United States Lighthouse Board
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The United States Lighthouse Board was the second agency of the
U.S. federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 ...
, under the Department of Treasury, responsible for the construction and maintenance of all
lighthouse A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid, for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways. Lighthouses mar ...
s and navigation aids in the
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, between 1852 and 1910. The new agency was created following complaints of the shipping industry of the previous administration of lighthouses under the Treasury's Lighthouse Establishment, which had had jurisdiction since 1791, and since 1820, been under the control of Stephen Pleasonton. The quasi-military board first met on April 28, 1851, and with its establishment, the administration of lighthouses and other aids to navigation would take their largest leap toward modernization since the inception of federal government control.Amy K. Marshall "
Frequently Close to the Point of Peril: A History of Buoys and Tenders in U.S. Coastal Waters, 1789–1939
'", A Master's Thesis
In 1910, the Lighthouse Board was disestablished in favor of a more civilian
Lighthouse Service The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of the ...
, under the
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; later the Lighthouse Service was merged into the
United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...
in 1939.


Establishment of the board

By 1847, the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
became serious about reforming the Lighthouse Establishment which had been in existence since 1791 and in response to a number of complaints, the
U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...
removed the responsibility for the construction of six new light stations from the U.S. Treasury Department's Fifth Auditor ( Stephen Pleasonton), and transferred it to the supervision of the
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's, long-time construction agency, the Corps of Engineers. When it became clear that this would not alleviate the underlying problems in the Lighthouse Establishment,
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then felt compelled to deal the final blow to Pleasonton's administration. The ensuing congressional investigation took more than four years to effect a change in the administration of navigation aids along the American coasts. During that time, congressional appointee, Lt. Jenkins of the
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conducted interviews with pilots and mariners, engaged in domestic and foreign research, and was involved in a number of hearings into existing navigational aids administration. On March 3, 1851, the
United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washing ...
passed ''"An Act Making Appropriations for Light House, Light Boats, Buoys, &c."'' Section 8 of the act stated:
The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and required to cause a board to be convened at as early a day as may be practical after the passage of that act to be two officers of the Navy of high rank, two officers of Engineers of the Army, and such civil officers of scientific attainments as may be under the orders or at the disposition of the Treasury Department, and a junior officer of the Navy to act as Secretary to said board, whose duty it shall be under instructions from the Treasury Department to inquire into the condition of the Lighthouse Establishment of the United States, and make a general detailed report and programme to guide legislation in extending and improving our present system of construction, illumination, inspection, and superintendence.
The Lighthouse Board resulted from this mandate, and its original members consisted of
William B. Shubrick William Branford Shubrick (October 31, 1790 – May 27, 1874) was an officer in the United States Navy. His active-duty career extended from 1806 to 1861, including service in the War of 1812 and the Mexican–American War; he was placed on the ret ...
, and
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, U.S. Navy; James Kearney, U.S. Topographical Engineers; civilian academics
Alexander Dallas Bache Alexander Dallas Bache (July 19, 1806 – February 17, 1867) was an American physicist, scientist, and surveyor who erected coastal fortifications and conducted a detailed survey to map the mideastern United States coastline. Originally an army ...
, Superintendent of the U.S. Coast Survey, and
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, Secretary of the
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; and Lt. Thornton Jenkins, U.S. Navy, who acted as secretary.


Later developments

These men attracted others of similar quality to lighthouse duty, both on the board and in district offices. The country was organized into 12 lighthouse districts, each having an inspector (a naval officer) who was charged with building the lighthouses and seeing that they remained in good condition and that the lens was in operation. After a few years the inspectors became overloaded with work and an engineer (an army officer) was appointed to each district to tend to the construction and maintenance of lighthouses. The Lighthouse Board moved quickly in applying new technology, particularly in purchasing and installing new
Fresnel lens A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the c ...
es and constructing
screw-pile lighthouse A screw-pile lighthouse is a lighthouse which stands on piles that are screwed into sandy or muddy sea or river bottoms. The first screw-pile lighthouse to begin construction was built by the blind Irish engineer Alexander Mitchell. Construction ...
s. The Board also oversaw the construction of the first lighthouses on the west coast. By the time of the Civil War, all lighthouses had Fresnel lenses. Previously, under the Establishment, the local collectors of customs were in charge of the lighthouses and other aids to navigation. In time, all duties regarding aids to navigation were taken from them. The Board demanded that only those who could read were to be appointed as keepers in order that they be able to read their written instructions. These instructions were detailed and covered everything possible about the operation of lighthouses, leaving little discretion to the keeper. The Board struggled to eliminate politics from its activities, and slowly the organization became a professional career agency, helped greatly by the Civil Service Reform Acts of 1871 and 1883. Keepers became civil service employees in 1896. Most important, the Board was constantly mindful of advancing technology and took advantage of new types of lighthouses, buoys, or fog signals, as well as improvement in lighthouse optics. Over the next five decades several advances in lighthouse construction technology took place including the development of the exposed screwpile lighthouses, exoskeleton lighthouses, waveswept interlocking stone lighthouses, iron caisson lighthouses, and breakwater lighthouses. In the 1850s the Board prescribed color schemes for the buoys, as well as range lights and day markers; and the buoy system was standardized. Classification systems were also developed to mark the nation's waterways. Iron buoys were introduced to replace the more expensive copper-clad wooden buoys. The Lighthouse Board also began printing changes made in aids to navigation as a
Notice to Mariners A notice to mariners (NTM or NOTMAR,) advises mariners of important matters affecting navigational safety, including new hydrographic information, changes in channels and aids to navigation, and other important data. Over 60 countries which prod ...
. Several advances in the technology of fog signals were made during the 1850s. In 1851, an experimental air fog whistle and reed horn was installed at
Beavertail Lighthouse Beavertail Lighthouse was built in 1856 and is the premier lighthouse in Rhode Island, marking the entrance to Narragansett Bay. The lighthouse lies on the southernmost point of Conanicut Island in the town of Jamestown, Rhode Island in Beaverta ...
at the entrance to
Narragansett Bay Narragansett Bay is a bay and estuary on the north side of Rhode Island Sound covering , of which is in Rhode Island. The bay forms New England's largest estuary, which functions as an expansive natural harbor and includes a small archipelago. Sma ...
,
Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...
. At first this sound signal was powered by a horse-operated treadmill and later by an internal combustion steam engine. Around 1851, mechanically rung fog bells were introduced. The striking mechanism was governed by a weight attached to a flywheel, and later internally run by clockworks. The strokes of the fog signals were timed deliberately to afford each signal a unique sound characteristic. The bell signal was gradually replaced by three variations of that instrument. The first was an ordinary locomotive whistle, enlarged and modified and blown by steam from a high-pressure tubular boiler. The second was a reed-trumpet, and in 1866 the third variation, a siren-trumpet. Although the fog bell signal was still used for warning vessels over short distances, other fog signals started to supersede the smaller bell signal. Bells were also used on buoys; later whistling buoys were invented by J. M. Courtenay and were first in use in 1876. The first gas-lighted buoy was installed in 1882. The gong buoy was invented in 1923. In 1886, a new technology was tested in the illumination of the
Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; French: ''La Liberté éclairant le monde'') is a List of colossal sculpture in situ, colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City, in the U ...
—electricity. The electrical lighting of the statue, under the Lighthouse Board's care from 1886 to 1902, marks the beginning of the "modern age" in lighthouse illumination. In 1900, the Lighthouse Board began converting lighthouses to electric service; however, because of the lack of direct access to power lines, the conversion came about slowly.


See also

*
Confederate States Lighthouse Bureau The Confederate States Lighthouse Bureau was an administrative bureau within the Confederate States Department of the Treasury which was responsible for the upkeep of lighthouses and other navigational aids along Confederate shores. __TOC__ Ove ...


References


National Park Service site
''This article contains information created by the US Federal Government and is in the ''public domain''.''


Further reading



* Hyde, Charles K., and Ann and John Mahan. ''The Northern Lights: Lighthouses of the Upper Great Lakes.'' Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1995. . * Noble, Dennis, ''Lighthouses & Keepers: U. S. Lighthouse Service and Its Legacy'' (Annapolis: U. S. Naval Institute Press, 1997) * Oleszewski, Wes, ''Great Lakes Lighthouses, American and Canadian: A Comprehensive Directory/Guide to Great Lakes Lighthouses'', (Gwinn, Michigan: Avery Color Studios, Inc., 1998) . * Penrod, John, ''Lighthouses of Michigan'', (Berrien Center, Michigan: Penrod/Hiawatha, 1998) . * Penrose, Laurie and Bill, A'' Traveler's Guide to 116 Michigan Lighthouses'' (Petoskey, Michigan: Friede Publications, 1999). * * Putnam, George R., ''Lighthouses and Lightships of the United States'', (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1933). * United States Coast Guard, ''Aids to Navigation'', (Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1945). * * * Wagner, John L., ''Michigan Lighthouses: An Aerial Photographic Perspective'', (East Lansing, Michigan: John L. Wagner, 1998) . * Weiss, George, ''The Lighthouse Service, Its History, Activities and Organization'' (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1926) * Wright, Larry and Wright, Patricia, ''Great Lakes Lighthouses Encyclopedia'' Hardback (Erin: Boston Mills Press, 2006) .


External links



* * {{Authority control Lighthouses in the United States United States Coast Guard Lighthouse organizations