Its construction was prompted by the building of Dungeness nuclear power station, which obscured the light of its predecessor (dating from 1904) which, though decommissioned, remains standing.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Dungeness was used as an experimental station by Trinity House; in the 1860s it was the first of their lighthouses to be equipped with a fog horn and the first to be given a permanent (if short-lived) electric lamp.

[7] In the early 1860s, Dungeness was chosen by Michael Faraday (scientific adviser to Trinity House) to be the first lighthouse to receive a permanent electric light installation.

)[4] Two carbon arc lamps were installed (one as a standby), each placed within a small (sixth-order) lens, provided by Chance & Co.,[8] backed by a silvered reflector.

[10] The Holmes magneto-electric machines from South Foreland were installed in a room at the base of the tower, along with their steam engines and other equipment, and the new light came into operation on 1 February 1862.

[8] Nevertheless, the Elder Brethren maintained that electricity 'may still become a most valuable element in lighthouse illumination in some few special cases; but to enable it to become so, or to give a fair estimate of its powers, it must be exhibited under entirely changed conditions from those which now exist'.

[8] Lessons learned from the difficulties with electric light at Dungeness led to far more reliable systems being installed in 1871 at Souter Point (the first purpose-built electrically-lit lighthouse)[10] and in 1872 at South Foreland.

[15] In 1862 the American entrepreneur and inventor Celadon Daboll demonstrated his eponymous trumpet (an early reed fog horn) to the Elder Brethren of Trinity House at Dungeness;[16] practical comparison was made with a bell and a 'steam-horn', each being sounded in turn.

The horn installed for the demonstration was subsequently purchased by the Treasury and retained for use as the fog signal at Dungeness; it sounded, once every 20 seconds, from a horizontal trumpet protruding from a small wooden building close to the shore, which contained a caloric engine and other associated equipment.

In 1875 a new fog signal was installed at Dungeness: an early American siren (it was almost certainly the one which had been demonstrated by Joseph Henry in the trials at South Foreland Lighthouse two years earlier).

[16] It was housed in a new, corrugated iron building, placed as close as possible to the eastern edge of the spit, from the end wall of which protruded a long trumpet supported on a timber framework.

[16] Oil-fuelled, with a focal height of 28 ft (8.5 m) and a range of 10 nmi (19 km; 12 mi), it was equipped with a two-wick Douglass burner and a 12-sided fourth-order revolving optic,[14] which displayed a quick white flash every five seconds;[4] (this was in contrast to the fixed light shown from the high lighthouse).

It had originally been intended to build it nearer the edge of the point, but there were problems with the foundations so it ended up being erected just 40 yards away from its predecessor.

[25] In addition it displayed red and green sector lights, from windows lower in the tower, indicating hazards and safe water both to the north-east and the south-west.

[31] The Low light continued to retain its old characteristic of one flash every five seconds; it had a focal height of 45 ft (14 m) and a range of 11 nmi (20 km; 13 mi).

[3] In 1954-56, trials had been carried out at Dungeness of a triple-frequency electric fog signal, sounded through tannoy emitters built into a curved stack of precast concrete blocks.