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Famous People in Lighthouse History - Gustaf Dalen
Born in 1860 at Stenstorp Sweden, Physicist received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1912 for his invention of automatic regulators combined with gas accumulators for the illumination of lighthouses and buoys.
In 1901 his company purchased the patent rights of the French invention of dissolved acetylene and he began his work on automatic flashing beacons for lighthouses. His subsequent invention of the sun-valve, which causes a beacon to light automatically at dusk and extinguish itself at dawn, enabled lighthouses to function perfectly and unattended for periods of up to one year.
In 1912, while testing safety devices on cylinders of acetylene in an outdoor location an explosion seriously injured him. Although he recovered from the physical injuries he had been blinded for life.
Until his death in 1937 he participated actively in technical inventions.
The Dalen Museum, which honors his work and inventions is today housed in a building that was a former courthouse in Stenstorp, in the province of Vastergotland in Sweden. The museum, which opened in 1996, is open to the public. For more information the museum you can write to them at Dalen Museum, Box 41, S-520 50 Stenstorp, Sweden.
This story appeared in the March 2002 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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