Editing Buoy (section)

==History==

The ultimate origin of buoys is unknown, but by 1295 a seaman's manual referred to navigation buoys in the [[Guadalquivir]] River in Spain.<ref>{{cite book|last=Naish|first=John|title=Seamarks, their history and development|place=London|publisher=Stanford Maritime|date=1985|isbn=0-540-07309-1 |page=51}}</ref>  To the north there are early medieval mentions of the French / Belgian River [[Meuse|Maas]] being buoyed.{{sfn|Naish|1985|p=51}} Such early buoys were probably just timber beams or rafts, but in 1358 there is a record of a barrel buoy in the Dutch [[Maasmond]] (also known as the Maas Sluis or Maasgat).{{sfn|Naish|1985|p=51}}  The simple barrel was difficult to secure to the seabed, and so a conical ''tonne'' was developed.  They had a solid plug at the narrow end through which a mooring ring could be attached.{{sfn|Naish|1985|p=52}}  By 1790 the older conical tonne was being replaced by a ''nun'' buoy.  This had the same conical section below the waterline as the tonne buoy, but at the waterline a barrel shape was used to allow a truncated cone to be above the water.  The whole was completed with a top mark.{{sfn|Naish|1985|loc=illustrations pp 53, 57}}  In the nineteenth century iron buoys became available.  They had watertight internal bulkheads and as well as topmarks and might have bells (1860) or whistles (1880).{{sfn|Naish|1985|p=59}}  In 1879 [[Julius Pintsch]] obtained a patent for the illumination of buoys by using a compressed gas.{{sfn|Naish|1985|pp=59–60}}  This was superseded from 1912 onwards by [[Gustaf Dalén]]'s [[Dalén light|acetylene lamp]].  This could be set to flash which ensured that buoys could be distinguished from ships' lights and from each other.  A later development was the [[sun valve]] which shut off the gas during sunlight.{{sfn|Naish|1985|pp=65–66}}