442 



LIGHTHOUSE ESTABLISHMENT, THE UNITED STATES. 



raents, which were ballasted to make it firm. 

 Thus a protected pond was formed for the 

 coffer-dam, designed by General W. F. Ray- 

 nolds, of the United States Engineers, and a 

 landing wharf was afforded for material, as 

 well as for the reception of quarters for the 

 men, all twelve feet above water, and out of 

 reach of ordinary waves. The coffer-dam was 

 thirty-six feet across, and cylindrical in form. 

 It was made of jointed staves fourteen feet 

 long, four inches thick, and six inches wide, 

 held in place by three iron hoops, like a tub, 

 and braced and stayed inside against a center 

 post, the axis of which coincided with the axis 



SPECTACLE REEF LIGHTHOUSE, LAKE HURON. 



of the cylindrical coffer. It was built at the 

 surface of the water, and suspended exactly 

 over the site of the tower. A loosely twisted 

 inch and a half rope of oakum was tacked to 

 the lower end of the staves, and then the cylin- 

 der was lowered to the bed-rock, which had 

 such irregularities on its surface that some of 

 them were three feet high. All these were com- 

 pensated by driving the jointed staves home 

 with a heavy top-maul, the oakum rope serving 

 as calking ; and this was made approxima- 

 tively water-tight by an ingenious arrangement 

 of a loosely twisted four-inch hay-rope and 

 a canvas flap, which was attached in part to 

 the outside of the lower edge of the cylinder, 

 that lay in part flat on the rock, and which 

 was forced into the angle by the outside press- 

 ure when the pumps commenced lowering the 

 water in the dam. The work was commenced 



in May, 1870, and the light was first exhibited 

 from the finished structure in June, 1874; but 

 the available working time spent on this light- 

 house was but about twenty months. This tow- 

 er, which cost, including the steamer and appli- 

 ances of all kinds, about $375,000, is our best 

 specimen of monolithic stone masonry. It was 

 built by General O. M. Poe, of the United States 

 Engineers, who was General Sherman's chief 

 engineer in his march to the sea. Its strength 

 has been thoroughly tested by the ice push 

 already. When the keepers returned to the 

 tower on May 15, 1874, they found the ice 

 piled against it to a height of thirty feet, which 

 is seven feet higher than the doorway, and they 

 could not effect an entrance to the tower until 

 they had cut through the iceberg, of which this 

 lighthouse formed the core. The cut shows 

 this lighthouse surrounded by an ice-floe. 



The board is now building a stone tower in 

 Lake Superior, on Stannard's Rock, twenty- 

 eight miles from shore, for which the steamer 

 and the plant used in erecting the light on Spec- 

 tacle Reef are being used. It will be, when 

 finished, 101| feet in height, will cost about 

 $300,000, and will show a light of the second 

 order. 



Tillamook (Oregon) lighthouse is placed on 

 an isolated basalt rock high out of water, about 

 one mile from the mainland, in fifteen fathoms 

 of water, and about twenty miles south of the 

 mouth of Columbia River. It is divided above 

 low water into two unequal parts by a wide fis- 

 sure, with vertical sides running east and w est, 

 standing one hundred feet above the sea, with 

 a crest capable of such reduction as to ac- 

 commodate a structure not larger than fifty 

 feet square. A landing could with difficulty 

 be made on the side next the shore during a 

 smooth sea. The rugged character of the head- 

 land, the tendency of the sea face to landslides, 

 and the great distance from Astoria, the near- 

 est supply-point, made the execution of the 

 work a task of labor, difficulty, danger, and ex- 

 pense. The drowning of the foreman on the 

 landing of the first working-party tended to 

 confirm the prejudices of the local public 

 against the enterprise, and to increase the dif- 

 ficulty of obtaining the services of skilled 

 workmen. On October 21, 1879, however, 

 four workmen, with hammers, drills, bolts, 

 provisions, fuel, a stove, and some canvas to 

 protect them and their supplies from the 

 weather, were landed, and, a few days later, 

 five more men and a small derrick were got to 

 the rock, from which time the commencement 

 of the work may be dated. For the first nine 

 days after reaching the rock, the nine quarry- 

 men had no shelter from the rain and spray, 

 except that of the canvas lashed to ringbolts. 

 But during this time they cut a shallow niche 

 in the north and east sides, in which they set 

 up a strong timber shanty, which they bolted 

 to the rock, covered with canvas, and secr.red 

 to ringbolts. From this they secured safety, 

 but got little comfort. After setting up the 



