[Tagging] Difference between lighthouses and beacons

Malcolm Herring malcolm.herring at btinternet.com
Tue Jan 16 09:13:19 UTC 2018


On 16/01/2018 08:43, Martin Koppenhoefer wrote:
> probably with exceptions, e.g. this is a lighthouse from 1911 (i.e. 
> historic) with a lattice structure, generally considered a lighthouse:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adziogol_Lighthouse

I can see a house!

To be clear, the OP asked what the difference is between a lighthouse 
and a beacon, not the difference between a major light and a minor 
light. The two classes of objects overlap, but are not equivalent. Only 
objects that have a maritime navigation function carry "seamark" tags. 
Many lighthouses & beacons do not.

There is obviously a grey area between lighthouses & beacons. To tag an 
object as either requires some degree of subjective judgement, since the 
distinction is one of the structure's grandeur.




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