The suggestion of metallic lighthouses originated a few years ago with Captain Sir Samuel Brown, when it was proposed to place a lighthouse on the Wolf Rock near Land’s End, a position where it would be exposed to the most violent storms of the Atlantic. A plan for the erection of a stone lighthouse on this point had already been drawn up by Mr. Stevenson, which plan, Captain Brown thinks would require fifteen years for its execution, and cost one hundred and fifty thousand pounds. Captain Brown undertook to erect one of bronze ninety feet high for fifteen thousand pounds, and to complete it in four months. This plan, from whatever cause, was not entertained, and with the exception of a small lighthouse erected on the Gravesend pier, metallic lighthouses excited no attention until the year 1840, when application was made to Mr. Alexander Gordon, the eminent engineer, by the commissioners appointed by the House of Assembly, in the island of Jamaica, to light a dangerous point in that island, called Morant Point, for the erection of a suitable lighthouse at the smallest possible cost. On this occasion Mr. Gordon proposed the erection of a cast-iron structure, resembling in outline that of the Celtic towers of Ireland. His plans and estimates having been accepted, they were executed with remarkable celerity; and from an account furnished by Mr. A. R. Renton, (the manager of the factory at which the work for the lighthouse was done,) we derive most of the following particulars. The advantage which iron, when not in contact with sea-water, possesses over stone or other materials, is that upon a given base a much larger internal capacity for dwellings and stories can be obtained, with equal stability. With this material plates can be cast in large surfaces, and with but few joints. A system of bonding the plates may also be adopted, which will ensure the perfect combination of every part, so as to form an entire mass, and thus the best form for strength and stability can easily be obtained. From the comparatively small bulk and weight of the component parts of the structure great facilities are afforded for transporting and erecting it. Thus, in less than three months from the date of the contract, the lighthouse about to be described was cast and erected on the contractor’s premises, and it was expected to have the light exhibited in Jamaica in three months more. The whole expense was said not to exceed one-third the cost of a similar building in stone.