Editing Lighthouse (section)

===Lighting improvements===
Until 1782 the source of illumination had generally been wood pyres or burning coal. The [[Argand lamp]], invented in 1782 by the Swiss scientist [[Aimé Argand]] revolutionized lighthouse illumination with its steady smokeless flame. Early models used ground glass which was sometimes tinted around the wick. Later models used a [[Gas mantle|mantle]] of [[thorium dioxide]] suspended over the flame, creating a bright, steady light.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.johnmoncrieff.co.uk/shop-2/products.php?cat=32|title=Lamp Glass Replacement Glass Lamp Shades, Oil Lamp Shades, Oil Lamp Chimneys, Oil Lamp Spares|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106160403/http://www.johnmoncrieff.co.uk/shop-2/products.php?cat=32|archive-date=6 January 2014}}</ref> The Argand lamp used [[whale oil]], [[colza]], [[olive oil]]<ref>"Lamp." ''Encyclopædia Britannica: or, a dictionary of Arts, Science, and Miscellaneous Literature.''  6th ed. 1823 [https://books.google.com/books?id=T8wnAAAAMAAJ&dq=%22argand+lamp%22+%22olive+oil%22&pg=PA505 Web.] 5 December 2011</ref> or other [[vegetable oil]] as fuel, supplied by a [[gravity feed]] from a reservoir mounted above the burner. The lamp was first produced by [[Matthew Boulton]], in partnership with Argand, in 1784, and became the standard for lighthouses for over a century.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/technology/lighthouse/Modern-lighthouses#ref668277|title=Modern Lighthouses|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|access-date=4 August 2021}}</ref>

[[South Foreland Lighthouse]] was the first tower to successfully use an electric light in 1875. The lighthouse's carbon [[arc lamp]]s were powered by a steam-driven [[magneto (generator)|magneto]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Baird |first=Spencer Fullerton|title=Annual record of science and industry |publisher=Harper & Brothers|location=New York|year=1876|pages=460}}</ref> [[John Richardson Wigham]] was the first to develop a system for [[coal gas|gas]] illumination of lighthouses. His improved gas 'crocus' burner at the [[Baily Lighthouse]] near Dublin was 13 times more powerful than the most brilliant light then known.<ref name=cil>{{cite journal| title=John Richardson Wigham 1829–1906 | url=http://www.commissionersofirishlights.com/media/35546/Beam_2006.PDF#page=23 | publisher=Commissioners of Irish Lights | journal=BEAM | volume=35 | date=2006–2007 | pages=21–22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120312014229/http://www.commissionersofirishlights.com/media/35546/Beam_2006.PDF|archive-date=12 March 2012}}</ref>
[[File:Sumburgh Lighthouse Lamp.jpg|thumb|An {{convert|85|mm|in}} Chance Brothers ''Incandescent Petroleum Vapour Installation'' which produced the light for the [[Sumburgh Head]] lighthouse until 1976. <!-- All text in this caption after this comment should be put somewhere in the article body instead. -->The lamp (made in approx. 1914) burned vaporized [[kerosene]] (paraffin); the vaporizer was heated by a [[denatured alcohol]] (methylated spirit) burner to light. When lit, some of the vaporised fuel was diverted to a [[Bunsen burner]] to keep the vaporizer warm and the fuel in vapor form. The fuel was forced up to the lamp by air; the keepers had to pump the air container up every hour or so, pressurizing the paraffin container to force the fuel to the lamp. The "white sock" pictured is  an unburnt mantle on which the vapor burned.]]
The vaporized oil burner was invented in 1901 by [[Arthur Kitson]], and improved by David Hood at [[Trinity House]]. The fuel was vaporized at high pressure and burned to heat the mantle, giving an output of over six times the luminosity of traditional oil lights.{{cn|date=December 2024}} The use of gas as illuminant became widely available with the invention of the [[Dalén light]] by Swedish engineer [[Gustaf Dalén]]. He used [[Agamassan]] (Aga), a [[Substrate (materials science)|substrate]], to absorb the gas, allowing the gas to be stored, and hence used, safely. Dalén also invented the '[[sun valve]]', which automatically regulated the light and turned it off during the daytime.{{Citation needed paragraph|date=May 2021}} The technology was the predominant light source in lighthouses from the 1900s to the 1960s, when electric lighting had become dominant.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.aga.com/web/web2000/com/WPPcom.nsf/pages/History_SunValve|title=The Linde Group - Gases Engineering Healthcare -|access-date=6 April 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151018000926/http://www.aga.com/web/web2000/com/WPPcom.nsf/pages/History_SunValve|archive-date=18 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref>