United States Statutes at Large/Volume 2/12th Congress/1st Session/Chapter 34
Chap. XXXIV.—An Act to authorize the Secretary of the Treasury, under the direction of the President of the United States, to purchase of Winslow Lewis, his patent right to the new and improved method of lighting Lighthouses, and for other purposes.
Secretary of the Treasury authorized to purchase Winslow Lewis’ patent right for lighting lighthouses.Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized and empowered, under the directions of the President of the United States, to purchase of Winslow Lewis, his patent right to the plan of lighting lighthouses, by reflecting and magnifying lanterns, if the same shall be proved to be a discovery made by him; and to contract with the said Winslow Lewis, for fitting up and keeping in repair, any or all the lighthouses in the United States or the territories thereof, upon the new and improved plan of the reflecting and magnifying lanterns; or to contract with the said Winslow Lewis, for such sum as he may think for the interest of the United States:The sum to be allowed for lighting not to exceed the annual appropriation for the last seven years. Provided, the sum to be allowed, shall not in any case annually exceed the appropriation made for supplying the lighthouse establishment with oil in any given year, which has passed for a term not exceeding seven years, the said Lewis covenanting, with sufficient sureties, to fit up and keep in repair all the lighthouses in the United States or territories thereof, on the new and improved plan of lighting lighthouses by reflecting and magnifying lanterns; and the same to furnish and keep in repair for a term of years not less than seven, at the sole expense of the said Winslow Lewis, and to deliver over at the expiration of the term aforesaid, all the lighthouses fitted up according to the new and improved plan, to the United States in good repair, he, the said Winslow Lewis, warranting the same to remain in good repair for seven years more, from and after the expiration of the said contract.
Appropriation.Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That a sum not exceeding sixty thousand dollars be, and the same is hereby appropriated, out of any monies in the treasury not otherwise appropriated, to carry this law into effect.
Approved, March 2, 1812.