doan are proud to present a project they have been working on throughout the fall: a Third Order, 6-panel, 72-prism Fresnel Lens.
“You can’t buy a Fresnel Lens anywhere. It’s impossible. They don’t show up, ever.” Doan assured. “All of a sudden, this one came up on Marketplace. I was so shocked.” But he knew he couldn’t just go to Mississauga alone to haul it back.
“Then a friend of mine, a retired tool and die maker, offered to go with me.” He was referring to Brian Smyth.
When Rick and Brian contacted the seller, he said there had been a lot of interest in the lens and wanted to know what they would do with it. The seller wanted to see the lens go into a lighthouse, so Rick and Brian drove to the prop house in Mississauga, checked the lens out, and found it to be a good deal. They bought the lens for much less than it cost Netflix to make it.
Yes, that’s right. Netflix. The lens was initially built as a prop.
It cost Netflix $80,000 plus to make the lens for a prop in the 2022 movie Slumberland, starring Jason Momoa. “The lens was only used a little bit, and it became surplus.”
The mechanicals had been scavenged. “But the most important thing was the lens,” Rick said. All those parts were there.
The parts were packed in bubble wrap and put into boxes. “We loaded it all up onto the trailer and brought it back to my garage. We started on it, putting it back together.”
And there they worked, putting in hours when they could, for two months. “Brian and I calculated it out. We volunteered more than 200 man-hours combined over those two months.”
Several parts were fake since it was a prop. “But the gears all turn. The light turns. Those are the important parts.”
Rick says Brian has a “scientific background,” which helped immensely with this project.
The initial plan was to design the lens to be turned by hand. “But a few weeks ago, one of our PALPS members, Ken Fretz, contacted me to tell me he had a motor.” The motor was brought, and Smyth went on a mission to make it work with the lens.
By the end of November, the new addition to the lighthouse was ready to meet its new home.
In all, it stands nine and a half feet tall.
Support
Doan contacted Sean Hutton, the Manager of Parks and Facilities with the Town of Fort Erie, to update him on the project. He says Sean supports the project, which Rick admits, makes him feel good.
“The executive of The Point Abino Lighthouse Preservation Society trusted us to make this project happen and supported us all along the way.”
Rick says he has provided photo updates each step of the way, and when it was completed, Sean allowed the executive members out to see it work, and they were pleased. “The PALPS execs then donated this Fresnel Lens to the Town of Fort Erie as a permanent fixture in the Point Abino Lighthouse for all our guests to enjoy.”
Transporting to the Lighthouse
Rick, Brian, and friend, Dean Driver, moved all the components, the large prism cage, and the 600-pound base into Brian’s trailer piece by piece using dollies and fridge movers.
Rick contacted Shawn from the Town, expressing their dilemma. “We couldn’t get this thing out to the lighthouse. So, Shawn came out with a telehandler.” It barely made it between the railings.
“He plucked this 600-pound base out of Brian’s trailer, carried it out to the west doors and extended its boom, injecting it right through the doors, Doan described in amazement.
A Motive for the Purchase
Over the years, guests taking the tours have given feedback that they are disappointed they can’t take the stairs up to the top of the lighthouse. Rick reminded me that the stairs are not safe enough for the Town’s insurance to allow anyone to ascend, thus seeing a working lens.
“This way,” he explained, “with the new lens at ground level, people can see what a lighthouse lens looks like as a part of the tours. The tour guide will show them how it functions and saves ships out in the lake.”
Doan says he and Smyth are really happy with the results and excited to show this finished product of their work in the new year as a part of the lighthouse tours.
“Brian and I were very proud that we could give back to the community.”
He says the lens will attract people for two reasons. “We’ll have people drawn to seeing the lens because of the lens itself, the way it works and its purpose. We’ll also have people who are movie buffs because it’s a prop from a movie.”
They will also display the prop aspect. “We are going to put a couple of things out that were in the movie that were phony. The light on the inside, in many of the pictures, looked awesome. When we got it, we realized it was 4000 watts, two bulbs, connected to an antique automobile part, then to a transformer with wires that went nowhere.” He said they had a good laugh over that.
The ownership of the lens was transferred from the Point Abino Lighthouse Preservation Society to Sean Hutton.
There is a short video of the mostly finished lens array in motion with an audio recording of the fog horn playing in the background. To see the video, photos, and more details, go to the Facebook group Point Abino Lighthouse.
This lens will be on display in the lighthouse’s main floor room starting the 2025 tour season to illustrate the basic principles of the functioning of a third-order rotating lighthouse light.