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 forms differed so widely from the dimensions assigned in the Table,
that I had begun to despair of success. About this time, I received a
communication from M. FRESNEL, pointing out several inaccuracies in my
Tables, and more especially directing my attention to the disadvantage
of choosing, for the focus of the upper series of zones, a high part
of the flame, as I had done with the view of throwing _all_ the light
_below_ the horizon, so that none might be lost. He, at the same time,
informed me of the success of M. FRANÇOIS SOLEIL, in executing zones
for the smaller apparatus, known by the name of the Third Order; and
put me in possession of the results of his computations of large zones
of the First Order, suited to the greatly improved quality of the crown
glass of St Gobain, with an invitation, before I should adopt his
dimensions, to verify his calculations. This I willingly undertook,
and computed the elements of the zones in M. FRESNEL’S Table afresh,
with results differing from his only in one or two instances, to an
amount whose angular value does not exceed more than 2″. The Table
in the Appendix contains the result of my calculations, which are
verifications of those of M. FRESNEL. The subject of the zones has
thus been very fully weighed; and it is most satisfactory to think
that complete success has attended the perseverance and ardour of
M. FRANÇOIS SOLEIL, who at once boldly undertook to furnish for the
Skerryvore Lighthouse the first catadioptric apparatus ever constructed
on so magnificent a scale. On the 23d December 1843, M. FRESNEL
announced, in a letter to me, the complete success which had attended
a trial of the apparatus at the Royal Observatory at Paris, whereby it
appeared that the illuminating effect of the cupola of zones, was to
that of the seven upper tiers of mirrors of the first order, as 140
to 87. Nothing can be more beautiful than an entire apparatus for a
fixed light of the first order, such as that shewn in Plates XVII. and
XVIII. It consists of a central belt of refractors, forming a hollow
cylinder 6 feet in diameter, and 30 inches high; below it are six
triangular rings of glass, ranged in a cylindrical form, and above a
crown of thirteen rings of glass, forming by their union a hollow cage,
composed of polished glass, 10 feet high and 6 feet in diameter! I know
no work of art more beautiful or creditable to the boldness, ardour,
intelligence, and zeal of the artist.
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