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Chronology of Aids to Navigation
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1880	The collectors of customs ceased to make lighthouse disbursements and, later, their other duties in connection with lighthouses were transferred to the Lighthouse Board. (Weiss, p. 6).
1881	(21 January) The light was first shown at Tillamook Lighthouse, located on a high, precipitous rock 19 miles south of the Columbia River entrance and one mile from the coast, surrounded by water over 100 feet deep and exposed to the sweep of the Pacific Ocean. (Putnam, pp. 129-132).
1881 The first lighted buoy used in the United States, an oil gas buoy, was established experimentally by its manufacturers near the Scotland Lightship, at the entrance to New York Bay; it was officially taken over by the Lighthouse Establishment in April 1884. (Conway, p. 56; Putnam, p. 219).
1881 Oil gas was first used in the United States for a lighted beacon. (Putnam, p. 189).
1881	Oil gas was first used in the United States for a lighted buoy. (Putnam, p. 189).
1882	(7 August) An Act of Congress (22 Stat. L., 301, 309) required all parties owning, occupying, or operating bridges over any navigable river to maintain at their own expense, from sunset to sunrise, throughout the year, such lights as may be required by the Lighthouse Service. (Weiss, p. 44).
1882	It was not until this date, beginning with Lightship No. 44, that United States lightships were regularly built of iron or steel. (Putnam, p. 203).
1882-1885 During these years, the Secretary of the Navy attempted to secure the transfer of the Lighthouse Establishment, together with the Lifesaving Service, the Coast Survey, and several other services to the Navy Department. This effort aroused such vigorous opposition on the part of the Secretary of the Treasury and the heads of the services involved that no action was taken, and no transfers were made. (Weiss, p. 17).
1883	The Navesink Lighthouse was the initial first-order one to use mineral oil (kerosene). (Holland, p. 91).
1884	The United States placed its first aids to navigation in Alaskan waters-14 iron buoys-in the spring of this year. (Putnam, p. 146).
1884 The Lighthouse Board introduced a uniform for male lighthouse keepers, as well as for masters, mates, and engineers of lightships and tenders, and made the wearing of both dress and fatigue uniforms mandatory. (Holland, p. 41)
1884	The Hell Gate Channel in the East River at New York City was illuminated by a powerful electric light on a 250-foot high iron tower. This attempt at the general illumination of a waterway somewhat similar to the idea of lighting city streets proved unsuccessful, and the * light was removed within two years. (Putnam, p. 65).
1885	The Lighthouse Board reported that It had "at last succeeded in clothing all the male light-keepers, and the officers and crews of the lightships and the lighthouse tenders, in a neat, appropriate, and economical uniform, which the laborers employed as acting light-keepers are
http://www.uscg.mil/hq/g-cp/history/h_USLHSchron.html
5/17/2005