Lamplighters

Lighthouses conjure up romantic images of windswept shorelines and the intrepid keepers who maintained the light through the night. However, by the mid-20th century, technology conspired to eliminate the light keepers’ responsibilities. Electric bulbs replaced the glow of oil lanterns; electric motors made the clockwork mechanism that turned the lens obsolete. Photocells, like the kind you find on the tops of streetlights around the country, now turned the light on and off. And in 1955, [...]