On supporting science journalism
If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.
“A few miles off shore of Cape Hatteras are the dreaded Diamond Shoals, on which futile attempts have been made to erect a lighthouse. It would seem as though the only practicable way to protect shipping from this graveyard of the deep is to moor above the shoals a lightship able to meet the exceedingly trying conditions. Such a vessel has been designed and is now nearing completion at the yards of the Fore River Engine Company, of Massachusetts. She will be steam-propelled and electric lighted. The lights, three on each mast, will be of 100 candle-power and 100 volts each.”
—Scientific American, March 1900
More gems from Scientific American’s first 175 years can be found on our shiny anniversary page.