page_title: Souter Lighthouse
section_title: Electricity
hierarchical_section_title: Souter Lighthouse / History / 19th century / Electricity
caption_attribution_description: English: This arc-light mechanism was in use at Souter Lighthouse from 1871-1914 and is now on display in the museum there. Souter was the first lighthouse in the world to be built to use electric light.
context_page_description: Souter Lighthouse is a lighthouse located in the village of Marsden in South Shields, Tyne & Wear, England. Souter was the first lighthouse in the world to be actually designed and built specifically to use alternating electric current, the most advanced lighthouse technology of its day. First lit in the 1870s, Souter was described at the time as 'without doubt one of the most powerful lights in the world'.
context_section_description: Trinity House had carried out an extensive testing and selection process over five years and included comparison with oil lights and examination of equipment in Britain and France.
  The 800,000 candle power light was generated using carbon arcs and not an incandescent light bulb, and could be seen for up to 26 miles. The optics were designed and built by James Chance in 1870. The main lens array consisted of a third-order fixed catadioptric optic surrounded by a revolving assembly of eight vertical condensing-prisms which produced one flash every minute.
  In addition to the main light a red/white sector light shone from a window in the tower below the lantern, to highlight hazardous rocks to the south; it was powered using light diverted (through a set of mirrors and lenses) from the landward side of the main arc lamp.
  Carbon arc lights for lighthouses were pioneered by Professor Frederick Hale Holmes with experiments in (1857-60) at Blackwell and South Foreland Lighthouse off the Kent coast (described in a lecture  by Michael Faraday at the Royal Institution) and a test installation at Dungeness in 1862 and complete installation at Souter in 1870.  Electricity  was provided by two of Holmes' own magneto electric generators for which he took out a series of patents during those years. One of the Holmes generators built in 1867 and used at Souter is now on display at the Science Museum, London. The generators were driven by one of a pair of 3 hp steam engines, located in the engine-house, which also drove an air-pump to feed the pressure tank of a foghorn. (The engines were worked alternately: one week on, one week off.)
caption: The original arc lamp assembly, in use from 1871-1914, now on display in the lighthouse visitor centre.
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