Cleaning the lenses used to be a daily task, since the lamps burning oil, and later kerosene, left smoky residues. It was a three-hour job carried out in the precise way that Balfour had stipulated in 1867. With the advent of electricity, such frequent cleaning was no longer necessary. Here, Steve O’Neill does the weekly clean at Baring Head in 1988.
Using this item
Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PAColl-7327)
Reference:
EP/1988/2211/15A
Photograph by Martin Hunter
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.
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