 In the event of a bulb failure, an automatic lamp changer was activated (and an alarm notified the keeper); if the reserve bulb then failed, the lamp changer caused an acetylene burner to be brought into position and lit.In 1969 the light became fully automated and the keepers' cottages (being no longer required) were sold.In the mid-1980s it was decided that modern navigational aids had rendered the South Foreland light obsolete.