Chapter IX (1)

CONCLUDING OPERATIONS AND EXHIBITION OF THE LIGHT.

~Harbour Works.~

The shores of Tyree, as already often noticed in these pages, and as deplored by Martin 140 years ago, in his Account of the Hebrides, afford few places of safety fit even for boats. It had therefore been determined, by the Commissioners, that any attempt at the construction of a harbour should be strictly confined to the provision of a place of shelter for the vessel which was to attend the Lighthouse. Much attention had been bestowed on the subject, not merely by myself during my five years’ acquaintance with Tyree, but also by Mr Thomas Stevenson, who succeeded me in the charge of the works at Hynish, at the time when I was appointed Engineer to the Lighthouse Board in January 1843, after the completion of the masonry of the Tower. A small sandy beach at Hynish, which lies embayed between rugged rocks, had been selected as the fittest place for the pier; and all the materials had been landed and shipped there, so that we naturally looked to it as the site for the projected harbour, not only as presenting works already finished, which might be made available as part of a more extended plan, but as a place which, during an experience of some years, had justified our anticipations as to its being less frequently disturbed during stormy weather than most of the neighbouring creeks. All that was contemplated in the proposed plan, was to form a small basin in which the vessel could lie sheltered in all states of the weather, and from which she could find an easy departure in any condition of the sea which would permit a landing to be made on the Rock. The Skerryvore Steamer having been sold and a small vessel of 35 tons, named the “Francis,” having been purchased at Deal, the dock accommodation at Hynish was, for the sake of economy, laid out with reference to the shelter of that vessel. It was calculated that a basin 100 feet in length and 50 feet wide, would afford sufficient room for such a vessel; and as her draught of water is between 7 and 8 feet, it was thought sufficient to provide for a depth of about 12 feet at high water of spring-tides, which, it was expected, would render the dock accessible during good springs at about _three quarters flood_.

The exposure of the shore at Hynish, to the effects of heavy westerly swells, made it desirable to avoid carrying the entrance of the basin so far seaward, as, under more favourable circumstances, would undoubtedly have been done; and it was accordingly determined that the landing pier should be extended to about 40 feet seaward of low-water mark, and terminated in a round head, as shewn in Plate X., having a talus wall on its seaward face, composed of rough blocks, arranged in courses regularly receding, so as to form a slope of 45° of inclination, as shewn in Plate XI. The inner face of that pier, being nearly vertical and guarded by fenders of timber, had served as the quay for landing and shipping stones and other stores and it now forms one side of the basin or dock. The other side consists of a shorter talus wall, built about 60 feet to the westward of the first, and, together with the crossheads projecting from each wall and containing the gateway, completes the inclosure of the basin. In the gateway, _booms_ are employed, as the shifting nature of the sand and the heavy seas render _gates_ inadmissible. The space contained between those walls was left completely dry at low water of spring-tides, and was chiefly composed of rock, covered with a thin layer of shifting sand, which varied in depth with the state of the wind and sea. The rocky matter, consisting of decomposed gneiss, was excavated to the extent of about 5000 tons, in three separate compartments, protected by successive dams of rubble masonry, built with Pozzolano mortar, and presenting an aggregate area of 7339 square feet. Those dams, two feet thick, proved so water-tight, that by the aid of a small hand-pump, the excavation and the building of the entrance heads of the booms went regularly forward without any delay, although the men worked in the bottom of the pit, surrounded on all sides by the sea, which, at high water of spring-tides, rose 17 feet above them. The dams were sheltered from the action of the swell by a temporary breakwater of heavy blocks, which formed a convenient roadway for the transport of the materials during the progress of the works, and which were removed at the close of the operations.

The talus wall for protecting the seaward side of the harbour, has about 60 feet of its foundation laid in a depth of water varying at low spring-tides from 18 inches to 3¹⁄₂ feet. The mode of its construction, as already stated, is shewn in Plate XI. It is surmounted by a strong parapet of rustic masonry of Mull granite, and is altogether a most substantial piece of work.

The idea of a tide-basin with boom-gates facing the breach of Atlantic waves is somewhat novel and was not very hastily entertained by me at first; but the most complete success has attended the plan. During my occasional visits to the works in the course of the summer 1843, our attention had been often occupied with considering the probability of the sand shutting up the basin; and as a single tide during heavy winds from the N.W., made great changes on the appearance of the beach, we feared that the vessel might often be imprisoned within the boomgates by a bank of sand heaped against them by the sea. To such an extent did the accumulation go before the harbour was fully opened, that on many occasions there was not water for a rowboat to pass between the boom-heads even at the highest spring-tides. The only remedy for such an evil, was obviously to attempt some mode of artificial scouring; and for that purpose, it was proposed to divert several small streams which run from Ben Hynish and the neighbouring hills through the grounds at Hynish, into one feeder, and pen them up in a pond, so as to afford the means of scouring the entrance to the basin from the incumbrance of the loose sand which might choke it. Those streams were repeatedly gauged during the summer and were found to deliver from 13 to 50 cubic feet of water per minute, according to the state of the weather,--a supply which seemed ample for the purpose in view. The sand at Hynish is of a light nature and is easily acted on by currents of very feeble power. It consists of comminuted shells and requires about 25¹⁄₂ cubic feet to make a ton, instead of 24 feet, which is the common allowance for silicious sand. The leave of the Duke of Argyll and also of the Farmer at Hynish, having been obtained, various cuts were made and the stream was diverted into a pond capable of containing about 175,000 cubic feet and provided with a waste-weir and with sluices for opening the communication between the pond and the scouring tunnel, from which the water flows in a stream of about 9 square feet of area, at the rate of about 260 feet per minute for a period of 1¹⁄₄ hour. The operation of scouring is performed at low water and is generally found quite sufficient for the purpose of clearing a passage down to the bare rock in a single tide. Nothing can be more satisfactory than to witness the effect of that process in opening the entrance to a basin apparently inaccessible; and but for such an arrangement, the dock must have remained permanently choked with sand and sea-weed. The position of the various works is marked in Plate X., which shews the ground at Hynish.

On the side of the dock stands a crane, which is used for various purposes connected with the shipment and discharging of materials. It also serves for raising the booms, by means of a double hook, which can be attached to the chain and which embraces the pegs in the centre of each boom, shewn in Plate XI. The two tiers of booms are firmly lashed down by means of chains passing through ring-bolts in the manner shewn in the section (Plate XI.), so as to prevent their rising with the tide.

The necessity of providing somewhere in the neighbouring island of Tyree for the proper accommodation of the vessel which was to wait upon the Lighthouse (if it could ever have been a matter of doubt), was abundantly demonstrated by the experience of 1843, and more especially by that of the months of November and December. Owing to the shortness of the day and the distance of any place of shelter from the Skerryvore, together with the difficulty of landing on the Rock and the extreme variableness and uncertainty of the climate, the Regent Tender, although constantly waiting on the coast and making trials on every occasion that seemed to offer any prospect of success, could not effect any communication with the people who had been left on the Rock, during a period of no less than seven _long_ weeks. The poor seamen who were living in the Barrack passed that time most drearily, for not only had their clothes been literally worn to rags, but they suffered the want of many things dearer to them than clothes, and amongst others of tobacco, the failure of the supply of which they had despondingly recorded in chalk on the walls of their prison-house, with the date of the occurrence! Unless, therefore, the vessel had been stationed near the rock, the few casual and uncertain opportunities which occur at intervals, during the short days of winter, would often have been lost, and the future maintenance of the Light rendered excessively precarious. The experience of subsequent years, during which the relief of the Light-keepers has been kept up with considerable regularity, shews that the small Harbour at Hynish forms a most important integral part of the Establishment of Skerryvore, than which I believe no Lighthouse on the coast is more comfortable as a residence.

~Bo Pheg Beacon.~

In connection with the Harbour at Hynish, I naturally notice the erection of a Beacon on a rock called Bo Pheg, which is dry only at low water of spring tides. It lies about one mile NE. from Hynish Point, (See Plates II. and X.) right in the track of the Tender in its passage to and from the Lighthouse. From the great difficulty of landing on that small rock, over which the sea almost continually breaks, even in very fine weather, the shortness of the time during which the men could remain at work, and the want of room on its irregular surface of about 16 yards square, the erection of a beacon proved to be a work of great difficulty. The Beacon consisted of an open frame-work of iron, (somewhat on the same plan as that which is described in the Appendix) and calculated to offer little opposition to the free passage of the waves; but before all the fixtures could be completed, the heavy storms of the winter of 1844, acting on its unfinished base (the bats of which were only partially secured), destroyed it piecemeal, at a season when no landing could be effected, nor any effort made to save almost any part of it from the sea. In the ensuing summer, a second Beacon, consisting of a hollow cone, composed of iron plates, united together by strong flanges and attached to the rock by _webbed flanges_ round its base with strong bats passing through them, was fixed down to the rock; and in order to increase its weight, the interior was filled with concrete gravel. That structure also has since yielded to the force of the waves, after giving slight indications of movement, an effect which I attribute chiefly to the smallness of the base, which the narrow limits of the rock unhappily prescribe.

~Lightkeepers’ and Seamen’s House.~

Another necessary part of the Establishment at Hynish, was the provision of dwelling-houses for the families of the Lightkeepers and Seamen and of Storehouses of various kinds. Those were partly built on purpose and partly consisted of altered forms of the buildings which had been found necessary as barracks for workmen and stores for materials, during the progress of the works.

~Concluding works on the Rock, such as pointing, &c.~

On landing on the Rock, on the 29th of March 1843, the Resident Engineer had the satisfaction of finding the whole building perfectly water-tight and saw not the slightest trace of a defective joint. The outside joints of the building were therefore carefully “ripped,” and repointed with mortar, composed of equal parts of Halkin lime and Pozzolano. That operation, from the difficulty of employing many men, where suspended scaffolds were necessary and from the care with which it requires to be executed, occupied a great deal of time.

~Interior fittings of the Tower.~

Another tedious operation was the fitting up of the interior of the Tower with wainscot lining and forming the various stories into apartments separate from the staircase. Much work was also expended in providing the fire-places with proper flues, in fitting up water tanks, coal stores, and oil tanks, and also in conveying the air-tubes between the Lightroom and the several apartments by which the signal bells are rung for summoning the keepers to mount guard. The keeper on duty is, by the rules of the Service, forbidden, under penalty of instant dismissal, to leave the Light-room, on any pretext, until relieved by the next who mounts guard, and who is summoned by means of a bell placed inside his cot or sleeping berth, which is rung by means of a small piston, propelled by simply blowing into a mouth-piece in the Light-room. The keeper in bed answers this signal by a “_counter-blast_,” which rings another bell in the Light-room, and informs the keeper there that his signal has been heard and will be obeyed.

~Arrangement of the several apartments.~

The general arrangement of the Tower, may be seen in the Section Plate VIII.; and the details of its subdivision are very similar to those shewn in Plate XVI. of my Father’s Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. The ascent to the outside door is by a ladder or trap of gun metal, 26 feet high. The first apartment on the level of the entrance door, is chiefly appropriated to the reception of iron water-tanks, capable of holding a supply of 1251 gallons. The next story is set aside for coals, which are stowed in large iron boxes. The third apartment is a workshop; the fourth is the provision store; and the fifth is the kitchen. Above are two stories, each divided into two sleeping apartments, for the four Light-keepers. Over them is the room for the Visiting Officers; then follows the oil store, and lastly comes the Lightroom, making in all twelve apartments. The nearness of the oil store to the Lightroom is a great convenience to the Keepers, who are thus saved the trouble of carrying the daily supply of oil to the Lightroom, up a long flight of steps. The passage from story to story is by oaken trap ladders, passing through hatches in each floor and partitioned off from each apartment in order to prevent accidents and to check cold draughts.

~Lightroom Apparatus, and first exhibition of the Light.~

The light of Skerryvore was exhibited to the mariner on the night of the 1st February 1844, in terms of the Statutory Notice, which will be found in the Appendix. The light is revolving, appearing in its brightest state once in every minute of time. It is elevated 150 feet above the sea, and is well seen as far as the curvature of the earth permits; it is also frequently seen as a brilliant light from the high land of Barra, a distance of 38 miles. The apparatus consists of eight annular lenses (of the first order, in the system of AUGUSTIN FRESNEL), of 36·22 inches focal distance, revolving round a lamp with four concentric wicks, and producing a bright blaze when each lens passes between the lamp and the eye of a distant observer. Above those lenses are placed eight pyramidal lenses of 19·68 inches focal distance, inclined at 50° with the horizon and combined with eight plane mirrors, inclined in the opposite direction at 50° with the horizon. By this arrangement, that part of the light from the lamp which would otherwise escape uselessly beyond the great lenses, upwards into the sky, being parallelized in its passage through the smaller lenses and falling on the mirrors, is finally projected forwards in horizontal beams, so as to aid the effect of the light. Those lenses and mirrors, however, instead of having their axes in the same vertical plane with the axes of the principal lenses, are inclined about 7° horizontally to the right hand, and by that deviation produce small premonitory blazes, which, blending with the beams of the larger lenses, tend in some measure to lengthen the duration of the impression on the eye. So far the apparatus of the Skerryvore Lighthouse is identical in its general arrangements with that of the Tour de Corduan, and differs only in the superior workmanship of the lenses and the machinery, which the experience of more than twenty years has brought about, since FRESNEL designed that light in 1822. Instead, however, of employing curved mirrors, as has been done at Corduan, to collect the light which would otherwise escape below the lenses and, at the same time, to send it to the horizon, I determined to put in practice a plan which I had long contemplated, of placing totally reflecting zones below the lenses, similar in construction to the zones of the small Harbour Light Apparatus of the fourth order, which was also invented by FRESNEL. This was finally carried into effect, agreeably to the design of M. LEONOR FRESNEL, his brother, with whom I had corresponded on the subject. In the subsequent pages of this volume, I intend to make some observations explanatory of the principles and arrangement of the various optical instruments employed in Lighthouses; and as that will afford me a more convenient opportunity of describing the nature and properties of the _totally reflecting zones_, I shall forbear in this place to enter into further details as to the construction or action of the apparatus at the Skerryvore. It is right, however, that I should mention here that the lenses, mirrors and zones are from the works of M. FRANÇOIS of Paris, whose name I shall afterwards have occasion to notice; and that the machinery was constructed to my entire satisfaction, and in a manner worthy of his reputation as a mechanician, by Mr JOHN MILNE of Edinburgh.

~Removal of the Barrack from the Rock.~

In such a situation as the Skerryvore, new wants were discovered every day; and each summer brought its round of smaller works, which the experience of the preceding winter had suggested. The Barrack was found very useful as a place of residence for the workmen, who were engaged in such needful works; and it was not until the summer of 1846, that it was taken to pieces and removed from the Rock, after having kept its place for six years. Its removal, however, was then thought advisable, as some of its fixtures, by the continual action of the weather, had become very loose and precarious; and, although a very small outlay would have made it almost as stable as at first, it was considered inexpedient to attempt to perpetuate a structure confessedly temporary in its nature, and the sudden destruction of which by the waves, seemed to involve some risk of injury to the Tower itself.

~Expense.~

The expense of erecting the Skerryvore Lighthouse, including the opening of quarries and forming wharfs at the quarries in Mull and also the Harbour in Tyree, was, as appears from the Account in the Appendix, L.86,977 : 17 : 7.

In the course of the Summer of 1844, a marble tablet, bearing an inscription in letters of gold, was, by order of the Commissioners, placed over one of the windows in the Visiting Officers’ Room. With a representation of the Tablet and the Inscription, which, after acknowledging the hand of Almighty God in the success which attended the work, briefly sets forth the beneficent purposes for which the Lighthouse was erected and records the laying of the foundation-stone by his Grace the Duke of Argyll, I willingly close this most defective narrative of the work.

IN SALUTEM OMNIUM
NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSES

A. D. O. M.

AUCTORITATE . ET . CONCILIIS
PHARORUM . SCOTIAE . COLLEGII
HAEC . STRUCTA . FUIT . PHAROS
CUJUS . DIRECTI . FLAMMA
NAUTAE
INFAMIBUS . HIS . SCOPULIS . ADHUC . MERITO . DETERRITI
OPTATUM . PORTUM . RECTIUS . ADVENIRENT.

JOANNES . DUX . DE . ARGYLL
INSULARUM . ADJACENTIUM . DOMINUS
LAPIDEM . AUSPICALEM . RITE . STATUIT
DIE . IV . MENSIS . JULII . ANNO . IV . VICT. REG.
M . D . C . C . C . X . L .
OPERUM . MAGISTRO . ALANO . STEVENSON . L.L.B.

_Engraved by W. & A.K. Johnston_]

PART SECOND.

NOTES

ON THE

ILLUMINATION OF LIGHTHOUSES.

PART SECOND.

NOTES ON THE ILLUMINATION OF LIGHTHOUSES, WITH SHORT NOTICES OF THEIR EARLY HISTORY.

~Early History.~

The early history of Lighthouses is very uncertain; and some ingenious antiquaries, finding the want of authentic records, have been anxious to supply the deficiency by conjectures based upon casual and obscure allusions in ancient writers, and by vague hypotheses drawn from the heathen mythology. Some writers have gone so far as to imagine, that the Cyclopes were the keepers of lighthouses; whilst others have actually maintained that Cyclops was intended, by a bold prosopopœia, to represent a lighthouse itself.[24] A notion so fanciful deserves little consideration; and accords very ill with that mythology of which it is intended to be an exposition, as seems sufficiently plain from a passage in the ninth Odyssey, where Homer (who flourished about 907 B. C.), after describing the darkness of the night, informs us that the fleet of Ulysses actually struck the shore of the Cyclopean island, before it could be seen.[25]

[24] This spirit of etymological conjecture has converted _Cyclops_,
_Proteus_, _Cneph_, _Phanes_, _Canobus_, _Chiron_, _Tithonus_,
_Thetis_, _Amphitrite_, _Minotaurus_, _Chronus_, _Phrontis_, and
other demigods, into celebrated lighthouses, or, at all events, has
imagined that those mythological personages were worshipped under the
emblem of fire or light in buildings, which, at the same time, served
as guides to the benighted mariner. On the faith, also, of similar
obscure and finely drawn etymologies, various places, such as _Calpe_
and _Abyla_, the opposite points of Africa and Europe, at the Straits
of the Mediterranean, have been unhesitatingly recognized as the
sites of celebrated light-towers; and the Latin words _turris_ and
_columna_ have been supposed primarily to signify a lighthouse, the
first being written _Tor-is_, the _Tower of fire_, and the _Col-on_,
the _Pillar of the Sun_.

[25]

Ἔνθ’ ὄυτις τὴν νῆσον ἐσέδρακεν ὀφθαλμοῒσιν
Ὅυτ’ οὖν κύματα μακρὰ κυλινδόμενα ποτὶ χέρσον
Ἐισίδομεν πρὶν νῆας ἐϋσσέλμους ἐπικελσαι.

_Odyss._, ix., 146.

Nor does there appear any better reason for supposing, that under the history of Tithonus, Chiron, or any other personage of antiquity, the idea of a lighthouse was conveyed; for such suppositions, however reconcileable they may appear with some parts of mythology, involve obvious inconsistencies with others. It seems, indeed, most improbable, that, in those early times, when navigation was so little practised, the advantages of beacon lights were so generally known and acknowledged as to render them the objects of mythological allegory.

It must not, however, be imagined, that ancient writings are entirely destitute of allusions to the subject of Beacon Lights for the guidance of the Mariner. The venerable poet, already noticed, in speaking of the shield of Achilles, has beautifully described the flash of a beacon-light in some solitary place, as seen by seamen leaving their friends, in those lines, which contain ample proof of the existence of such a provision for the safety of the mariner in Homer’s time:--

Ὣς δ’ ὅταν ἐκ πόντοιο σέλας ναύτῃσι φανείη
Καιομένοιο πυρὸς, τὸ δὲ καίεται ὑψόθ’ ὄρεσφι,
Σταθμῷ ἐν οἰοπόλῳ· τοὺς δ’ οὐκ ἐθέλοντας ἄελλαι
Πόντον ἐπ’ ἰχθυόεντα φίλων ἀπάνευθε φέρουσιν.

_Il._, xix., 375.

In the Holy Scriptures the word _Beacon_ occurs but once, and that in Prophecies of Isaiah (xxx. 17.), who lived above 200 years later than Homer; but it is obvious that the original term, which the Septuagint translate by the word ἱστος, merely imports a flagstaff or perch and does not at all imply the knowledge of beacon-lights among the Hebrews, who were not a maritime people.

~Colossus of Rhodes.~

About 300 years before the Christian era, Chares, the disciple of Lysippus, constructed the celebrated brazen statue, called the Colossus of Rhodes. It was of such dimensions as to allow vessels to sail into the harbour between its legs, which spanned the entrance. There is considerable probability in the idea that this figure served the purposes of a lighthouse; but there is no passage in any ancient writer, where this use of the Colossus is expressly mentioned. Many inconsistencies occur in the account of this fabric by early writers, who, in describing the distant objects which could be seen from it, appear to have forgotten the height which they assign to the figure. It was partly demolished by an earthquake, about eighty years after its completion; and so late as the year 672 of our era, the brass of which it was composed was sold by the Saracens to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, for a sum, it is said, equal to L.36,000.

~Pharos of Alexandria.~

Little is known with certainty regarding the Pharos of Alexandria, which was regarded by the ancients as one of the seven wonders of the world. It was built in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 300 years before the Christian era; and Strabo relates that Sostratus, a friend of the royal family, was the architect. He describes it as built in a wonderful manner in many stories of white stone, on a rock forming the promontory of the island Pharos (whence the Tower derived its name), and says that the building bore the inscription--“Sostratus of Cnidos, the son of Dexiphanes, to the Gods, the Saviours, for the benefit of seamen.” He concludes his brief notice of it by describing the neighbouring shores as low and encumbered with shoals and snares, and as calling for the establishment of a lofty and bright beacon, a sign to guide sailors arriving from the ocean into the entrance to the haven.[26]

[26] The passage from which the above description is drawn will be
found in the Oxford edition of Strabo, 1807, page 1123. It is as
follows: Ἔστι δε και ἀυτο τὸ τῆς νησίδος ἄχρον πετρα πολυκλύστος,
ἔχουσα πῦργον θαυμαστῶς κατεσκευασμένον λευκου λιθου, πολυοροφον,
ὁμωνυμον τῇ νὴσῳ· τουτον δε ἄνέθηκε Σωστρατος Κνὶδιος φιλος τῶν
βασιλεων, της των πλωϊζομενων σωτηριας χαριν, ὥς φησιν ἥ ἐπιγραφη
Επιγραμμα, ΣΩΣΤΡΑΤΟΣ ΚΝΙΔΙΟΣ ΔΕΧΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ, ΘΕΟΙΣ ΣΩΤΗΡΣΙΝ ΥΠΕΡ ΤΩΝ
ΠΑΩΙΖΟΜΕΝΩΝ. Ἀλιμένου γαρ ὄυσης και ταπεινῆς της ἕκατέρωθεν παραλίας,
ἐχουσης δε και χοιράδας και βράχη τινὰ, ἔδει σημεὶου τινος ὑψηλου
και λαμπρου, τοις ἀπὸ του πελάγους προσπλέουσιν, ὥστ’ ἐυστοχειν της
ἐισβολης του λιμενος. Strabo’s account of the position of the island
of Pharos at once leads to the conclusion of its having formed part
of the harbour of Alexandria (as is abundantly testified by Josephus,
Pliny, and other writers), and cannot be easily reconciled with
that of Homer (fourth Odyssey, l. 354), who describes the island as
a day’s sail with a fair wind from the mainland. His words are as
follows:--

Νῆσος ἔπειτά τις ἐστὶ πολυκλύστῳ ἐνὶ πόντῳ
Αἰγύπτου προπάροιθε (Φάρον δέ ἑ κικλήσkουσι)
Τοσσον δ’ ἂνευθ’ ὄσσον τεπανημέριη γλαφυρὴ νηῦς
Ἤνυσεν, ᾗ λιγὺς οὖρος ἐπιπνέιῃσιν ὂπισθεν.

_Odyssey_, iv., l. 354.

Pliny, however, does not scruple to identify the Pharos of Homer’s
time with that of his own day. “Pharos,” says he, “quondam diei
navigatione distans ab Ægypto, nunc è turri nocturnis ignibus cursum
navium regens.” Hist. Nat., v. 31; see also Hist. Nat., ii. 87, and
xiii. 21.

The accounts which have come down to us of the dimensions of this remarkable edifice are exceedingly various; and the statements of the distance at which it could be seen are clearly fabulous. That of Josephus (who likens it to the second of Herod’s three Towers at Jerusalem, called Phasael, in honour of his brother) is the least removed from probability; yet even he informs us, that the fire which burnt on the top to enable seamen to anchor in sight of it, before coming near the shore, and so to avoid the difficulty of the navigation by night, was visible at a distance equal to about thirty-four English miles. Such a range for a lighthouse on the low shores of Egypt, would require a tower about 550 feet in height![27] Ammianus Marcellinus[28] and Pliny[29] are both very circumstantial in their notices of the Pharos as a beacon-light to guide seamen in approaching the coast of Egypt and port of Alexandria. The latter adds the interesting fact, that the cost of the Tower was reckoned at a sum equal to about L.390,000 of our money;[30] and both of them agree in stating that a light was shewn from it at night. Ammianus Marcellinus differs from all the other writers, in attributing the erection of the Tower to Queen Cleopatra. Pliny mentions in passing, that there were also lighthouses at Ostia and Ravenna.

[27] Bell. Judaic. iv., cap. 10, sec. 5. (Havercamp’s Josephus,
tom. ii., p. 309. Amsterdam, 1726.) ἐν δεξιᾳ δε ἡ προσαγορευομενη
Φαρος νησις προκειται, πῦργον ανἐχουσα μεγιστον, εκπυρσευοντα
τοις καταπλὲουσιν, ἐπι τριακοσιους σταδιους, ὤς ἐν νυκτὶ πὂρρωθεν
ὁρμιζοιντο προς την δυσχέρειαν του καταπλοῦ. And again, in the sixth
Book of the same History (v. 4, sec. 3, tom. ii., p. 330), he says,
και τὸ μεν σχημα παρεῴκει τῳ κατα τὴν Φαρον ἐκπυρσεὐοντι τοις επ’
Αλεξανδρείας πλέουσι. The height of the Tower in the text proceeds on
the idea of the observer’s eye being ten feet above the sea.

[28] Ammianus Marcellinus, l. xxii., c. 16. (Leipsic 1807, tom.
i., p. 306.) Hoc littus cum fallacibus et insidiosis accessibus
affligeret antehac navigantes discriminibus plurimis, excogitavit
in portu Cleopatra turrim excelsam, quae Pharos a loco ipso
cognominatur, praelucendi navibus nocturna suggerens ministeria; cum,
quondam ex Parthenio pelago venientes aut Libyco, per pandas oras
et patulas, montium nullas speculas vel collium signa cernentes,
harenarum inlisae glutinosae mollitiae frangerentur.

[29] Plinii Hist. Nat., xxxvi. 18. (Paris, 1723, p. 739.)
Magnificatur et alia turris a rege facta in insula Pharo portum
obtinente Alexandriae, quam constitisse octingentis talentis tradunt;
magno animo (nequid omittamus) Ptolemai regis, quod in ea permiserit
Sostrati Guidii Architecti structuræ ipsius nomen inscribi. Usus
ejus, nocturno navium cursu ignes ostendere ad praenuncianda vada
portûsque introïtum: quales, jam compluribus locis flagrant, ut
Ostiae ac Ravennae. Periculum in continuatione ignium, ne sidus
existimetur, quoniam è longinquo similis flammarum aspectus est.

[30] Supposing, as is most probable, that Pliny means the _Egyptian_
talent; the _Attic_ talent was about one-half the value of the other.

If the reports of some writers are to be believed, this Tower must have far exceeded in size the great Pyramid itself; but the fact that a building of comparatively so late a date should have so completely disappeared, whilst the Pyramid remains almost unchanged, is a sufficient reason for rejecting, as erroneous, the dimensions which have been assigned by most writers to the Pharos of Alexandria. Some have pretended that large mirrors were employed to direct the rays of the beacon-light on its top, in the most advantageous direction; but, in so far as I know, there is no definite evidence in favour of this supposition. Others, with greater probability, have imagined that this celebrated beacon was known to mariners, simply by the uncertain and rude light afforded by a common fire. In speaking of the Pharos, the poet Lucian, on most occasions sufficiently fond of the marvellous, takes no notice of the gigantic mirrors which it is said to have contained. He thus speaks of this celebrated lighthouse as having indicated to Julius Cæsar his approach to the Pharos of Egypt on the seventh night after he sailed from Troy:

Septima nox, Zephyro nunquam laxante rudentes,
Ostendit Phariis Ægyptia littora _flammis_.
Sed prius orta dies nocturna _lampada_ texit,
Quam tutas intraret aquas.

_Pharsal._, ix., 1004.

It is true that, by using the word “_lampada_,” which can only with propriety be applied to a more perfect mode of illumination than an open fire, he appears to indicate that the “_flammis_” of which he speaks, were not so produced. The word _lampada_ may however, be used metaphorically; and _flammis_ would, in this case, not improperly describe the irregular appearance of a common fire.

Perhaps, also, the opinion that some kind of lamp was used in the Pharos, may seem to receive countenance from the remarkable words of Pliny, in the passage above cited--“Periculum in continuatione ignium, ne sidus existimetur, quoniam è longinquo similis flammarum aspectus est.” The fear he expresses lest the light viewed from a distance should be mistaken for a star, could hardly be applicable to the diffuse, oscillating, lambent light derived from an open fire, and certainly gives some reason for imagining that, even at that remote time, the art of illuminating lighthouses was better understood than in the early part of the present century.

Before leaving the subject of the Pharos of Alexandria, I wish to vindicate the memory of its architect Sostratus from the calumny of Lucian, who, in his Treatise on the art of writing history, with his usual acrimony, accuses the builder of the Pharos of a fraud, in cutting his own name on the solid walls of the Tower, and covering the inscription with plaster, on which he carved the name of his royal master Ptolemy.[31] Against this assertion I would oppose the testimony of Strabo, who calls Sostratus the “friend of the Kings” (see the quotation at the foot of page 183), and the direct evidence of Pliny, who, in the passage above cited, expressly states, as a proof of Ptolemy’s magnanimity, his giving the architect liberty to inscribe his own name on the Tower. The only other notices of the Pharos which I have been able to find in ancient writers are from Cæsar’s Commentaries, Valerius Flaccus, and Pomponius Mela.[32] At Alexandria, there is a modern lighthouse called the Pharos, which is maintained by the Pacha of Egypt.

[31] Lucian, in his Treatise (Amsterdam, 1743, vol. ii., p. 68.)
Πως δει ἱστοριαν συγγραφειν, thus details the merit and fraud of
Sostratus. Ορᾷς τον Κνίδιον ἐκεῖνον ἀρχιτεκτονα, οἶον ἐποίησεν;
οἰκοδομὴσας γαρ τον ἐπὶ τῇ Φαρῳ πῦργον, μεγιστον και καλλιστον ἔργων
ἀπαντων, ὡς πυρσεύοιτο ἀπ’ αὐτου τοις ναυτιλλομενοις, ἐπὶ πολὺ της
θαλασσης, και μὴ καταφέροιντο εἰς την Παραιτονίαν, παγχάλεπον,
ὣς φασιν, οὖσαν και ἄφυκτον, εἴ τις ἐμπεσοι εἴς τα, ἕρματα.
Οἰκοδομήσας οὐν το ἔργον, ἔνδοθεν μεν, κατα των λιθων, το αὐτου
ὄνομα ἐπέγραψεν. Ἐπιχρίσας δὲ τιτάνῳ και ἐπικαλύψας, ἐπέγραψε το
ὀνομα του τότε βασιλέυοντος, εἰδὼς, ὃσπερ και ἐγενετο, πάνυ ὀλιγου
χρονου, συνεκπεσουμενα μεν τῳ χρισματι τα γραμματα, εκφανησόμενον δε
ΣΩΣΤΡΑΤΟΣ ΔΕΧΙΦΑΝΟΥΣ Κνιδιος. θεοις σωτηρσιν ὑπερ των πλωΐζομεων,
κ.τ.λ.

[32] Cæsar de Bell. Civil., iii. 98 (Lond. 1712, p. 355). Pharus est
in insula turris, magna altitudine, mirificis operibus extructa, quae
nomen ab insula accepit.

Valerius Flaccus very distinctly sets forth the great advantage
of lighthouses to the seaman, and especially speaks of those at
Alexandria and Ostia in these lines--

Non ita Tyrrhenus stupet Ioniusve magister,
Qui portus, Tyberine, tuos, claramque serenâ
Arce Pharon præceps subiit:

_Argonaut_, vii., v. 84.

Pompon. Mela, ii. cap. 7.

~Coruña Tower~

Mr Moore, in his _History of Ireland_, vol. i., p. 16, speaks of the Tower of Coruña, which he says is mentioned in the traditionary history of that country, as a lighthouse erected for the use of the Irish in their frequent early intercourse with Spain. In confirmation of this opinion, he cites a somewhat obscure passage from Æthicus, the cosmographer. This in all probability is the tower which Humboldt mentions in his Narrative under the name of the _Iron Tower_, which was built as a lighthouse by Caius Saevius Lupus, an architect of the city of Aqua Flavia, the modern Chaves.[33] A Lighthouse has lately been established on this headland, for which Dioptric apparatus was supplied from the workshop of M. LETOURNEAU of Paris.

[33] “The traditionary history,” says Mr Moore, “of the latter
country (Ireland) gives an account of an ancient Pharos or lighthouse
erected in the neighbourhood of the port now called Coruña, for the
use of navigators on their passage between that coast and Ireland.
There is a remarkable coincidence between this tradition and an
account given by Æthicus, the cosmographer, of a lofty Pharos or
lighthouse standing formerly on the sea-coast of Gallicia, and
serving as a beacon in the direction of Britain. _Secundus Angulus
intendit ubi Brigantia civitas sita est Galliciae, et altissimum
Pharum et inter pauca memorandi operis ad speculum Britanniae._
Whether the translation I have given of the last three words of this
passage convey their real meaning, I know not; but they have been
hitherto pronounced unintelligible. The passage is thus noticed
by Casaubon, in a note on Strabo, lib. iii. ‘Æthicus in Hispaniae
descriptione altissimi cujusdam Fari meminit.’” The passage in Strabo
above referred to is on page 179 of the first volume of the Oxford
folio edition of 1807, where the geographer speaks of Cape Νεριον,
which Casaubon distinctly identifies with the _Cabo de Finisterra_ of
modern seamen.

~Lighthouse at the mouth of the Guadalquivir.~

There is also a record in Strabo of a magnificent lighthouse of stone at Capio, or Apio, near the Harbour of Menestheus (the modern Mesa Asta, or Puerto de Sta. Maria), which he describes as built on a rock nearly surrounded by the sea, as a guide for the shallows at the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in terms almost identical with those used by him in speaking of the Pharos of Alexandria. I am not aware of any other notice of this great work, for such it seems to have been, to have deserved the praises of Strabo.[34]

[34] The words of Strabo are (Oxon. 1807, p. 184), Και ὁ του Καπὶωνος
(vel Ἀπιωνος) πὺργος ἵδρυται ἐπι πέτρας ἀμφκλυστου, θαυμασιως
κατεσκευασμένος, ὥσπερ ό Φαρος τῆς των πλωϊζομενων σωτηριας χαριν, ῃ
τε γαρ ἐκβαλλομενη χους ὕπο του ποταμου βραχεα ποιει και χοιραδωδης
ἐστὶν ὁ πρὸ ἀυτου τοπος ὥστε δει σημειου τινος ἐπιφανοῦς.

~Ancient Phari in Britain.~

In Camden’s Britannia, a passing notice is taken of the ruins called _Cæsar’s Altar_, at Dover, and of the _Tour d’Ordre_, at Boulogne, on the opposite coast; both of which are conjectured to have been ancient lighthouses. Pennant describes the remains of a Roman Pharos near Holywell, but cites no authorities for his opinion as to its use. There were likewise remains of a similar structure at Flamborough-head. A very meagre and unintelligible account is also given of a lighthouse at St Edmund’s Chapel, on the coast of Norfolk, in Gough’s additions to Camden, by which it might seem that the lighthouse was erected in 1272.[35]

[35] Gough’s Camden’s Britannia, vol. i., 318, and vol. ii., p.
198; Batcheller, in his Dover Guide (1845, p. 111), says, that the
Dover Pharos was built “during the lieutenancy of Aulus Plautius
and Ostorius Scapula, the latter of whom left Britain, A. D.
53.”--Pennant’s History of Whiteford and Holywell, p. 112.

Such seems to be the sum of our knowledge of the ancient history of lighthouses, which, it must be admitted, is neither accurate nor extensive. Our information regarding modern lighthouses is of course more minute in its details and more worthy of credit. The greater part of it is drawn from authentic sources; and much of what is afterwards stated is the result of my own observation, during my visits to the most important lighthouses of Europe.

~Tour de Corduan.~

The first lighthouse of modern days that merits attention, is the _Tour de Corduan_, which, in point of architectural grandeur, is unquestionably the noblest edifice of the kind in the world. It is situated on an extensive reef at the mouth of the river Garonne, and serves as a guide to the shipping of Bordeaux and the Languedoc Canal, and indeed of all that part of the Bay of Biscay. It was founded in the year 1584, but was not completed till 1610, under Henri IV. It is minutely described in Belidor’s _Architecture Hydraulique_. The building is 197 feet in height, and consists of a pile of masonry, forming successive galleries, enriched with pilasters and friezes, and rising above each other with gradually diminished diameters. Those galleries are surmounted by a conical tower, which terminates in the lantern. Round the base is a wall of circumvallation, 134 feet in diameter, in which the light-keepers’ apartments are formed, somewhat in the style of casemates. This wall is an outwork of defence, and receives the chief shock of the waves. The tower itself contains a chapel, and various apartments; and the ascent is by a spacious staircase. The first light exhibited in the Tour de Corduan was obtained by burning billets of oak-wood, in a chauffer at the top of the tower; and the use of coal instead of wood, was the first improvement which the light received. A rude reflector, in the form of an inverted cone, was afterwards added, to prevent the loss of light which escaped upwards. About the year 1780, M. LENOIR was employed to substitute paraboloïdal reflectors and lamps; and in 1822, the light received its last improvement, by the introduction of the dioptric instruments of AUGUSTIN FRESNEL, the celebrated French Academician.

~Eddystone.~

The history of the famous Lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks is well known to the general reader, from the narrative of SMEATON the Engineer. Those Rocks are 9¹⁄₂ miles from the Ram-Head, on the coast of Cornwall; and from the small extent of the surface of the chief Rock and its exposed situation, the construction of the Lighthouse was a work of very great difficulty. The first erection was of timber, designed by Mr WINSTANLEY; and was commenced in 1696. The light was exhibited in November 1698. It was soon found, however, that the sea rose upon that tower to a much greater height than had been anticipated; so much so, it is said, as to “_bury under the water_” the lantern, which was sixty feet above the Rock; and the Engineer was therefore afterwards under the necessity of enlarging the Tower, and carrying it to the height of 120 feet. In November 1703, some considerable repairs were required, and Mr WINSTANLEY, accompanied by his workmen, went to the Lighthouse to attend to their execution; but the storm of the 26th of that month, carried away the whole erection, when the Engineer and all his assistants unhappily perished!

The want of a light on the Eddystone, soon led to a fatal accident; for not long after the destruction of Mr WINSTANLEY’S lighthouse, the Winchilsea man-of-war was wrecked on the Eddystone Rocks, and most of her crew were lost. Three years, however, elapsed, after this melancholy proof of the necessity for a light, before the Trinity-House of London could obtain a new Act of Parliament, to extend their powers; and it was not till the month of July 1706, that the construction of a new lighthouse was begun under the direction of Mr JOHN RUDYERD of London. On the 28th of July 1708, the new light was first shewn, and it continued to be regularly exhibited till the year 1755, when the whole fabric was destroyed by accidental fire, after it had stood forty-seven years. But for this circumstance, it is impossible to tell how long the lighthouse might, with occasional repair, have lasted, as Mr RUDYERD seems to have executed his task with much judgment, carefully rejecting all architectural decoration, as unsuitable for such a situation, and directing his attention to the formation of a tower which should offer the least resistance to the waves. The height of the tower, which was of a conical form and constructed of timber, was 92 feet, including the lantern; and the diameter at the base, which was a little above the level of high water, was 23 feet.

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.~

The dangerous reef called the Inch Cape, or Bell Rock, so long a terror to mariners, was well known to the earliest navigators of Scotland. Its dangers were so generally acknowledged, that the Abbots of Aberbrothwick, from which the Rock is distant about twelve miles, caused a float to be fixed upon the Rock with a bell attached to it, which being swung by the motion of the waves, served by its tolling to warn the mariner of his approach to the reef. From this circumstance, which formed the groundwork of SOUTHEY’S striking ballad of Sir Ralph the Rover, the Rock is said to have derived its name. Amongst the many losses which occurred on the Bell Rock in modern times, one of the most remarkable is that of the _York_, _seventy-four_, with all her crew, part of the wreck having been afterwards found on the Rock and part having come ashore on the neighbouring coast. During the survey of the Rock also, several instances were discovered of the extent of loss which this reef had occasioned; and many articles of ships’ furnishings were picked up on it, as well as various coins, a bayonet, a silver shoe-buckle, and many other small objects. Impressed with the great importance of some guide for the Bell Rock, Captain Brodie, R.N., set a small subscription on foot and erected a beacon of spars on the Rock, which, however, was soon destroyed by the sea. He afterwards constructed a second beacon, which soon shared the same fate. It was not, therefore, until 1802, when the Commissioners of Northern Lights brought a bill into Parliament for power to erect a lighthouse on it, that any efficient measures were contemplated for the protection of seamen from this Rock, which, being covered at every spring-tide to the depth of from twelve to sixteen feet, and lying right in the fairway to the Friths of Forth and Tay, had been the occasion of much loss both of property and life. In 1806, the bill passed into a law; and various ingenious plans were suggested for overcoming the difficulties which were apprehended, in erecting a lighthouse on a rock twelve miles from land, and covered to the depth of twelve feet by the tide. But the suggestion of Mr ROBERT STEVENSON, the Engineer to the Lighthouse Board, after being submitted to the late Mr RENNIE, was at length adopted; and it was determined to construct a tower of masonry, on the principle of the Eddystone. On the 17th of August 1807, Mr STEVENSON accordingly landed with his workmen and commenced the work by preparing the Rock to receive the supports of a temporary pyramid of timber, on which a barrack-house for the reception of the workmen (similar to that which has already been described in a preceding part of this volume) was to be placed; and during this operation, much hazard was often incurred in transporting the men from the Rock, which was only dry for a few hours at spring-tides, to the vessel which lay moored off it. The lowest floor of this temporary erection, in which the mortar for the building was prepared, was often broken up and removed by the force of the sea. The foundation for the tower having been excavated, the first stone was laid on the 10th July 1808, at the depth of sixteen feet below the high water of spring-tides; and at the end of the second season, the building was five feet six inches above the lowest part of the foundation. The third season’s operations terminated by finishing the solid part of the structure, which is thirty feet in height; and the whole of the masonry was completed in October 1810. The light was first exhibited to the public on the night of the 1st of February 1811. The difficulties and hazards of this work were chiefly caused by the short time during which the Rock was accessible between the ebbing and flowing tides; and amongst the many eventful incidents which render the history of this work interesting, was the narrow escape which the Engineer and thirty-one persons made from being drowned, by the rising of the tide upon the Rock, before a boat came to their assistance, at a time when the attending vessel had broken adrift. This circumstance occurred before the Barrack-house was erected, and is narrated by Mr STEVENSON, in his Account of the work, published at the expense of the Lighthouse Board in 1824, to which I would refer for more minute information on the subject of this work and the other lighthouses on the coast of Scotland.

The Bell Rock Tower is 100 feet in height, 42 feet in diameter at the base, and 15 at the top. The door is 30 feet from the base and the ascent is by a massive copper ladder. The apartments, including the light-room, are six in number. The light is a _revolving red and white light_; and is produced by the revolution of a frame containing sixteen Argand lamps, placed in the foci of paraboloïdal mirrors, arranged on a quadrangular frame, whose alternate faces have shades of red glass placed before the reflectors, so that a red and white light is shewn successively. The machinery, which causes the revolution of the frame containing the lamps, is also applied to tolling two large bells, to give warning to the mariner of his approach to the Rock in foggy weather. The erection of the Bell Rock Lighthouse cost L.61,331 : 9 : 2.

~Carlingford.~

The most remarkable Lighthouse on the coast of Ireland is that of Carlingford, near Cranfield Point, at the entrance of Carlingford Lough. It was built according to the design of Mr GEORGE HALPIN, the Inspector of the Irish Lights; and was a work of an arduous nature, being founded 12 feet below the level of high-water, on the Hawlbowling Rock, which lies about two miles off Cranfield Point. The figure of the Tower is that of a frustum of a cone, 111 feet in height, and 48 in diameter at the base. The light, which is fixed, is from oil burned in Argand lamps, placed in the foci of paraboloïdal mirrors. It was first exhibited on the night of December 20, 1830.

~Iron Lighthouses.~