The famous Pharos of Alexandria, built about 285 B.C. is the first light of undoubted record. The light-house at Corunna, Spain, is believed to be the oldest existing light-tower. This was built in the reign of Trajan, and in 1634 it was reconstructed. The erection of the Eddystone Light-house, off Plymouth, England, formed an era in the construction of light-houses. The masonry was 76 feet 6 inches, and the top of the lantern 93 feet, above the foundation. It was completed in 1759. The various courses were so dovetailed into each other, and the whole fifty so secured together, that the tower was almost as solid as if cut out of the solid block. Immense difficulties had to be overcome from the first landing on the rock on April 5, 1756, to the laying of the first stone, June 12, 1757, and the last, on August 24, 1759. But strong as it was, it became necessary to take it down and rebuild it on a neighboring rock, as that on which it was founded was weakened from the constant assaults on the sea. This was safely done within our own time.
The Wolf Rock Light-house, off Land's End, Cornwall, England, is the last great British work, and both in its structure and its illumination it combines all the refined improvements. A survey was made in 1861, and the foundation commenced in March, 1862. In the first season only eighty-three hours of work could be done, and between that and its completion, on July 19, 1869; there were in the eight working seasons two hundred and ninety-six landings on the rock, and the time occupied was equal to about one hundred and one working days of ten hours each. The cost was £62,726.
later towers and their predecessors is that the stones of each course are dovetailed together laterally and vertically, so that the use of metal or wooden pins is needless. This method was first used at the Hanois Rock, Guernsey. On the upper face and at one end of each block is a dovetailed projection; and on the under face and at the other end is a dovetailed indentation. The upper and under dovetails are made just to fall into each other, and when the hydraulic cement is placed on the surface it so locks the dovetailing that the stones cannot be separated without breaking. Thus, when the cement is set and hardened, the whole of the base is literally one solid mass of granite. The lower courses for the first 39 feet of the Wolf Rock Light-house have fillets on their outer edges, into which the upper course is stepped, and this prevents the action of the waves from penetrating the joint.
There is little doubt but that the early colonists recognized the necessity for beacons with which to guide their home-returning shallops to a safe anchorage, and that they took effective means to show the English and Dutch ships which should make their land-fall at night the safe way to the harbor. But the first authentic evidence of this being done at the public charge, is the record of the proceedings of the general court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, from which it appears that on March 9, 1673, a petition came from the citizens of Nantasket, Massachusetts (now Hull), for the lessening of their taxes, because of the material and labor they had expended over and above their proportion in building the beacon on Point Allerton, the most prominent headland near the entrance to Boston harbor. At that session also it appears that bills were paid from Nantasket for making and furnishing "fier-bales of pitch and ocum for the beacon at Allerton Point," which "fier-bales" were burned in an iron grate or basket on the top of a beacon, for the building of which Nantasket had furnished 400 boat-loads of stone.
The first light-house on this continent was built at the entrance to Boston harbor, on Little Brewster Island, in 1715-16, at a cost of £2,285 17s 8-1/2d. It was erected by the order and at the expense of the general court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and it was supported by light-dues of 1d per ton on all incoming and outgoing vessels, except coasters, levied by the collector of imports at Boston.
The maritime colonies followed the example of Massachusetts, and when the United States by the act of August 7, 1789, accepted the title to, and joint jurisdiction over, the light-houses on the coast, and agreed to maintain them thereafter, they were eight in number, and comprised the following lights, all of which are still in existence, though so greatly improved that they are the same only in purpose and in site:
Portsmouth Harbor Light, New Hampshire; Boston Light, on Little Brewster Island; the Gurnet Light, near Plymouth, Massachusetts; Brant Point Light, on Nantucket, Massachusetts; Beaver Tail Light, on Conanicut Island, Rhode Island, in Narragansett Bay; Sandy Hook Light, New Jersey, entrance to New York harbor; Cape Henlopen, Delaware, at the entrance to Delaware Bay; Charleston Main Light on Morris Island, entrance to the harbor of Charleston, South Carolina.
The theory of coast lighting is that each coast shall be so set with towers that the rays from their lights shall meet and pass each other, so that a vessel on the coast shall never be out of sight of a light, and that there shall be no dark places between lights. This is the theory upon which the United States is proceeding, and it plants lights where they are most needed upon those lines. Hence from year to year the length of the dark spaces on its coasts is lessened or expunged entirely, and the day will come when all its coasts will be defined from end to end by a band of lights by night, and by well-marked beacons by day. In the first century of its existence the light-house establishment of the United States cost about ninety-three and a quarter millions of dollars.
In 1791 the amount expended by the Government in support of its light-house establishment was $22,591.94. In 1890 the expenditures amounted to $3,503,994.12.
The average yearly sum paid for maintaining an average light-station of each class is:
or a first-order light-station $3,842.00 For a second-order light-station 2,711.12 For a third-order light-station 1,568.77 For a four-order light-station 1107.83 For a fifth-order light-station 635.05 For a sixth-order light-station 552.17 For an outside light-ship of recent build 7,078.28 For an inside light-ship of old build 3,546.32 For an average fog-signal, operated by steam or hot air 2,260.59 For a steam tender of recent build 15,126.83 There are under the control of the light-house establishment the following named aids to navigation:
Light-house and beacon lights $1,423 Light-vessels in relief 46 Light-vessels in relief 8 Gas-lighted buoys in position 130 Fog-signals operated by steam,caloric,or oil engines,about 197 Fog-signals operated by machinery,about 233 Post-lights,about 1,868 Day or unlighted beacons, about 688 Whistling buoys in position,about 88 Bell-buoys in position,about 139 Other buoys in position, including pile buoys and stakes in fifth district and buoys in Alaskan waters 5,088 In the construction, care, and maintenance of these aids to navigation there are employed:
Steam tenders 40 Steam launches 31.7 Sailing launches 30.4 Light keepers, about 1,525 Officer and crews of light-vessels and tenders, about 1,279 Laborers of charge of post-lights,about 1,600 List of Members of Light-House Board, July 1st, 1904.
Hon. Victor H. Metcalf, Secretary of Commerce and Labor, ex-officio president.
Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, U. S. Navy, chairman.
Col. Walter S. Franklin.
Maj. Harry F. Hodges, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army.
Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, Institute of Technology.
Col. Amos Stickney, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army.
Capt. George C. Reiter, U. S. Navy.
Capt. Charles T. Hutchins, U. S. Navy, naval secretary.
Lieut. Col. Daniel W. Lockwood, Corps of Engineers, U. S. Army, engineers' secretary.
Executive Members of the Board.
Rear Admiral Robley D. Evans, U. S. Navy.
Capt. Charles T. Hutchins, U. S. Navy.
Lieut. Col. Daniel W. Lockwood, U. S. Army.
Partial list of appropriations made at the second session of the Fifty-Eighth Congress for the Light-House Establishment:
Supplies of light-houses $475,000 Repairs of light-houses 740,000 Salaries of light keepers 815,000 Expenses of light-vessels 525,000 Expenses of buoyage 550,000 Expenses of fog-signals 205,000 Lighting of rivers 300,000 Survey of light-house sites 1,000 Oil houses for light-stations 10,000 Porto Rican light-house service 75,000 Maintenance of lights on channels of Great Lakes 4,000 Pointe au Pelee light-vessel, Lake Erie 4,000
| or a first-order light-station | $3,842.00 | |
| For a second-order light-station | 2,711.12 | |
| For a third-order light-station | 1,568.77 | |
| For a four-order light-station | 1107.83 | |
| For a fifth-order light-station | 635.05 | |
| For a sixth-order light-station | 552.17 | |
| For an outside light-ship of recent build | 7,078.28 | |
| For an inside light-ship of old build | 3,546.32 | |
| For an average fog-signal, operated by steam or hot air | 2,260.59 | |
| For a steam tender of recent build | 15,126.83 | |
| Light-house and beacon lights | $1,423 | |
| Light-vessels in relief | 46 | |
| Light-vessels in relief | 8 | |
| Gas-lighted buoys in position | 130 | |
| Fog-signals operated by steam,caloric,or oil engines,about | 197 | |
| Fog-signals operated by machinery,about | 233 | |
| Post-lights,about | 1,868 | |
| Day or unlighted beacons, about | 688 | |
| Whistling buoys in position,about | 88 | |
| Bell-buoys in position,about | 139 | |
| Other buoys in position, including pile buoys and stakes in fifth district and buoys in Alaskan waters | 5,088 | |
| Steam tenders | 40 | |
| Steam launches | 31.7 | |
| Sailing launches | 30.4 | |
| Light keepers, about | 1,525 | |
| Officer and crews of light-vessels and tenders, about | 1,279 | |
| Laborers of charge of post-lights,about | 1,600 | |
| Supplies of light-houses | $475,000 | |
| Repairs of light-houses | 740,000 | |
| Salaries of light keepers | 815,000 | |
| Expenses of light-vessels | 525,000 | |
| Expenses of buoyage | 550,000 | |
| Expenses of fog-signals | 205,000 | |
| Lighting of rivers | 300,000 | |
| Survey of light-house sites | 1,000 | |
| Oil houses for light-stations | 10,000 | |
| Porto Rican light-house service | 75,000 | |
| Maintenance of lights on channels of Great Lakes | 4,000 | |
| Pointe au Pelee light-vessel, Lake Erie | 4,000 | |
Transcriber's Note:
Punctuation has been standardised.
Variations in spelling, including dialect, have been retained as in the original publication.
The following changes have been made: