Screwpiles: The Forgotten Lighthouses

CHAPTER FOUR SCREWPILE TECHNOLOGY

Lamps, Fuels, and Lenses Early lighthouses fueled their lights with open fires, candles, and primitive oil lamps using fish oil and, later, whale oil. In the 1760s, pan lamps (metal pans filled with oil and fitted with multiple wicks) were a new innovation, followed by the Argand hollow wick lamp and parabolic reflector, developed around 1781 in Europe. After Winslow Lewis introduced the Argand parabolic reflector system in the United States around 1810, the U.S. Lighthouse Service universally used that system until the 1850s. During those years, there were only limited innovations in illuminants, lamp design, and lenses, but in 1850, the U.S. Congress ordered a review of the Lighthouse Service. The review resulted in organizational changes within the service, it created the U.S. Lighthouse Board, and it ushered in a steady flow of technical improvements that dramatically improved the capability of U.S. lighthouses after 1851.

A pan lamp, approximately 1760 Maine Lighthouse Museum

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