Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV. The condition of the tower on the Bishop rock, with the erection of which structure the early pages of this memoir so fully dealt, had, for many years prior to 1882, caused no little anxiety to the authorities of the Trinity House. There never was a work of the kind better constructed; but the seas to which the building is exposed are, as has been said, terrific. Thus, during a violent storm, a five hundredweight fog bell, fixed on the gallery course a hundred feet above high water, was torn from its attachments, and hurled on to the rock; large pieces, --some of them weighing half a hundredweight each, --were split from the lower external blocks of granite, owing to the excessive strain on the structure in rough weather; and the prisms of the optical apparatus were, from the same cause, fractured. In 1874 the tower was strengthened by massive iron ties, bolted to the internal surface of the walls, and connected through the floors; but even this precaution was not found sufficient to ensure the stability of the lighthouse. The Corporation of Trinity House, --acting under the advice of their engineer, --thereupon decided practically to rebuild it, by enveloping the structure in an outer casing of masonry, dovetailed horizontally and vertically, from the foundation courses up to the level of the service room floor, removing the portions above that point, and adding four new rooms, which alteration rendered it necessary that the outline of the tower should be adapted to the increased height of the building. It was further decided to construct a vertical base to the structure, as in the case of the new Eddystone lighthouse. On the completion, in 1882, of the works at the latter station, the steam vessel, plant and tools wer
