page_title: Eddystone Lighthouse
section_title: Smeaton's lighthouse
hierarchical_section_title: Eddystone Lighthouse / Smeaton's lighthouse
context_page_description: The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse that is located on the dangerous Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles south of Rame Head in England. While Rame Head is in Cornwall, the rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and composed of Precambrian gneiss.
  The current structure is the fourth to be built on the site. The first and second were destroyed by storm and fire respectively. The third, also known as Smeaton's Tower, is the best known because of its influence on lighthouse design and its importance in the development of concrete for building. Its upper portions have been re-erected in Plymouth as a monument. The first lighthouse, completed in 1699, was the world's first open ocean lighthouse although the Cordouan lighthouse preceded it as the first offshore lighthouse.
context_section_description: The third lighthouse marked a major step forward in the design of such structures.
  Recommended by the Royal Society, civil engineer John Smeaton modelled the shape on an oak tree, the foundations and outside structure built of local Cornish granite, and lighter Portland limestone masonry used on the inside. He pioneered 'hydraulic lime', a concrete that cured under water, and developed a technique of securing the blocks using dovetail joints and marble dowels. Construction started in 1756 at Millbay and the light was first lit on 16 October 1759.
  Smeaton's lighthouse was 59 feet (18 m) high and had a diameter at the base of 26 feet (8 m) and at the top of 17 feet (5 m). It was lit by a chandelier of 24 large tallow candles.
  In 1807 the 100-year lease on the lighthouse expired, whereupon ownership and management devolved to Trinity House. In 1810 they replaced the chandelier and candles with 24 Argand lamps and parabolic reflectors.
  In 1841 major renovations were made, under the direction of engineer Henry Norris of Messrs. Walker & Burges, including complete repointing, replacement water tanks and filling of a large cavity in the rock close to the foundations. In 1845 the lighthouse was equipped with a new second-order fixed catadioptric optic, manufactured by Henry Lepaute of Paris, with a single multi-wick oil lamp, replacing the old lamps and reflectors. This was the first time that a fully catadioptric large optic (using prisms rather than mirrors above and below the lens) had been constructed, and the first such installation in any lighthouse.
  Smeaton's lighthouse remained in use until 1877 when erosion to the rocks under the lighthouse caused it to shake from side to side whenever large waves hit. After decommissioning it was rebuilt on Plymouth Hoe, in Plymouth, as a memorial. William Tregarthen Douglass supervised the dismantling and removal of Smeaton's Tower.
  The re-erected tower on the Hoe is now a tourist attraction. The foundations and stub of the tower remain, close to the new and more solid foundations of the current lighthouse – the foundations proved too strong to be dismantled so the Victorians left them where they stood.
  An 1850 replica of Smeaton's lighthouse, Hoad Monument, stands above the town of Ulverston, Cumbria as a memorial to naval administrator Sir John Barrow.
caption: Early 19th-century painting of the lighthouse by John Lynn, showing the reflectors in place in the lantern.
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