[1] The Raffles Lighthouse was first mooted in 1833, but the foundation stone was only laid in 1854 when William John Butterworth was the Governor of the Straits Settlements from 1843 to 1855.

This roller carriage was a weight-driven machine which had to be rewound manually to lift the weight whenever it reached the base.

This comprised an array of quartz halogen lamps in aluminium parabolic reflectors mounted on a gearless revolving pedestal.

The present lighthouse equipment consists of a main and standby rotating beacon, each producing 117,000 candelas with a nominal range of 20 nautical miles (37 km; 23 mi).

In 2005, an Aids to Navigation Automatic Identification System (AIS) was installed to broadcast additional positioning information to ships.