1210. Manuscript. (Boon Island Light House). LETTER PAYING KEEPER OF BOON ISLAND LIGHT $100 FOR BUILDING AND EQUIPPING A BOAT FOR THE LIGHT HOUSE. 1817. Sixteen line letter signed by Winslow Lewis, noted lighthouse builder, and inventor of a new system of lighting. Letter reads: “Boston 8th Sept 1817. Sir. Enclosed is 100 Dollars which you will please pay to the Keeper of Boon Island Light House, it being the amount allowed for building & equipping a boat for the use of the light house on Boon Island. I will thank you to acknowledge the receipt of it by mail. Respectfully Your Obt Servant, [signed] Winslow Lewis.” Lewis adds a humorous note, “The other things for the keeper will be sent by Capt. Low if we can find him – .” With address on the conjugate leaf to the Collector of Customs in York, District of Maine. In 1797, General Benjamin Lincoln, local lighthouse superintendent, met with the Boston Marine Society to discuss the building of an unlighted beacon on Boon Island for the safety of local fishermen and coastal traders. Construction began the following July. The first wooden tower as finished in 1799. It survived until 1804, when it was destroyed by a tremendous storm. In June 1811, General Lincoln recommended a lighthouse on Boon Island. The tower, completed by that winter, exhibited a fixed light 32 feet above the water. The first keeper, after witnessing the vulnerability of the low island (14 feet above sea level at its highest point ) to storms, left after only a few weeks. The second keeper, David Oliver, also resigned and was succeeded by Thomas Hanna. Hanna resigned in 1816. The next keeper, former mariner Eliphalet Grover, to whom this letter refers, was a York native born in 1778. Keeper Grover served a remarkable 22 years at the remote and dangerous station. During these very early years in U.S. lighthouse history, inventor and entrepreneur Winslow Lewis (1770–1850) was instrumental in perfecting and supplying reflector lamps for use in U.S. lighthouses. Winslow Lewis was a sea captain, engineer, inventor and contractor. A resident of Wellfleet on Cape Cod, Lewis began developing his lighthouse lighting ideas during the embargo of American shipping during the Napoleonic wars. Lewis patent reflector lamps were adopted for use in three Massachusetts lighthouses during this period, with “great success both as to brilliancy of the light and the saving of the oil”. The Lewis Patent Lamp was basically a poorly modified version of the Argand Lamp and parabolic reflectors. As one inspector noted the “magnifier” “made a bad light worse,” yet Lewis did not argue with his critics. He used the economy of the Lamp, emphasizing the 52% oil savings over the Argand Lamps. In 1812, just five years before Lewis penned this letter, Congress approved the first contract for the maintenance of Lighthouses authorizing Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin, to purchase Winslow Lewis’ patent Lamps, with Lewis refitting all Lighthouses in the United States with Lewis patent Lamps and to keep the new lantern system repaired. Winslow Lewis would continue to strongly promoted his own system of lighting and would be frequently awarded contracts due to his low bids. This is the free franked stamp less cover and postmarked September 8, 1817, Boston, Mass. Document consists of two text pages, as originally folded, clean and nicely readable. Rare colonial lighthouse document and still more rare signed Winslow Lewis piece. (VG+). $285.