A new light system was bought at the 1900 Paris World Fair, for three million gold rubles. The new apparatus (including the light chamber) was made by Sautter, Marlé &amp; Co. It used a kerosene lamp with an incandescent mantle. A heavy cast iron system floated and rotated in a bath of mercury, which acted as a bearing. The bath contained roughly of mercury. The poisonous mercury from the lighthouse was used for decades by children in the surrounding villages for playing.