11. The first electrically powered lighthouse preceded Edison’s light bulb
By the time Thomas Edison applied for his patent for an improved electric light bulb in 1879, South Foreland Light at the top of the Cliffs of Dover had been warning mariners to avoid the Goodwin Sands using electric light for over four years. The Goodwin Sands is a massive sandbank in the English Channel which over the centuries claimed hundreds of ships, with some historians believing to number over two thousand. Several lights were established along the top of the cliffs to warn mariners of the Goodwin Sands, which shift and move, making their exact location in reference to the stationary lights difficult to establish. The South Foreland Light was a Victorian lighthouse operated by Trinity House and in 1875 it became the first light house in the world to use electricity to power its beacon, warning ships of the proximity of the deadly Goodwin Sands.
Using a technique pioneered by Michael Faraday, South Foreland used steam-powered magnetos to provide electrical power to carbon arc lamps. South Foreland towered over a second lighthouse, which beamed a second signal, and when a mariner lined up the two lights he knew he was able to negotiate the far end of the sandbank. Some historians dispute the nature of the relationship between the two lighthouses, and the destruction of Trinity House records and logs during the London Blitz has left much of the information about this critical lighthouse veiled in the fog of history. But it is indisputable that the use of electrical power for beneficial lighting was applied at South Foreland, one of the first times it was ever done, if not the first time. A rotating device to allow the light to appear to flash to observers at sea was installed in 1904. The South Foreland Light was deactivated by Trinity House in 1988, and stands today as a tourist attraction.
