Beavertail Light was lit with whale oil for many decades. Whale oil was smoky, hard to light at cold temperatures, and the quality varied greatly. In addition, early lights were dim and burned twenty to thirty gallons of oil a month.

In the early 1800s Newport inventor David Melville developed a way to manufacture flammable gas from coal tar. He lit Beavertail Light using his coal gas in an 1817 experiment, but the powerful whale oil industry blocked the use of coal gas. It would be another 50 years before colza oil (made from the seed of a type of turnip) replaced whale oil. Later, mineral oil and finally kerosene were used.

In 1905 the U.S. Lighthouse Board constructed this building to store fuel oil to light the lamps in the tower and in the houses. The buildings were also used to store fuel oil to operate the standby generator and the engine driven air compressor in the fog signal building.

The oil storage building was restored in 2010 by volunteers of the Beavertail Lighthouse Museum Association supplemented with a grant from the Newport Restoration Foundation.

Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same,

year after year, through all the silent night

Burns on forevermore that quenchless flame,

Shines on that inextinguishable light!

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1849

Marker can be reached from Beavertail Road.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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