The lighthouse grew 22 feet higher in the fall of 1906, when the octagonal tower was extended by two extra stories. A new first order Fresnel lens from Barbier, Benard & Turenne in Paris was installed to complete the work in November 1906. Acetylene was first tested and then manufactured for the light in a specially constructed "gas house" in the cove below the lighthouse. Red stripes were added to the tower in 1908 to make the tower more visible against the snow. Sambro served as the departure point from North America for Joshua Slocum's famous solo navigation around the world in 1895. After an extended visit to his boyhood home at Brier Island and old haunts on the coast of Nova Scotia, Slocum departed on his around the world voyage from Sambro Island Lighthouse on July 3, 1895. "I watched light after light sink astern as I sailed into the unbounded sea, till Sambro, the last of them all, was below the horizon. The Spray was then alone..."