Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

 THE STORY OF THE LIGHTHOUSE. the height of 110 feet to the focal plane of the lantern (Fig. 19). In 1851 the work was commenced under the direc- The Granite tion of Mr N Douglass, and Tower of 1851. . . . m order to get the maximum the lowest feet below related by foundation possible diameter for the base, stone was laid at the depth of 17 high-water level. An anecdote Mr. M. Beazeley concerning the Mr. Douglass, “ I do not suppose you ever expect to live to get that stone in.” Mr. Douglass was then by no means a young man, but re- torted promptly, “I do ; and remember that I have a father still alive.” The stone was set of 1852, and in 1858 the lighthouse was com- pletely finished and brought into service. All Difficulty of Laying the First Stone. near the end Fig. 20.—THE BISHOP ROCK LIGHTHOUSE IN A STORM. (Drawn from a diagram by Mr. W. T. Douglass, M.Inst.C.E., and published in the “ Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers.”) stone of the “ Bishop ” illustrates the deter- mination and pertinacity exhibited by Mr. Douglass.” “The difficulty of getting the stone in,” we are told, “ was so great that the rest of the work had to proceed as best it could, and the stone had to be left out to wait a favourable opportunity.” Nearly three years elapsed before the stone could be laid, and at last the officials, who came down at intervals to inspect the work, began to lose patience. One of them said to stone for the construction of the tower had to be brought in barges from the workyard at St. Mary’s and landed by manual labour—a tedious and hazardous method in a place where the calmness of the sea is a purely relative term. Before many years had passed the Trinity House authorities had their attention drawn once more to the extreme violence of Atlantic seas in the vicinity of the Bishop Rock. Mr. W. T. Douglass tells us that the 5-cwt. fog- bell fixed on the lantern gallery of the light-