Cape North Lighthouse
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 Cape North Lighthouse | |
 | |
| Location | Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 45°24′07.6″N 75°37′25.8″W / 45.402111°N 75.623833°W |
| Tower | |
| Constructed | 1856 |
| Construction | cast iron plates |
| Height | 29 metres (95 ft) |
| Shape | cylindrical tower with balcony and lantern |
| Markings | red and white checkerboard tower, red lantern |
| Light | |
| Focal height | 34 m (112 ft)  |
| Lens | Fresnel lens |
The Cape North Lighthouse is a cylindrical lighthouse tower with a red and white checkerboard pattern that stood at Money Point, near Cape North, Cape Breton from 1908 to 1980. While originally installed at Cape Race, Newfoundland, this tower is most commonly referred to as the Cape North Lighthouse. It now stands landlocked at the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
The 29-meter-tall (95 ft) lighthouse was first installed at Cape Race point in Newfoundland in 1856 by the British Government's Trinity House, the official lighthouse authority for British waters.[1] The lighthouse is constructed of 32 cast-iron plates joined with bolts.[2] This sectional, modular design was chosen to reduce the cost of building towers[3] and to facilitate lighthouse construction in remote, inaccessible locations using local, unskilled labour.[4]
When a larger lighthouse was built at Cape Race, the old tower was disassembled, moved by ship, and reassembled for the light at Cape North, Nova Scotia, with a new Fresnel lens, made by Chance Brothers in England. The lens floats in a bed of mercury, and was turned by clockwork mechanism before being converted to electric power.[5][6] The tower features a red checkerboard pattern, which was chosen to help make the lighthouse visible in dense fog and against the often snowy landscape.[7]
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