The moiré effect lights that guide ships home
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- čas přidán 4. 03. 2018
- I'd never heard of moiré effect beacons until I got an email asking me about them. It seemed like a really clever idea - but it was really hard to research. Or at least it was, until I stumbled upon one magic phrase that revealed its history.
It turns out this thing's called an "Inogon leading mark" or "Inogon light" -- Inogon, not Inogen -- and it's a Swedish invention from the 1980s. But there's still a question: why is being used to mark an undersea cable, instead of guiding people home?
(Full disclosure: there were some weird strobing effects from the light that only showed up when I got the footage into the edit, so the image you see here has been digitally stabilised so it appears the same way on screen as it does in person!)
Thanks to Andrew Stine for suggesting this!
References:
The original Wikipedia article: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moir%C3...
The patent: patents.google.com/patent/US4...
The US military analysis [PDF]: www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/...
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I'm getting emails from people who've misunderstood what I'm asking at the end of this video. Don't waste your time copying what I've already done! To be clear: I'm looking for solid evidence of why this particular light was chosen for a use that doesn't seem to make sense: flagging something to avoid. I don't need more information about where it is (Southampton) or what it's pointing at (a pipeline)!
Tom Scott great video love it and all the ones you make
+Tom Scott I have an idea as to why its there and a good idea as to what it's protecting, both of which involve the surrounding BP Oil UK, but I'm going to need more time to finalize research.
Sent you email about one that is over 1000 years old
Avoid drop anchor upon the subs, preferably avoid talking about the sub marina too...
It never daunted upon you there could be a reason that information was so scarse?
Watched a video on CZcams today that said this light is in Southampton and is used to indicate where not to drop anchor and is pointing to a pipeline.
Imagine being the person that typed "inogen" instead of "inogon" and wasted precious hours of Tom Scott's life.
Still not as bad as Thomas Hearne
@@mjs3188 CGP Grey?
@@sublime404 lmao probably
It was you wasn't it?
Jimmy Deshell
The cool thing about this community is that within minutes after the video went online somebody updated the wikipedia article and noted that they're called Inogon lights.
and added tom scott to the citations
Unfortunately that was the wrong thing to do. In almost all cases CZcams videos are *not* valid citations on Wikipedia.
What do you except from a bunch of Incel gamer Barneys sitting in their mothers' basement who haven't been outside in over a year.
@@tommypetraglia4688 lmao, you don't need to talk about yourself _everywhere_ you go, you know.
The hell would they do that? Tom even gave his primary source in the video, that being the patent.
Hi Tom, in maritime navigation, navigation aids always shows where the danger is. Since people have been going to sea, they have placed fires on dangerous peninsula, that are now light houses. Nowadays, there is a navigation aid called "isolated danger" (red and white marker - to simplify). That marker indicates where the danger is, and leave it to the seafarer to decide what is the best way to avoid it. Based on that principle, the arrow shows where the underwater cable is, and not where the boat should be going, that is a decision left for the responsibility of the seafarer. Hope that helps. (If they - the organisation in charge of managing those navigation aids- tell you where to go, then their responsibility is engaged, that is why they never do it).
Very interesting by telling you where not to go instead of where to go you are not liable for any damage caused.
That makes complete sense. The same thing holds true with navigation lights on a ship. The lights tell you which way it is heading and the rules tell you who has the right of way. But the actual navigation is left to the captain.
Not necessarily true- while most markers do represent obstacles, these lights generally fall into the category of “range marker.” Range markers are more often two markers offset by some distance, and when they’re aligned you know exactly where you SHOULD be- falling too far outside the guidance of a range marker will put you in danger. This light is typically used for the same purpose but in situations where it’s not possible to place two markers distanced apart.
Edit: autocorrect typo
You're right, if you check a video of an inogon light, you can see the pattern show an arrow TOWARDS the inogon light, not away from it. So if the arrow is pointing to the left or right, that's where the inogon light (danger) is.
“Not my job” pisses me off more than just about anything else.
That is named an Anomalous State of Knowledge (ASK), when you are aware of a need for knowledge but cannot find it because knowledge is cumulative so to find specialized knowledge you require previous knowledge, such as terminology. It's a very important part of Information Science that we make knowledge available to the most people possible and not only specific demographics, because often times people seeking information and explicit knowledge are those without the tacit knowledge of how to search for it.
Hmmm, this was my experience with a "passive microwave relay" which is a large blank billboard located where a scant few people would see it if it ever had an ad. Then two yahoos tried stealing it for scrap metal and it was named in the newspaper account of the crime.
I like the ASK acronym, perfectly fits the theme
> _"That is named an Anomalous State of Knowledge (ASK) (...)"_
I thought this was just called "the hermeneutic cycle", where you (tragically) need to (somewhat already) understand before you can try to understand (more).
ChatGPT can be helpful for this sometimes
I tried for ages to fit the ♫ If new lines hit your eyes when two patterns combine, that's a moiré ♫ joke into my script, but couldn't figure out how. I put it here instead.
Your effort is appreciated.
I remember it as "When a grid's misaligned with another from behind, that a moiré"
EDIT: This isn't my joke. I think it's Randal Munroe's (XKCD).
In some placed in The Netherlands the use this kind of arrows along to rode to indicate a sharp turn.
♫ When the difference is slight and the spacing is tight, that's a moiré ♫
It makes me happy to know you had that thought hahah
I call this issue with researching things the Rumpelstiltskin problem. Once you have the name, you have the power to understand it. Until then, it has power over you.
That is a good name for it
You mean Rumpelstilzchen?
Simon S, no, they mean Rumplestiltskin
I approve of this name.
@@felipevasconcelos6736 Rumpelstilzchen is the german name
Have you looked at PAPI lights at airports? Not Moire effect, but using narrow beams of light to change color depending on whether you are observing them from above or below the 3deg glideslope on approach. Similar concept, observer-angle-based variation in picture.
Such clever inventions. Its cool when you see something like that instead of an overcomplicated solution.
PAPI means DADDY in Spanish. The more you know
@@augustoalvarez6766 and grandpa in french
It's light though
@@electeng6481 but not as we know it!
The back of our old humvees in the Army had something similar (but different) to these using fresnel lenses. When driving with blackout lights, it is normally difficult to maintain a convoy, because you can't really tell how close the vehicle in front of you was. The humvees had special blackout taillights that showed two dots when you were the proper distance away, three dots when you were too close, and one dot when you were too far away. In addition, if you were off to either side too far, you'd see only one dot "streaked" towards the direction you were supposed to go, like a comet with a tail.
Amazing
Coolio.
Do you know what these lights were called? It sure was a great idea!
Those particular blackout markers were not only on HMMWVs, but on all tactical vehicles for a very long time. Like WWII.
I knew about the distance indicator, but the left right arrow is new to me. 👍
That’s a lot of research for an arrow
One could say it' a narrow research
If only there had been one of these lights to guide him in the right direction.
Cue an "Arrow? I didn't even see the Indians" joke...
And that’s why we love him
But the signs were all there, pointing him in the right direction!
“When a grid misaligns with another behind, that’s a moire!”
(Credit to xkcd)
Clever!
..xkcd
this is excellent
"When the spacing is tight, and the difference is slight, that's a moire..."
( also credit to xkdc )
ffs... thanks dean martin xD
This was fun to see. When I was in high school Inogon had their "innovation factory" in our village. They made other moire pattern things like a spirit level with a circular moire "window" that also produced arrows if it wasn't aligned.
They also experimented with a silicone graphite pressure switch. And even fluorescent light to see if it could be useful to make traffic safer.
The innovator Bergkvist also was a uncle to one of my classmates.
woah
Wow, how did you even find this video? I think Tom would like to meet you!
When the light, changes signs, when you're on the right line, that's a Moiré..
***MYSTERY BISCUITS!!!!!**** ... Oh Yeah!!!!!
So where's my Pizza Pie?
This. This needs to be higher.
LMAO
When a grid's misaligned
with another behind
That's a moiré...
I know that when I ran past it the other day I thought it was going to burn me to a crisp!
the flat earth guyyy
ooh dans wearing his tin foil hat haha
It’s not a 5G tower 😜
It the US we would say that it's going to burn you to a potato chip.
@@Erikakaisermd in the US we want to leave the US
I love that someone has finally told the world how hard it is to search for obscure things when you have no idea what it's called. I've had that feeling too many times before.
Please do make the "I Dunno" series. As much as I feel like it will leave me with a feeling of incompleteness, Weird research dead ends that don't make sense are interesting, and you might just use your vast viewership to answer some weird questions like this.
On second thought, "Things I Don't Know" might be a better name.
This is a GRAND idea.
"Things you might know"
@@bragapedro brilliant
I absolutely love that you would take the time to go out and find one of these lights, and make a video on it, just to say “I think this is really neat, if people know more about it, I’d like to learn” because it really does feel more like a 2-way relationship with viewers, as opposed to just a presentation to us.
Well, I’ve got to admit that after 20 years at sea, with 7 of those years as ships Captain followed by 5 years and counting as a Marine Pilot, I have never heard of these things ever!
I know about the more modern sector leading lights that change colour to indicate position in a channel, and also the simple transit leads but before today I’d never heard of Moiré or Inogon. Every day is a school day it seems!
When you're in line with the light and you see the middle line that means you are right on top of extremely close to the pipelines. The arrows are used to guide people in towards the pipe mostly for divers and repairers. We had this same setup in my town but has since been removed due to GPS.
If you can see the arrows or line then you can damage the cables/pipes that are layed underneath.
This was my assumption as well. That it's used as a guide more for maintenance teams.
I just realized that this is genious. I've many times seen a warning sign that warns about an underwater pipe or so and usually there's one on each side of the river or lake or whatever. But if you're far away from shore it might be hard to figure out the "line" of the underwater pipeline from a sign. Especially if the shore is not straight but naturally random in shape. So in my opinion this light is brilliant in telling you when you're directly perpendicular to it, even at quite far distances, so you know that now you are on top of the pipeline.
I think you mean "ingenious" which means - clever, original, and inventive. Not being able to spell it would mean the opposite - dull, foolish and stupid.
@@ruzziasht349 Or that they're not a native english speaker, didn't have access to decent education, or have neurological issues. Either way, hurting people's feelings and social standings for having harmless flaws is immature and damaging. Treat people how you wanna be treated.
You are perhaps one of the best content creators on youtube. Thanks for everything you do.
Perhaps..He is the Best!
Tom Scott is the essence of Internet’s potential.
he is the absolute best.
Nah, PewDiePie is the best.
IS THIS LOSS
Looking forward to see a spin off series of "Things You Might Not Know" called "I Don't Know..."
I would definitely like that.
Me too
"Things not even I know"
Make this a series please!!
Clearly the title of the series should be "Things You Might Know; if you DO, please tell me."
Came over UK to live and work 6 years ago. My work is a few yards from that beacon and I noticed that 'thing' but nothing came out of my research. How cool I finally bumped over your video.
♪♫♬ when a grid's misaligned with another behind, that's a moire ♪♫♬
♫ When the spacing is tight / And the difference is slight / That's a moiré ♫
One common example of the frustrating feeling of trying to research something you don't know the name of is classical music.
As a musician, it is one of the most painful things, and usually I just resort to asking an expert if I can't figure it out. Shazam and similar apps just aren't good enough at recognising classical pieces unless they're the most famous ones.
Have you ever tried using Parsons codes to search for classical music?
@@bragoria this! It's on a website called Musipedia.
I always used to go into a record shop and say "I don't know what it's called it who it's by, but....."
Ah, how the assistant's face would light up at the challenge. Sometimes they'd see me coming and decide to let their colleagues share the fun by pretending to be busy with something else.
You should name the new series, "Things I don't know either", or if you're feeling less cheeky, "Things you might know".
"Things someone probably knows"
"Things I don't know... but you might"
@@NjHourquebie or "Things you might know, but I don't"
Someone Knows Something is already taken.
Things Tom Scott Might Not Know
“Things we know so far” would be a good name for a spin off series. Then we could all go and try and find out more about the subject, report back to Tom, and make he’d follow up videos as more information is discovered.
This is the most amazing thing I've seen in a while (and I've been binging your videos). I LOVE analogue technologies that solve big problems so simply. This is brilliant and needs to be more well-known.
"And normally I try to discourage messages like that. I am not Google or a reference Librarian"
Thank you. You sir are awesome.
A Librarian
"Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back" -- I feel like this video is an excellent example of that.
Electric shocks do the same thing too.
The "Great ideas, that the World had ignored" series could be a bottomless well. Great video!
I'm addicted to watching these videos now. I'm learning some fascinating, interesting, unusual things I've never even heard about before.
Thanks Tom! (And the rest of the team there)
"Do get in touch!" would be a much better title for a series... Like a research based show, based on some of the viewers looking it up and giving their reasoning and you pick out the best ones... Or maybe "Homework" would be an even better title
Calling it homework would just put people off; do get in touch could work though if he wanted to continue a series.
I like "Do get in touch!" although you'd probably have to get a personal assistant to sort through the garbage you'd get.
I'd apply for that job
Chris McKenna I don't think you would be payed.
I’d watch “Do Get In Touch!” I would also watch “Nerdsniped.”
This is really cool! I also totally get that sometimes you just have no idea where something is and have to put in _SO_ much research just to find out the right search term. It drives me nuts when it happens to me. =P
OrangeC7 its like trying to find a song from just two words of lyrics you know
Try being a professional researcher... you come up with that one genius idea, think its new, because you cant find anything about it. Then someone says "oh yeah, I know that its called "idea name you have never heard of" ". You google it and see that there are thousands papers about it which solve the problem way better than you could...
Would be a great app idea, you put in a few pics maybe and some text and u submit it it checks the databse and gives u what u need would be lit be the next steve jobbs with that ye would
I ran into that problem as well sometimes. Let's create a trend and call it the "Inogon problem" or "Inogon effect".
DagarCoH But what if someone can't remember the name of the Inogon Problem and is trying to look it up?
👀
In Gemany we have two individual Triangles on sticks. One points downwarts, one upwarts. If the triangles match up, your in the right path to enter harbours.
Had the same thought. The only downside of this system is, that you have to know which of the two posts is in front to know which direction you have to steer. Seeing a literal arrow maybe over engineered but it's quite intuitive.
@@rainerminusunfug I imagine it'd be standardized. Up triangle is always in front or vice versa. Not hard to require captains to learn it, just as they do with red and green channel markers
@@rainerminusunfug The lower is always in front
I knew about the moiré patterns. And it has ever filled me with fascination. Even when I hadn't known this phenomenon's name. I had noticed it myself and sought to find out why it actually happens. Then, somehow I got to know about its actual name. I had been thinking of making an animation art work with this, but this use in navigation never quite striked me! Genius! Really!
I both love and hate falling into research holes in google and in other search engines. Very often it ends with me screaming the phrase "what does that even have to do with my terms!" at my monitor.
After having to manually look up research topics on paper indexes in university libraries at a glacial pace in the 1980s, I can never say anything bad about Internet search engines. They are simply fantastic. Even Google.
Nillie
Well you can turn off the personalized ads or search history checking, granted you don't have those Google now stuff that forces you to have it
The bad thing is that the ads are now 80% adult content.
I could never related to a comment any more
Yep. Professionally experienced these difficulties while searching for air tools & parts (best example was a British WW2 impact wrench being used in rural Australia)
But I chimed in to note that changes to search terms are the ones I find most frustrating. You know what it is, you know what it Used to be called, but now you can't find it.
Book cover film. Used to be able to search for Contact (brand name).
Tom,
I am a merchant mariner from the US, and I can say that I've never seen or heard of these moiré marks. Far more common are simple sets of range lights (night), or range markers (day), that let you know if you are on the centerline of a dredged channel or fairway.
They work by having two sets of lights, one behind and above the other, the other in front and below. If you are on the centerline the two lights will be above/below each other. If you are off center, the front range light will be either to the left or right of the rear one.
I imagine range lights are much cheaper than this Inogon setup. I do agree that this is an ingenious invention, and is much easier to understand with only a glance. One question I have - are these Inogon units illuminated? If not, then clearly they're day-use only and thus only half as useful as the neon-paint-and-lightbulb contraptions we use so often. It figures, it comes down to money.
Thanks for sharing this with us, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for them now!
Same here. I'm a mariner from Poland. Never heard or seen this as well.
"Inogon Lights" would be illuminated, by lights. Sometimes the smartest among us are stuck stubbornly pushing on the door that says pull, because we're busy contemplating more important things.
How complex, confusing or downright nonsensical does one single thing have to be to stump Tom Scott??
A LOT!
Great video, Tom. As always.
We had the FMT docking system at Terminal 2 at Cologne/Bonn airport. But they were withdrawm from use a few years ago. In Frankfurt they are still using the AGNIS system (Azimuth Guidance for Nose In Stands) together with PAPA (Parallax Aircraft Parking Aid) at some stands.
That is really cool!
Somewhat related, you may be interested in a lighted navigation aid used in aviation called a VASI - Visual Approach Slope Indicator. It is basically a white and red light in a box with a few small openings which will allow a pilot to align on a 3 degree descent angle to the runway. It is quite a clever and simple little thing used all over the world. A slightly more advanced version is called a PAPI - Precision Approach Path Indicator.
Daniel Donkersloot yeah as soon as I saw this I thought about a PAPI light system at my local airport.
they actually use these inogen lights in aviation for parking aircraft
Evan Semerad I believe KLGA had these for the longest time. I haven't been there in almost 15 years now.
Red is dead white is too much height.
@@JG_Fit I was about to write something similar.
I like how you manages to pronounce patent and patented two entirely different ways within 2 seconds
Thank you for this deep search. There are topics that I want to know more about, often involving origin stories, like this one.
Some things can't be found out by just searching the internet, not even if you figure out how to ask the 'right question'.
You have given me the inspiration to pursue my questions with more diligence.
Most relatable video you have done! I can think of so many times I have spent hours trying to describe a concept or item to google- and it just dosn't get it- but then you learn a term like "fiducial marker" when you had been typing in "visual marker" "non retro reflective marker" "Marker that looks like QR code" etc. and you find the exact results!
The surprise when the name of the small village in Sweden I'm from shows up in a patent in your video...
Själevad, sidensjö? Är det en öviksgrabb vi har att göra med? :D
The surprise when I'm reading this and your name is GermanScientist
Definitely my favourite channel
Oscar Rattray same
Same
There are two types of people in the world: those who enjoy Tom's videos, and those who haven't discovered his channel yet.
Seriously? 12 hours and nobody has noticed that this could be a maritime pun?
I have not done any research but it does make sense for marking the cables that you don’t want people to anchor over, as long as who ever is captaining the ship/boat knows the area and knows what that is marking, they would know that seeing the two lines is the no go area, if you just had something that was constant from every angle, that would give you no information about were you should not be. Doing the same thing with buoys would require many marking out the cables and then they might also be in the way of shipping or boat traffic.
Blown away. In high school, a T.V. repair guy (his hobby job, his day job was radar engineer) showed me a gadget for examining dot patters on T.V. screens. It was a Moire-based magnifier.
I absolutely love your passion for knowledge and curiosity, Tom!
If you look up "inogon light" in CZcams, you would only see this video and nothing else. 😂
Wow!
I TOLD YOU BRO
I TOLD YOU DOG
sorry just huh homestuck ok yeah
So is that a "CZcamswhack" ?
I imagine people now using this opportunity to randomly insert "inogon light" in their video desciption to get views
bAWSM already done ._.
this is my favorite video. its that feeling when you finally find out what something is and all the info you've been searching for comes up
I appreciate your extreme interest in all of the topics you research
So what do they use now instead of these?
i guess gps and various ultra sonic sensors which tell you quite precisely where your are
2 poles in the ground
I assume computer guidance and GPS has taken over a lot of this sort of functionality.
This Little Critic just some guy named Dave who just shouts from the shore "oi dipstick your gonna crash what the hell ya doin". word is there was never anyone named Dave who lived in those parts but any sailor worth their salt will still listen for Dave.
Normally when you're coming into a channel there are two poles, one a few meters ahead of the other with different symbols on top of each one and you go on a course which aligns the two poles in front of each other
I was just sitting messing with some combs and found that I could actually demonstrate this effect very clearly with them, I encourage anyone trying to understand this Moire effect to try this: Hold two fine-toothed combs together with a 30° angle between them along the long axis (perpendicular to the tines). Look through them with one eye, patterns of light shining through will be visible. Tilt the combs (still held the same position relative to one another) side to side along their short axis, the angles of the light patterns will appear to shift, centered they will be vertical, as you angle it side to side it will form diagonal patterns. Sort of hard to explain, but really cool.
I love the fact that like 5 websites made articles about this the day this video came out.
That was very interesting information, as a sailor I’m afraid to say I’d never heard of or seen one of these before. I will now be on the lookout for one! Thank you for your diligent research.👍
We should learn moiré about Inogon lights.
I'll see myself out
Abdul Muhaimin 👏
There is not enough thumbs down after youtube made the thumbs down button into a stress ball contraption.
You brightened up my day with that light hearted Pun! I'm delighted you shared it.
Please do
Abdul Muhaimin With Inogon arrow lights to show you the way, you certainly can see yourself out.
Tom, have you talked to the port authority at all? When I was in the Navy, we used all kinds of markers and buoys to identify obstacles and other points of interest on marine charts. These Inogon lights are there to mark the obstacle under the water. Those lights are also used to mark transits to facilitate ship navigation.
The power (or magic if you're fancy) of a name is something that you don't realize is real until you run into a problem like this. I taught myself my trade over the past 7 years and starting out it was nearly impossible as I coudln't find the right names for things. Or, I would find one name for it in a book/article, and while it was an accurate name, it was the less common or archaic name, so I could find some info, but not much. I appreciate and understand your struggle on this one! Glad it panned out :)
Thank you, Tom, you have just made my day, because I had been searching for the name of the "Moiré Effect" half my life.
Very informative.
Shwervin Mervin yep
Not that you'd seen it when you commented.
Earlier today, someone added the name "Inogon Leading Marks" to that section of the Wikipedia article about the moiré pattern. Balance has been restored to the universe.
it is sort of one of the simpler ideas, complex but easily implemented once you sort the geometry of the intersecting lines. It reminds me of the geometric shapes they use for a myriad of things. Sound design such as amplification, noise cancellation etc...and the wireless radio technology with the various contraptions they use to "catch" the signals. Interesting stuff Tom.
Your curiosity is contagious. Thanks for you efforts.
I LOVE finding things like this! Happened numerous times with FM broadcasting equipment/towers that don't seem to exist online etc.. I can't let it go until I know!! D:
You really want to go down a rabbit hole, start researching who actually owns and operates antennas on things like water towers and tall buildings. It's both scary, and fascinating at the same time.
Because of what just happened in California with a ship waiting to be called into port to unload, dropped anchor to wait and the boat was dragged in bad weather OVER the pipeline and bent the pipeline over 105' out of plane into a semicircle. The pipeline eventually cracked and leaked thousand of gallons of oil. The crew should have been aware of the pipe via GPS. In closer quarters, like in England, a light like that would make it easier to see when you are too close to the pipeline.
CZcams just presented this video to me today. (It's been doing that a lot lately, showing me old videos.)
Great video. I just wish we could have seen this from the ship's perspective to get the full effect!
I love the level of commitment and research for this 4 minute video.
There are some sort of street markers who (I think) use the same technique. I'm not entirely sure but i think they are used in tight turns on highways in Germany. The closer you get to them, the faster the arrow appears to be pointing you in the right direction. No source (yet) unfortunately. Just something that I remember from the top of my head
Yeah, these are in the Netherlands as well, and other people here have posted about it.
But none of us seem to be able to find a source... it's the same problem Tom had! :P
It is indeed! I'm from the Netherlands as well, but I haven't seen them anywhere except from Germany. Even someone from Germany I know didn't know how to name them...
“Things you might not know, but neither do I.”
I'd love a series from you called "I don't know" because your current videos explain really cool things that not many people know about/understand. I imagine the things you don't know about would be even more fascinating, and like said, those videos might help things become clear. Please keep looking for things that you can't figure out!
Honestly a series where you post things you've looked into but couldn't figure out sounds interesting as hell.
They are still used at a number of airports around the world for lateral guidance of the aircraft onto the gate. I had no idea what they were called though 😂
“Things You Might Not Know and I Don’t Either”
Just saw this articles and I thought that this recent article would interest you. It takes it into a new level
The range lights that they currently use to guide boats down channels work better because you have a better reference of where you are in the channel. This is especially handy when meeting another vessel in the channel.
I like that idea for a new series. Just several little unknown mysteries that maybe two or three people in the world know the answer to. That would make for some interesting documentaries on CZcams.
They are used when there is not enough space for a front and rear light to signal a restricted area.
But at that point i'm sure you could really just install a sector light. Red in the middle, and white on each side. It would be much cheaper, and much more visible.
@@patrickmeyer2802 But with white on each side you won't be able to tell whether you were north or south of the prohibited zone.
@@jessedenwood3152 Sector lights are generally red-white-green, to indicate which way to turn to get into the correct line.
I'm a retired merchant marine officer and have never hear of this. That makes it cool. The usual means of knowing you are in the center of the channel is ranges. A short fixed beacon and light in front of and lower than it it's mate behind it. When they line up you are in the center of the channel. It's a low, a no, tech solution and very common. The use of this thing to keep from anchoring on a cable is very logical, especially if the arrows point the opposite way of if it were for ranging up a channel. If it were used like a no parking between the arrows sign. But barring any unstated draw backs it appears to only fix something that already works just fine. Ranges sometimes have red and green lights lower than the main white one to help with being port and starboard of the channel, but that rare and usually not needed. The lights on ranges are going to be as bright as required up to the point that if you can't see and read them then the visibility is too low to proceed. Angling and shielding the lower lights would serve to tell a mariner where it's safe to anchor. So , this things viable range, the brightness of it lights, its visibility and function in all conditions, especially in rain and fog, is where I'd look for why this of this new solution to the traditional fix ever caught on.
This idea was Genius! I wonder why there was not much info. You're a life saver...
That is probably there for maintenance, but they just get told that the arrows show how far off the cable the maintenance team are.
Well I think it's there because it's prohibited to drop anchor there, the marine charts for the area will of course clearly mark the prohibited zone on them the light along with it's accompanying sign saying clearly that it's a prohibited anchorage is just guidance to allow vessels to verify that they are a safe distance away from the prohibited area. Similar markers are used in some places for things like the marine fibre optic cables too as while well armoured against the elements they don't much appreciate having a 20 ton anchor dumped on them either.
@Seraphina I dunno, I find @Elxroid's hypothesis more convinving; this Inogon thingumajig seems to offer a level of precision that would be excessive if it were only about a no-anchoring zone. As a matter of fact, you rarely want to tell people "don't drop anchor exactly here" - to the contrary, you'll usually want to tell people "don't drop anchor _anywhere near_ here", and add some decent safety margin just to be sure.
We have them on the Dutch highway (A4 by Rotterdam)
Several other places in the Netherlands have them, such as the shoulder from the A30 to the A1 motorway towards Amsterdam
Why, and how do they work in that setting?
There’s elegance in simplicity!! I love these kinds of things where the effect is passive instead of active.
I personally very much like the idea of the series "I dunno". Great way to learn more things, as well get more interactive with the viewers!
The question isn't *why* it's there, or even why it's *there* . The question is why *it's* there.
I'm guessing it may be due to the lack of a suitable reversed arrows version.
Obviously, I have no real idea. But thanks for the highlight. From what I can see, there shouldn't be *that much* difficulty in creating a "go away" version.
Think of it as information rather than instruction and you'll see that a reversed version makes no sense at all. The arrows are telling you "the line that we're pointing out is on *this* side of you".
On your chart the (in this case) pipeline zone will be indicated, with the range indicated by the beacon extending through it.
@@crispoman I wonder if installing it upside-down would reverse the arrow indications, but that might cause the casing to no longer be watertight.
Hey Tom, the description says "inogen, not inogen" haha
One of my absolute favorite videos.
I really like your smart videos Tom. Interesting stuff!!
Epilepsy Warning. While not epileptic myself, my epileptic girlfriend tipped me off that the Effect animations really bothered her, stay safe everyone!
Tom better pin this one
i still agree
Its there to mark an underwater fuel pipe line from Fawley refinery across the water. I would imagine the consequences (environmentally!) of damaging the pipeline would warrant spending so much on the light!
These are some of the best videos on CZcams! 👍
Great research
It could have been there to mark the underwater cable route during installation or maintenance and that is why it is no longer used. The navigational chart will have the underwater cable marked and will also show that there is no anchoring in this area. Sometimes they also use range lights or leading lights which is basically a transit with one marker mounted behind the other and when the two range markers or lights are directly behind each other it is the proper course that the ship must use to enter or leave a harbour. I love your channel thank you.
So I imagine that there's a name for this problem where you can't research something if you don't know the name of it, but the problem is that I don't know the name so I can't look it up. In the meantime, I call it the Rumpelstiltskin Problem
I have this same problem, but when stalking people on facebook... Knowing the town they are from, the university they study at, their job but not remembering their name makes it hard...
Just look the search history, duh...
A lot of work went into this video! Good job Tom!
Dude I love your channel, really interesting stuff.
Thank you for your effort in making good content, keep the vids coming 😊👍
A Moiré Effect light pointed me towards this video
Pass The Butter Robot - watching videos on youtube is not passing butter. Get back to work!
LET'S GO FORSEN forsenE
Wow! Very cool use of this as you usually undesirable effect. Thanks to you and the person who asked - CheerZ!
And now thanks to this its a lot easier to search for the correct name