A landmark visible for decades on the Kansas City nightscape is to return tonight with the relighting of the flame atop the Liberty Memorial.

The symbol of duty, sacrifice and remembrance has been little more than an aviation beacon for about a year, just a red light with no smoke.

During that time, memorial officials have been working to improve the energy efficiency of the 1920s steam mechanism that produces the flame effect. Now they are ready to restore the torch.

The flame has, over the years, come to not only symbolize the sacrifice of those who served in World War I but also all veterans who served, said Denise Rendina, vice president of public relations and marketing for the Liberty Memorial Association. Its also an important part of the Kansas City landscape.

The flame is the final aesthetic piece in a nearly $5 million package of improvements that has included clearing brush along the sides of the memorial hill, cleaning and repairing the limestone of the monument and restoring the generals wall facing Pershing Road. Security and lighting also were enhanced.

All the work helps position the Liberty Memorial and its National World War I Museum to anchor the nations observance of the centennial of the First World War from 2014-18.

There has never actually been a flame on top of the Liberty Memorial tower. Instead, steam is produced in a boiler below the memorials deck and piped up the 217-foot tower where it is released through a ring of vents that are flanked by powerful lights with red and orange lenses. The lights reflected on the steam produce the illusion, from a distance, of a flame.

But it has cost about $100,000 a year roughly one fifth of the Liberty Memorials energy bill to produce an effect that just wafts away into the night.

Consultant W.L. Cassell & Associates suggested ways to make that system more efficient. A key one was to reduce the 1.5 million kilowatt hours of electricity it took to produce all that steam. A way to do that is with a sensor that gauges the temperature and humidity of the atmosphere.

Hot and humid conditions may require 10 psi (pounds per square inch) of steam to produce the desired flame effect, the consultant said, but cool and dry conditions can require significantly less.

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Liberty Memorial ‘flame’ will return