204 Biographical Sketch of the late 



cranes — which he afterwards applied, with much advantage, 

 in the erection of the tower — but his zeal, ever alive to the 

 possibility of improving on the conceptions of his great 

 master, Smeaton, led him to introduce some advantageous 

 changes in the arrangements of the masonry of the tower, 

 some of which he has briefly described in the following 

 passage : — 



" The floor courses of the Bell Rock Lighthouse lay horizontally 

 upon the walls, as will be seen from the sections in Plates VII. and 

 XVI. They consisted in all of eighteen blocks, but only sixteen were 

 laid in the first instance, as the centre stones were necessarily left 

 out, to allow the shaft of the balance-crane to pass through the 

 several apartments of the building. In the same manner also the 

 stone which formed the interior side of the man-hole was not laid 

 till after the centre stone was in its place and the masonry of the 

 walls completed. The number of stones above alluded to are inde- 

 pendently of the sixteen joggle pieces with which the principal 

 blocks of the floors were connected, as shewn in the diagrams of 

 Plates VII. and XIII. The floors of the Eddystone Lighthouse, 

 on the contrary, were constructed of an arch form, and the haunches 

 of the arches bound with chains, to prevent their pressing outward 

 to the injury of the walls. In this, Mr Smeaton followed the con- 

 struction of the domes of St Paul ; and this mode might also be 

 found necessary at the Eddystone, from the want of stones in one 

 length to form the outward wall and floor, in the then state of the 

 granite quarries of Cornwall. At Mylnefield quarry, however, 

 there was no difficulty in procuring stones of the requisite dimen- 

 sions ; and the writer foresaw many advantages that would arise 

 from having the stones of the floors to form part of the outward 

 walls without introducing the system of arching. In particular, the 

 pressure of the floors upon the walls would thus be perpendicular; 

 for as the stones were prepared in the sides, viiih groove and feather^ 

 after the manner of the common house floor, they would, by this 

 means, form so many girths, binding the exterior walls together, as 

 will be understood by examining the diagrams and section of 

 Plate VII., with its letterpress description ; agreeably to which, he 

 had modelled the floors in his original designs for the Bell Rock, 

 which were laid before the Lighthouse Board in the year 1800." 



The Commissioners entertained a high sense of his services 

 at the Bell Rock Lighthouse ; and as many of them took a 

 deep interest in the whole course of that remarkable work, 

 and paid occasional visits to see its progress, they were well 

 able to appreciate the fidelity and zeal with which he de- 

 voted himself to this arduous task. Twelve years after the 



