THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 6 September 1913, Page 6

THE EDDYSTONE LIGHTHOUSE.

A DESCRIPTION. In answer to a correspondent (Mr J. T. Pi'nhey) we give the followixlg description of the new Eddystone lighthouse. "Eddystone, a group of gneiss rocks, daily submerged by the tide, in the English Channel, 9 miles off; tUft Cornish coast. The frequent-ship-wrecks on these rocks led to the erection of a lightho\is§ Oft them by Winstanley, 1696-1700. It was a wooden polygon, 100 feet high, with a stone i base, but the great storm of 1703 completely washed it away, with the architect. Another lighthouse was built 1706-9, also of,wood, with a i stone base, and 92 feet high, Jby Mr I Rudyerd, a' silk mercer. -This erection was burned in 1755. Th§-next 1 noted', for its strength andgineering skill displayed in it/ was constructed! bySmeaton in 1757-59, on. the model, it is said, of the trunk of the oak tree. It was built of blocks, generally one to two tons weight, of Portland colite, incased in gi*anite. The-granite is dovetailed into the solid rock, and each block into its neighbours. The tower, 85ft high, had a diameter of 26-Jft at the base, and 15 feet at the top. The light, 72 feet above the water, was visible at a distance of 13 miles. As the rock on'which this tower was built is undermined, and greatly weakened by the action of the waves, the foundation of another was laid on a different part of the reef in '879.. The new lighthouse completed in 1882 by Sir Jame& Douglas, F.R.S., is, like its predecessor, ingeniously . dovetailed throughout. Its dioptrio apparatus gives it an elevation of 133 feet, a, light equal to 159,600 candles, and visible in clear weather to a distance of 17£ miles. Owing to the state of the foundation, Smeaton's lighthouse I was taken down to the level of the | first room as soon the new one was i completed. The removed upper por- ] tion was re-erected on Plymouth Hoe, while the lower portion reuaink in- '■ tact on the rock as a distinguishing 1 mark, an iron pole being fixed in the centre."