Text 1: A monthly visit to North Scar Light, by Cerys Vaughan

An original contemporary blog.

North Scar lighthouse stands on a shelf of rock nine miles from the harbour. It has no resident keeper, so once every four weeks our three-person maintenance team goes out by boat. If the sea is rough, the visit is postponed; there is nowhere safe to land.

From the landing stage, we carry our tool cases up 138 iron steps. Salt reaches everything. I wash the lantern windows, remove rust from the handrails and check each seal around the doors. Inside the lantern room, we inspect the LED lamp, the bank of batteries and the solar panels that charge them. The equipment sends reports to our control room on shore, but we still test it in person.

Last month the computer log showed that the light had briefly switched to its spare controller during a storm. We fitted a replacement controller, then ran the lamp at full power while a colleague on shore confirmed that its signal was being received.

Most visits take six hours. We bring our own food and water, and every tool has to be carried back down the steps. If fog or a mechanical fault prevents the boat collecting us, there are two bunks and a cupboard of emergency supplies below the lantern room. I have used them twice.

Text 2: A night at the lighthouse, by A Correspondent

An original newspaper feature written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

In this feature, published in a coastal newspaper in 1874, a journalist describes the work of a lighthouse keeper.

The keeper and his assistant live with their families in two small cottages beneath the tower, for the light must be attended every night of the year. Shortly before sunset, the men climb the spiral stair carrying cans of oil to the lantern room.

There are four wicks to be trimmed and lit. The great glass lenses and the polished metal behind them must be kept free from soot, since the smallest stain weakens the beam. A clockwork machine turns the lenses, and its heavy weight must be wound to the top of the tower every four hours. One keeper therefore remains awake while the other sleeps.

At midnight we found the keeper writing in a book the direction of the wind, the condition of the sea and the amount of oil used. When a bank of fog hid the water, his assistant went outside to strike the warning bell at regular intervals.

Their work ended only after sunrise, when the flames were put out and the lantern was cleaned for the following night. The keeper told us that he had not spent a night away from the station in seven months.

Using information from both texts, explain briefly what keeping a lighthouse working involved.

You should make it clear which text you are referring to.