The history of lighthouse automation describes gears, timers, solar panels, and remote sensors that made permanent keepers unnecessary. Efficiency improved: lamps failed less often, and warnings could be monitored from miles away. Yet the passage also includes logs where keepers rescued shipwrecked crews, recorded bird migrations, and reported storms before instruments did. In the final paragraph, an automated beam turns exactly on schedule while the empty keeper's house faces the sea with dark windows. The light still warns ships; the passage asks what else went dark.