Sleepy History - Lighthouses

Episode Date: June 25, 2026

✨Sleepy History is written and narrated by humans. ✨ Narrated By: Heather Foster Written By: Alicia Steffann Lighthouses have stood watch along distant shores for centuries, their steady beams guiding sailors through darkness and storm. Rising from rugged cliffs and quiet harbors, they became symbols of safety, patience, and hope for those at sea. Keepers tended their lamps through long nights, creating stories that echo with the sound of waves and wind. Tonight, wander through the history, engineering, and enduring charm of lighthouses, as you drift into a peaceful and dream-filled sleep. Includes mentions of: Shipwrecks, Bodies of Water, Boats #History #Sleep #Howitsmade #boats #Lighthouses #shipwrecks #oceans About Sleepy History  Explore history's most intriguing stories, people, places, events, and mysteries, delivered in a supremely calming atmosphere. If you struggle to fall asleep and you have a curious mind, Sleepy History is the perfect bedtime companion. Our stories will gently grasp your attention, pulling your mind away from any racing thoughts, making room for the soothing music and calming narration to guide you into a peaceful sleep.  Want to enjoy Sleepy History ad-free? Start your 7-day free trial of Sleepy History Premium: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sleepyhistory.supercast.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Have feedback or an episode request? Let us know at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠slumberstudios.com/contact⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sleepy History is a production of Slumber Studios. To learn more, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.slumberstudios.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Sleepy History. Sleepy History is a production of Slumber Studios. To listen, add-free, and support the show, check out our premium feed. Visit BetMGM Casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMDM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly, 19 plus to wager.

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to light the way for weary travelers. Shining in the darkness, these flames were a welcome sight to mariners who were navigating their way to shore. Over time, the beacons improved. as travel over water increased and technology marched on. Tonight, we'll travel back in time and trace the path of these beacons, from their humble origins to the architectural icons of today. By the end of our journey, we'll see how lighthouses have helped people navigate the world of ideas

as much as they once showed sailors the way home. So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of lighthouses. In the summer of 1757, Benjamin Franklin sailed from New York to England. As his ship approached its destination, the captain made a dire mistake, although he thought he had safely skirted a treacherous area of Cornwall, called the Isles of Silly. He was actually speeding directly towards it. Luckily, the St. Agnes Lighthouse appeared in the distance,

giving the ship just enough time to avoid colliding with the rocks. Later, in a letter to his wife, Deborah, Franklin said that he and his son, William, had gone directly to a local church upon arrival and given thanks for their deliverance. He added, Were I a Roman Catholic, perhaps I should on this occasion

vowed to build a chapel to some saint, but as I am not, if I were to vow at all, it should be to build a lighthouse. This is just one of the memorable anecdotes related by maritime expert Jay Dolan in his book, Brilliant Beacons, which recounts the turbulent history of lighthouses in the United States. And while Dolan's book contains an incredible amount of information,

it only scratches the surface of what there is to learn about lighthouses in general, which have roots going back thousands of years in places all around the world. In fact, Benjamin Franklin's feelings of gratitude are a common theme that would connect him back to the very earliest mariners. Alone on storm-tossed seas, often sailing blind, the seafarers of long ago may well have placed the value of a lighthouse above all else. At their most frightening and uncertain moments, The beacons of history often saved them from disaster, allowing them to sail another day. Almost anyone living in the modern era can easily conjure a mental image of a lighthouse.

They might picture a tall tower with a shining beacon at the top. While today's advanced navigation tools have rendered lighthouses largely superfluous, These structures have gained a broader meaning in our culture. Figuratively, they represent any guiding light that keeps us moving in the right direction. The utility of a lighthouse may have faded, but it lives on as a concept, guiding the spirit, if not the mariner. And in that respect, we have somehow come full circle. Although our mental image of a lighthouse now implies a tower, the very earliest lights were much more rudimentary. In the broadest sense, lighthouses began with open fires that served as beacons, providing signals from shore in a time long before the existence of electricity or well-lit coastal cities.

Not all beacons were fixed to the shore. Ancient people also used fires set upon buoys. These fires were no more than wood anchored by a rope and a rock, which allowed flames to float in the water. However, these early beacons were used judiciously and only in times of peace. After all, no one. Nobody wanted potential invaders to see them marking an easy route to an attack. There are a few passing references to these types of lights in ancient Greek literature.

For example, around 660 BCE, the Greek poet Pleskes mentioned a beacon at Sigian in the trod which was Anatolia. Further, one history of Greek lighthouses asserts that an Athenian politician named the Mystocles erected a small stone column with a fire at the harbor of Pirae in the 5th century BCE. Further, some people argue that Homer mentioned beacons in the Iliad and the Odyssey, but skeptics argue that this was only due to poor translation. Although there's sometimes disagreement about what counts as a lighthouse, historically, the earliest one just about everyone can agree upon is the pharos of Alexandria.

Completed around the time of 280 BCE, the pharaoh is thought to have been the tallest tower ever built until that point. It has been considered one of the same. seven wonders of the world. The name pharos even came to mean lighthouse in some languages. No one can say for sure what the exact dimensions of the pharaoh of Alexandria were. Modern estimates refer to descriptions and measurements from 12th century observers who saw the tower just before it was destroyed by an earthquake around the year, However, archaeologists believe it was about 450 feet tall, with a base measuring about 100 square feet.

At that height, which was 15 feet above sea level, a sailor would have spotted it from as far as 29 miles away. Just recently, scientists have discovered enormous blocks of stone under nearby, waters that also indicate the tower may have been a blend of Greek and Egyptian architecture. In other words, fancier than we thought. The prolific first century writer Pliny the Elder even left behind his impressions of the great pharaohs. He said, over and above the pyramids, a great name there is of a tower built by the one of the kings of Egypt within the island of pharaoh, and it keepeth and commandeth the haven

of Alexandria. The use of this watchtower is to shoe light as a lantern and give direction in the night season to ships, for to enter the haven and where they shall avoid bars and shelves. almost as famous as the pharaohs of Alexandria is the pharaohs of Ostia. Although reportedly a modest quarter of the height, the light of Ostia marked the port of Rome. Because of its location at a major trade center, the Ostia beacon was very important for navigation. It was completed by Emperor Claudius in roughly 50 C.E.

With typical Roman elegance, it was said to have contained rooms and staircases with a large statue of the emperor in the front. It was not the only lighthouse in Rome during that era. According to lighthouse engineer David Stevenson, there were some 30 lighthouses in service there prior to the year 400 CE, when the Roman Empire began to decline. Let's not jump quite that far ahead, because there are a few more significant lighthouses from that era that are worth mentioning. Speaking of the Romans,

the infamous Emperor Caligula reportedly brought his army through Gaul or France to the Straits of Dover in the year 40 CE. As the story goes, upon arriving at the water's edge, he declared a victory over the god Neptune. He then directed a tower to be raised in Boulogna and lit it with a fire for the purpose of assisting in navigation. This tower became known as the Tordord. Around the same time, one or possibly two towers were erected. across the channel in Dover, England. One of the towers is considered an ancient lighthouse,

although experts suggest that its distance from the water, where it stands 400 feet about sea level, indicates it was more for signaling between the Roman provinces of Britain and Gaul than it was for navigation. Another notable lighthouse that dates to the Roman Empire is in Karuna on the coast of Spain. Experts believe it was built in the late 1st century CE

and records from the 4th or 5th century mention it as being helpful for navigation. In the 1990s, archaeologists uncovered its base and declared it Roman in origin. It's considered by UNESCO to be the first. the only remaining Greco-Roman lighthouse to maintain some of its integrity and functionality. With such a long life, it has gone by several names, including the Tower of Hercules, and the Tower of Tour de Fair, or Tower of Iron, in English.

Legend holds that Hercules bounded the tower, gracing it with a magic lamp that burned unabated, for 300 years. While that may be a stretch, thanks to a 19th century renovation that encased the original tower, it is still shining today. There are quite a lot of depictions of lighthouses from the era of the Roman Empire,

showing up on everything from mosaics to coins, but they're not particularly helpful in showing how the beacons really looked. Just as they are nowadays, ancient lighthouses became a symbol in their own right. They were often drawn as a tower with flames spouting out the top because most of the major lighthouses in operation at that time were thought to have used wood fires or torches.

According to Stevenson, it is possible some, smaller lights were created with candles or oil lamps inside a lantern. After the first century, glass panes were available to protect these fires. But whatever the illustrations on artifact show, whether actual lighthouses or icons, the prevalence of the widespread imagery confirms that they were important to many cities of the era. With the fall of the empire in the 5th century CE, lighthouses went into a period of decline that lasted hundreds of years. Europe was in disarray and trade decreased,

leaving mainly local traffic in the ports. Even then, coastal communities were wary of displaying harbts, when they might aid an attacker. However, at the dawn of the 12th century, trade started picking up again. In Italy especially, lighthouses began rising once more. The first lighthouse of the era was at Meloria in Italy. In 1157, the peasants built a beacon that was felled and reconstructed multiple times during their war with the Genoans over the next two centuries. In 1304, they moved it to an isolated rock. The poet Petrarch wrote about it a few decades later

and Leonardo da Vinci showed it on a map around the year 1500, along with three other towers off the harbor. There were also lighthouses in Messina, Venice, Antino. But the most magnificent Italian lighthouse established in 1128 was a Lanterna de Genoa. Standing 240 feet tall, this iconic tower is the tallest in the Mediterranean. The tourism website for Genoa describes it as an essential part of the city, saying, it is what the leaning tower is for Pisa, the Eiffel Tower for Paris, and the Statue of Liberty for New York, an unmistakable symbol. Initially, its light at the top of 172 steps was a fire that burned

heather and broom and ships that docked in the harbor paid attacks for its services. The importance of this lighthouse continued for centuries. It was converted to oil fuel in the 1300s. And in the 1400s, the keeper was a man named Antonio Colombo, whose occupation may have inspired his nephew, Christopher Columbus, to take his famous voyage decades later. There's more to tell about the Lanterna, but we'll circle back to it a little bit later. Perhaps inspired by its success, lighthouse construction was soon ramping up all over the place. Although England and Scotland were a little late to the party,

Ireland did have two early lighthouses. The oldest of those is known as Hookhead Lighthouse, and it is thought to have been established first, as a simple beacon in the 5th century. Although experts disagree on when a more substantial tower was built, the proper lighthouse seems to have been erected in the 12th or 13th century. Its care was handed over to the monks at a local priory, despite political upheaval, they kept the light burning until the 17th century. It changed hands many times in the ensuing years, and it's still standing today.

The other medieval light in Ireland is the Yawl Tower in East Cork. Although the existing lighthouse there dates to the 18th century, it replaced a simple beacon, which was built in about 1190, and tended by a convent for hundreds of years. There is some evidence that lights were being used on the coast of France during the early Crusades. Holland and Belgium also built a few beacons in the 13th century. And there were also lights in Germany and Denmark. Of course, it seems likely that harbors all over the world were probably still using small beacons as needed.

their locations now lost to history. But it really wasn't until the 16th century that proper lighthouse towers started to rapidly proliferate in many locations. At that time, thanks to the influence of robust trade in the area, there were 15 lights that were erected around the Scandinavian and German coasts, possibly making the area the best lighted in the world at the time. Stevenson points out that many of the beacons in that region were not so much for coastal navigation as they were to mark the entrances to harbors and river estuaries.

But they supported the safe and prosperous merchant traffic to northern Europe. This was when Scotland first began exploring the advantages of lighthouses. Records from Edinburgh indicate that there was a beacon at Leith Harbor established sometime before mid-century. Further in 1566, the city of Aberdeen put a portable lantern on the gable of a chapel for the purpose of guiding ships into the harbor during the colder season. These were small beginnings, but this area of the world would soon progress to much more ambitious projects. There's one particular Scottish legend that wasn't technically about a light, although it was an idea ahead of its time. According to stories, a 14th century monk put a warning bell at a location

called the inch cape, and now known as bell rock, about 11 miles off the coast in the North Sea. Supposedly this bell was fixed upon some type of lever, such as a tree, and it rang continually due to the movements of the water, warning mariners away from danger. Heightening the drama of the tale, the bell was stolen by a pirate. Years later, the poet Robert Southey wrote a poem based on the legend. It was called the Inch Cape Rock, and the poem became a common recitation topic for school children. Although the story of the monk is probably fiction, a very important lighthouse was to be built on Bell Rock in later years. We will revisit that spot in a little while.

Meanwhile, the lighthouse in Genoa had been under constant assault by war and weather. It was fully rebuilt in 1544, but it was susceptible to lightning strikes. Its keepers tried everything from pious religious inscriptions to a statue of St. Christopher to no avail. Luckily, science was to provide a solution in the form of, of Benjamin Franklin's lightning rod, but it would not be for a couple of hundred years. But as far as Stevenson is concerned, the most notable lighthouse story of the early 1600s

is the dramatic tale of the beacon at Cordeaux-on in France. In 1581, the French king Henri III sent an engineer named Louis de Foix to a small, pilot off the coast in order to evaluate an old beacon tower that desperately needed repairs. As a veteran engineer and architect, DeFois was highly qualified, so when he gave a costly estimate for repairs, the king took notice and decided to start fresh. He contracted DeFois to build him a spectacular new lighthouse within two years. showcasing the best of French style and architecture.

The plan was to erect a tower with two vaulted rooms and a chapel, and the building was to be gorgeously decorated and topped with parapets. As Stevenson points out, it's hard enough to build a sturdy plainlight house on a remote island. Building an elaborate structure with precision cut stones was really asking for trouble. Predictably, construction immediately got behind. Despite a small army of men and horses, progress was very slow. By 1602, many years after the planned completion of the tower, Defois vanished in shame.

His son Pierre picked up the work, but he also gave up by 1606. Then their foreman started with a new contract. He finally finished enough of the building that it was lit in 1610, but it wasn't until four years later that the lighthouse was even sufficiently protected from the water. However, construction wasn't even the biggest problem. As Stevenson put it, the chief trouble was brought about by the disappearance of the island itself. In an unexpected development, the little islet suffered serious erosion.

Protective walls and parapets kept the tower standing, but the lighthouse had to take constant battering from the sea. Then, to add insult to injury, the tower was struck by lightning in 1612, sending its top 25 feet into the sea. Like the lighthouse in Genoa, its height was also a disadvantage when it came to the elements. However, despite all of this, the corduant light was restored and shored up over the years. It still proudly survives as the 10th largest traditional lighthouse in the world

and is recognized as a UNESCO heritage site. Perhaps DeFois would be comforted to know that, Future engineers would continue to face the wrath of the sea as they attempted to place beacons in ever more challenging locations. He was just one of the first to find out the hard way. During this century following the completion of the Corduon Lighthouse, construction of beacons really took off in England and Scotland. In just a hundred years, the number of coastal lights. in England alone increased from the single beacon at Tynemouth to about 14,

almost all of which were concentrated on the East Coast. One of the reasons for this was the establishment in the 16th century of an organization called Trinity House, which was tasked with managing all sorts of affairs related to mariners. In the 17th century, there was a big push to establish lighthouses in order to reduce accidents. Today, Trinity House is still managing the 65 working lighthouses of England. Meanwhile, Scotland managed its affairs separately, having maintained its own parliament. During the same period, in 1636, they saw fit to erect a lighthouse on May Island at the entrance of the busy Firth of Fourth.

This location was similar in some ways to Gorduan. Coal for the fire had to be ferried over six miles in a boat and then hand carried up the tower. But most of the coal fire lighthouses of northwest Europe were actually supplied by coals from the fourth estuary, so using it was very practical. from a financial standpoint. The May Island Light

had an intriguing story attached to it. The builder, whose name was Alexander Cunningham, perished in a shipwreck while sailing into Fife. The storm lasted a mere half hour and so seemed highly unlucky. Years later, a group of women

claimed to have caused the accident with the devil. assistance. The whole story was immortalized in verse by a professor at St. Andrews University. It concluded by speaking to the spirit of Cunningham with the words, since by your lighthouse, you saved the lives of many citizens of this world. You are rewarded with a crown as a citizen of heaven. The second light was established at Bud and Ness in about 1660. However, it would claim no such fantastical tale. According to Stevenson, five coal-fire lighthouses were also put up in Ireland during the 17th century, using fuel from Scotland.

Beacons continued to proliferate in Germany and Scandinavia as well. In several Danish lighthouses of the era, a man named Jens Paterson Groves created a clever device called a Vipifer, which is known in English as a sweep. It allowed keepers to pull a brazier of coals up in the air, freeing men of the task of carrying them to the top. Stevenson also suggests that Sweden was experimenting with reflectors and oil lamps in their beacters. during the 17th century. Unfortunately, there isn't any information left about how they worked. Although Europe seems to have been cornering the market on light towers, there is written evidence that a light existed in Goa, India in 1639. Another account mentions a sea mark some

distance away from the coast north of Madras. The same traveler reported seeing simple beacons in use in Japan. And far across the world, there are some written references to lights that were spotted in Havana, Cuba and Kotazuba in Brazil, although no other information is available. At the turn of the 18th century, lighthouse history was forever altered. when engineers tackled a previously unthinkable task. This was when the first lighthouse tower was built on a rock that was entirely exposed to the waves. It started nine miles off the coast of England at Ediston Reef.

The problem with this spot was that it harbored extremely dangerous underwater rocks. In 1696 and, An entrepreneur named Henry Winston Lee got permission from Trinity House to construct a beacon there after two of his ships became casualties of the rocks. He did this despite having no prior examples of a lighthouse that would withstand such conditions while being built on such a small area. Setting sail each day from Plymouth, Winstonly and his men eventually erected a tower that was fastened to the highest peak in the reef, anchored by long iron rods. The first tower, partially completed by 1698, suffered immediate damage from the weather. Winstonly increased

the tower's girth and reinforced it, allowing the new lantern to sit a full. full 40 feet higher than the first one. By the end of the year, the beacon was shining. Winston Lee had a theatrical personality, and he ornamented his lighthouse with frippery that drew some criticism, such as a weather vein, and ornamental candlesticks. But he insisted his structure was tough and once said that his greatest wish was to be at his lighthouse during the greatest storm that ever was. Things seemed to be going well for about three years. However, Mother Nature appears to have heard Winstonly's wish. While he was at the lighthouse doing repairs in December 1703, he, his workmen, and almost the

entire lighthouse were swept away by the tempest now known as the Great Storm. In 1705, a silk merchant named John Rudyard was contracted to build another lighthouse. He wasn't an engineer, but he had some construction experience and was wise enough to hire two shipwrights to a system. Benefitting from Winston Lee's experience, he built a structure that was was smoother and more resistant to waves, and it did stand relatively undamaged for about 50 years. Ironically, it wasn't water that felled the beacon this time. Rather, in 1755, the lantern caught fire and burned the lighthouse down. Ediston would remain an important lighthouse location with two subsequent towers erected there, including one that exists today.

Half a century later, an actual lighthouse was to be erected at Bell Rock. It was built so well that it's still standing over 200 years later and is considered the oldest remaining sea-washed tower. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, lighthouses were again. getting their early beginnings in the American colonies. As the city of Boston grew in size and its port became increasingly busy, prominent colonial merchants pushed for a proper beacon. Not only would it aid in safer navigation into the harbor, but its presence would carry with it some prestige,

establishing the colonies as a serious trade destination. A beacon was built on an island called Little Brewster, which was well positioned, but no more than an acre in size. In 1716, the 60-foot tower was lit and thereafter known as Boston Lighthouse. But there was to be no immediate boom of lighthouse construction in the colonies. True, subsequent beacons were built by disparate groups of interested. parties as needed. But even so, there were still only 12 of them as the dawn of the 19th century approached. All of these were constructed with more thrift than innovation in mind, generally using whatever wood or rubble stone was available. Still, lighthouses undeniably had a future in what

would become the United States, even though it was going to take a while for that part of the world to catch up to Europe. In fact, Stevenson characterizes the early 19th century as a time of mismanagement on the United States' lighthouse scene. Even as Europe leapt forward, a scientific revolution in lighting was approaching, and Europe would be the first to capitalize on it. You see, while 18th century lighthouse architects had been moving ahead with construction, there was yet to be a major improvement in the source and effectiveness of the actual light production. The fuel source of many older lights is still a matter of conjecture, but most experts agree that open fires using wood, coal, and other substances were still widely used as late as the 18th century.

Although messy and cumbersome, they were simply more effective than candles or oil lamps. But innovators were hard at work, and the 18th century was a time when many sea lights did switch over to oil fuel. In an attempt to make lights more powerful, various reflectors and mirrors were deployed. Sweden was at the head of the pack in this regard. They tried out the first parabolic reflector lights in 1738, the first oscillating lights in 1757, and the first revolving light in 1781. One of the key advantages of oscillating and revolving lights was to create unique blashes. First, just white and later with colors.

This enabled mariners to distinguish one lighthouse from another. To this day, lighthouses around the world use unique patterns such as these in order to communicate their identity. In 1773, the French took a look at the spherical reflectors that had been used for lighting the streets of Paris. They attempted to apply the same concept to lighthouses. The results were unsatisfying and sailors still preferred the brighter, old-fashioned methods. In the end, it was a lamp, not its reflectors, that revolutionized lighting. In the early 1780s, a Swiss-born physicist named Amy Argonne invented a new oil lamp that offered less smoke and brighter light.

In his book Brilliant Beacons, Jay Dolan characterized the new Argon lamp as a sensation in Europe. Having become a fan of the invention, Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1784 that the lamp gave a lamp. the light equal as is thought to that of six or eight candles. The Argonne lamp and the parabolic reflectors turned out to be a match made in heaven for lighthouse engineers, multiplying the effect of a lamp hundreds of times. These spread throughout European lighthouses as the 19th century began, especially in England, Scotland and France. Meanwhile, the United States had some catching up to do. The oldest colonial lighthouses had used tallow candles or crude oil lamps.

By the early 19th century, not much had changed, although somewhat improved apparatuses called spider lamps were being used. These had more wigs and larger oil reserves than previous versions. At a point, a refined type of whale oil was a fuel of choice. These inefficient lamps created a lot of smoke, which necessitated constant work by the lightkeepers to make sure the glass panes in the lantern rooms were clean. In the early years of the 19th century,

a businessman named Winslow Lewis managed to patent a lamp that he claimed was his own invention, but according to experts, was a poor imitation of what had already been long used in Europe. The Lewis Light featured an argon lamp and a parabolic reflector. Dolan quotes one historical observer saying its, Reflectors came about as near to a true paraboloid, as did a barber's basin.

Nonetheless, Lewis campaigned tirelessly for a patent and then managed to sell his device to the government, partially due to the fact that it burned about half the oil of an existing spider lamp. By the spring of 1812, the Lewis lamps were destined for all the lighthouses in the land. But the war of 1812 was imminent. Some 40 lights were refitted, but then, hostilities interrupted the conversion. Even when the war had ended, matters became worse. The United States lighthouses fell under the management of a parsimonious bureaucrat named Stephen

Pleasanton, whom Franelle biographer Teresa Levitt characterizes as an accountant with his eye fixed on the bottom line. Dolan calls the decades of his mismanagement as the darkest period in the history of America's lighthouses. As part of his era of backwardness, Pleasanton used Lewis lamps exclusively. However, in Europe, a brilliant new invention was changing everything. A French engineer named Augustine Fresnel used a modified argon lamp and an array of lenses to refract and vastly improve light. The first Fresnel lens was placed in none other than the Corduon Lighthouse. It was a roaring success. By Franel's calculations, his new apparatus produced as much light as the best British reflectors while using half of the oil. Frenel's invention was soon

being installed across France. Although Franel tragically passed away at the age of 39, the use of his lenses spread across Europe, Africa, Asia, and parts of the Americas. The lens were soon offered in multiple sizes to suit different beacons. Meanwhile, the lighthouses of the United States languished under the thumb of Pleasanton. In the mid-19th century, an article in the American Review said, Our whole lighthouse system lacks method, and nothing can ever supply this radical defect, until science and experience are systematically introduced into its supervision.

Apparently, Congress agreed. An audit was completed, revealing neglect and poor construction. One lieutenant is quoted as saying, Our lighthouses are so wretched that any seafaring man must desire a change. Pleasanton was chucked out of office and a new lighthouse board convened to fix what ailed the beacons of the United States.

Finally, the American lighthouses began to shine. Struggling beacons were repaired or replaced and new ones were built. as needed to provide consistent guidance along the coast. And finally, the Fresnel lens was implemented. Meanwhile, the early 19th century saw the construction of many new lighthouses in Canada. Although some beacons were raised on Canada's east coast

in the 18th century, they really began to proliferate during the next 100 years due to increasing trade between Canada and Europe. Lighthouses were built on the shores of Lake Ontario in Newfoundland and at the entrances to the Bay of Fundy and the St. Lawrence River. Furthermore, by the mid-19th century, the first two lighthouses had appeared on Canada's west coast. Then in the late 19th century, there were also important new advancements in lighthouse placement. A new type of beacon called a screw pile lighthouse was developed in Ireland and England.

The first was designed by an Irish engineer named Alexander Mitchell, and it enabled the construction of a lighthouse on a sandy river bottom. Mitchell's beacon called the Maplan Sandman Sand, light was located on the River Thames. It was started in 1838. The second was wire light in Fleetwood, Lancashire, which beat the mapland sands to the finish, by being the first to actually be lit in 1840 compared to 1841 for the mapland sands. The screw pile technique was soon imported to the Chesapeake Bay and the Carolinas in the United States. But screw pile lights had their drawbacks. Since they were basically on stilts, they weren't the sturdiest type of structure and were

subject to rough weather. In 1885, a stronger version called a Kaysen came into use. The technique was first used in the estuary of the Vaser River in Germany at the Roeastern. Sodor Sands Lighthouse. The resulting beacon is now considered to be a great achievement in German engineering. In short, these structures were bolted together on land with a hollow cylinder enclosed on the bottom. They were then towed out to their destination

where a stone or concrete foundation was poured in. Because of their fun little shape, they were often called Sparkplug, Coffee Pops. or bug lights. The late 19th century was also a time of lighthouse expansion in the Great Lakes area of the United States. The first lights on the Great Lakes were in Buffalo, New York, and Erie, Pennsylvania. However, many people were surprised to hear that Michigan has the most lighthouses of any state. 129 of them exist today. thanks to Michigan's vast shoreline and history of manufacturing and shipping.

That's quite an achievement because the placement and weather conditions were rough there, and significant ingenuity was required to keep those beacon standing. Better techniques and materials enable the construction of some of the Great Lakes' most famous lighthouses during that period. By this time, lamps were frequently powered by kerosene. However, electricity was on the horizon. In 1884, an electric beacon was first attempted at Hellgate Light in New York. Apparently, people thought it was too bright and it was discontinued. But electricity was implemented again just two years later at the state. Statue of Liberty to greater acclaim. Although conversion was gradual, the movement provided a major

theme to lighthouse history in the ensuing 20th century. And with electricity, eventually came automation, which proved to be a boost to efficiency and many lighthouses worldwide. Automation made it especially practical to run beacons, such as the Les a Clarouroos. light. Built in 1920, this remote beacon stands in the water of southern Argentina. Known as the Faro del Fiend de Mundo or the lighthouse at the end of the world, it is reachable only by boat and runs on solar power. Thanks to modern technology, many of those faithful lightkeepers who filled the lamps and polished the glass are not needed to be able to. it anymore. There are certainly still lighthouses around the world that are staffed. Canada,

for example, has 51 of them. However, many former working beacons serve a different kind of purpose in our culture now. Whether on the mainland or at sea, on rock or on sand, and each with its own personality, lighthouses have become as much a symbol of our past as they have an icon of contemporary faith and purpose. In that spirit, the port of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia is the current site of the world's tallest non-traditional lighthouse, so characterized because it was built more as an observation tower than a navigation aid. constructed in 1990 and standing about 450 feet tall, the height of the Jeddah Lighthouse surpasses the world's tallest traditional beacon.

That honor goes to the Il-Vier's lighthouse off the coast of Brittany, France, which stands almost 271 feet tall, and was built nearly a hundred years earlier between 1897 and 1997 and In 1902, in 1977, when the Voyager 2 craft was sent into space, scientists included an audiovisual disc called the Voyager Golden Record. The purpose of this disc was to communicate facts about Earth to any intelligent life forms the Voyager 2 might encounter. Among the carefully assembled media on the disc,

there was a photo of the Cape Nettic Lighthouse on the coast of Maine in the United States. Today, an online lighthouse directory provides information for nearly 25,000 lighthouses all over the world. It's an astounding statement about the importance of beacons in our lives, no matter where we live. Thinking back to that fateful journey to Cornwall and his near miss with the wrath of the sea, we know that Benjamin Franklin only pondered the construction of a lighthouse of his own. However, we are all indebted to the countless dreamers and engineers who did the real work. Together they have provided a beacon for all of humanity.