Image Number

Photographer

Date

Rights

Collection

Geographic Term

Subject Term

Corporate Subject

Physical Description

General Note

Accompanying note: "View through the 'Bulls Eye' lens showing the 1000 watt bulbs."

Biographical Note

The original 1823 lightship Aurora Borealis served as little more than a harbor light and was replaced in 1825 by a 40-foot tower on a 40-foot bluff with a revolving Argand lamp with parabolic reflectors. A new 171-foot tower with a first-order Henry Lepaute lens was activated in 1859. The lens was damaged by retreating Confederate troops, although the lamp was relighted in 1863 with a fourth-order lens that was replaced with a first-order lens in 1869. The Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886 rocked the tower, stopping the pendulum clocks that rotated the lens. Today the light on the black-and-white Pensacola tower is visible 27 miles at sea.