Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthousesStevenson, Alan
History
Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse : $b with notes on the illumination of lighthouses
Stevenson, Alan
Skerryvore Lighthouse (Hebrides, Scotland)
The advantages of a light on the Eddystone having been so long known
and acknowledged by seamen, no time was permitted to elapse before
active measures were taken for its restoration; and SMEATON, to whom
application was made for advice on the subject, recommended the
exclusive use of stone as the material, which, both from its weight
and other qualities, he considered most suitable for the situation.
On the 5th of April 1756, SMEATON first landed on the Rock and made
arrangements for erecting a Lighthouse of stone and preparing the
foundations, by cutting the surface of the rock into regular horizontal
benches, into which the stones were carefully dovetailed or notched.
The first stone was laid on 12th June 1757 and the last on the 24th
of August 1759. The Tower measures 68 feet in height and 26 feet in
diameter at the level of the first entire course; and the diameter
under the cornice is 15 feet. The first 12 feet of the Tower form
a solid mass of masonry; and the stones of which it is composed
are united by means of stone joggles, dovetailed joints, and oaken
treenails. It is remarkable that SMEATON should have adopted an arched
form for the floors of his building, instead of employing the floors
as tie-walls formed of dovetailed stones. To counteract the injurious
tendency of the outward thrust of those arched floors, he had recourse
to the ingenious expedient of laying, in circular trenches or grooves
cut in the stones which form the outside casing, tie-belts of chain,
which were heated before being set in the grooves by means of an
application of hot lead and became tight in cooling, after they were
fixed in the wall. The light was exhibited on the 16th October 1759;
but such was the state of lighthouse apparatus in Britain at that
period, that a feeble light from tallow candles was all that decorated
this noble structure. In 1807, when the property of this lighthouse
again came into the hands of the Trinity-House, at the expiry of a long
lease, Argand burners, and paraboloïdal reflectors of silvered copper,
were substituted for the chandelier of candles.
~Bell Rock.~
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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