Lighthouses

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HISTORY OF LIGHTHOUSES

Lighthouses, a lighthouse by definition is a structure that produces and projects light by night, and serves as a visual marker during the day. They are used by ships traveling coastal waters to mark the entrances to harbors, and warn of rocky ledges or reefs. They can also be a simple visual reference that land is near, and to be aware of the dangers that go along with this. Lighthouses are not simple beacons, they differ from a simple beacon in that they provide living space for a light keeper, although this does not hold completely true today. Many modern lighthouse are now equipped with automatic electronic lights that do not require a full time light keeper. In this paper I will talk about the history of lighthouses, their technology and how it has advanced, and look at some historical lighthouses of the past and present.
Lighthouses have been around for a very long time, in fact they can be traced back to before the time of Christ. As far as I could find the earliest known reference to a lighthouse was in Homers Iliad back in 1200 B.C. They where constructed by the Romans in several harbors, as far away from Rome as Dover in Britain. One of the Romans most famous lighthouses was built in 1161 in Genoa. This lighthouse was manned in 1449 by Antonio Columbus, the uncle of Christopher Columbus. Major lighthouse construction did not start to happen in modern times until the 17th century. Before that time, most lighthouses were just harbor lights there to serve as homing beacons, so that boats could safely find their way into port. However beginning in the 17th century, as sea travel began to increase, major coastal lighthouses were constructed to warn of dangerous rocks, reefs, and currents. In the 18th century twelve lighthouses were constructed in Britain’s American colonies. The first was built in 1716 in Boston Harbor. Nearly 1,000 lighthouses where built in the United States by 1900. Although...