The Grange advance. [volume] (Red Wing, Minn.) 1873-1877, 1877-02-07


The Height tv Which Taves Rise Agains
Light Houses.
The force OF the waves and the height
to which they dash against lighthouse
towers in the most exposed situations
are astonishing; and we cannot con.
template them without rejecting how
great a triumph of science and art
these buildings are, and how strange
life in them must be. We find some
interesting information on these points
in the copious appendix to the report
Of the Royal Commission appointed in
1858 to inquire into the conditional
management of lights, buoys, and bea-
cons-a bulky parliamentary blue
book of 1861. At the Longships Light
house, on the top Of a conical rock op-
posite Lands End, the Commissioners
were told by the head keeper that in
heavy weather waves break about the
lantern, seventy. nine feet above high
water mark; and that on one occasion
the sea lifted the cowl off the top so
as to admit a great deal of water, by
which several of the lamps were ex-
tinguished, and all the men were en-
ployed in baling till the tide fell. He
added that there is a cavern under the
lighthouse at the end of long split
in the rock, and when there is heavy
sea the noise produced by the escape
of pent-up air from the cavern is so
great that the men can hardly sleep.
Concerning the Scilly Bishops Light
house, on rock in the southwest of
theScilly Isles, of which the Commits
sioners say that the Building is ''per-
haps the most exposed in the world"
1.-THE spray goes oyer the top Of the
lighthouses the height of which is
one hundred and ten feet.
At the South Bishop Rock Light
house they were Informed that ''spray
occasionally strikes the lantern, and it
has broken the lowers windows of the
dwelling house"-that is, of the part
Of the tower so called. Yet the South
Bishop Rock Lighthouse is on rock
off the coast Of South Wales-of such
size that there is patch of grass be.
fore the door, and the tower rises to a
height of one hundred and forty -four
feet above the sea. The Smalls Light
house, also off the coast of South
Wales, is on low rock about twenty
miles from land, but so large that there
sis room to walk about It is above
high-water mark; but we are told,
''The sea breaks all about the lantern
of the old lighthouse, and over the
new building when there is heavy
weather. 'sThe cold building'' was
a wooden lighthouse erected in ITS !;
the ''new building a stone one in
course of erection in 1859, when the
visit of the Commissioners was paid.
The Commissioners add, from informal
ton given to them by the head keeper,
that ''green seas pass up to point
about thirty-two feet above the level
of the rock" If this is the case in
the Irish Sea, what must be the height
to which ''green seas'' reach on the
lighthouse towers in the Atlantic
Ocean AS to the force OF the waves.
although no stone had been removed
from its place since the work of the,
new building began, an iron bar was
shown to the Commissioners. about
two inches thick, and fixed in the
rock, which had been bent like wire.
The height to which the waves some
times rise when they dash against
rock, has been found at the North INST
Lighthouse to be far greater than an.
pears from any of the instances al.
ready adduced. This lighthouse is
one Of the most recently erected on
our coasts, and is of special interest as
being situated at the most northern
point of land in the British Islands. 1t
is built on stack or outlying rock of
conical form, Of nearly two hundred
feet in height, at the north end Of
INST, the northernmost of the Shet-
land Isles. The rock, as seen from
the south, very much resembles
sugar-loaf in form, and it's steep slope
could only be scaled with difficulty
previous to the cutting of steps in it.
On the north it is nearly perpendicular
and exposed to the full 'sfetch' of the
ocean. The top of the rock affords lit
tie more space than is sufficient for
the site of the lighthouse. There is
only part of the rock where landing
can be effected, and that, of course,
only in favorable weather, so that the
light-keepers are as completely cut off
from communication with the rest of
the world as if their islet abode were
many miles from land. The dwelling
bouses of their families are on the
island of INST. The first light shown
here was from temporary tower
erected in 1854, at the suggestion of
the Admiralty, for the benefit of the
North Sea squadron in the Russian
war. " .": mA -..