138 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[M., 



lying in a track which is annually navigated by no less than about 700,000 

 tons of shipping, besides His Majesty's ships of war and revenue cutters : 

 That its place is not easily ascertained, even hy persons well acquainted with 

 the coast, being covered by the sea about hall-flood, and the liuulmarks, by 

 which its position is ascertained, being from 12 to 20 miles distant from the 

 site nf danger. 



"That from the inquiries be made at the time the Yori man-of-war was 

 lost, and pieces of her wreck having drifted ashore upon the opposite and 

 neighbouring coast; and from an attentive consideration of the circumstances 

 which attend the wreck of ships of such dimensions, he thinks it probable 

 that the Yori must have struck upon the Bell Rock, drifted off, and after- 

 wards sunk in deep water : That he is well acquainted with the situation of 

 the Bell Rock, the yacht belonging to tlie Lighthouse service having, on one 

 occasion, been anchored near it for five days, when he had an opportunity of 

 landing upon it every tide : That he has visited most of the lighthouses on 

 the coast of England, Wales, and Ireland, particularly those of the Eddy- 

 stone, the Smalls, and the Kdwarlin, or South Rock, which are built in situa- 

 tions somewhat similar to the Bell Rock : That at high water there is a 

 greater depth on the Bell Rock than on any of these, by several feet; and he 

 is therefore fully of opinion, that a building nf stnne, upon the principles of 

 the Eddystone Lighthouse, is alone suitable to the peculiar circumstances 

 which attend this Rock, and has reported his opinion accordingly to the 

 Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses as far back at the year 1800; 

 and having given the subject all the attention in his power, he has estimated 

 the expense of erecting a building of stone upon it at the sum of 42,685/. 8s, 



" Your Committee likewise examined Mr. John Rennie, civil engineer, who, 

 since the Report made to this House in 1803, has visited the Bell Rock, who 

 confirms the particulars in said Report, and entertains no doubt of the prac- 

 ticability of erecting a lighthouse on that Rock, is decidedly of opinion that 

 a stone lighthouse will he the most durable and effectual, and indeed the 

 only kind of huilding that is suited to this situation : That he has computed 

 the expense of such a building, and after making every allowance for con- 

 tingencies, from his own experience of works in the sea, it appears to him 

 that the estimate or expense will amount to 41,843/. 15s." 



6tli, Mr. Rennie was thereafter appointed, by the Board, Chief 

 or Consulting Engineer, and acted jointly with Mr. Stevenson in 

 reporting to and advising the Lighthouse Board; the value of his 

 expected services, however, being not so much real and absolute as 

 contingent on the event of anything going wrong in the hands of 

 Mr. Stevenson, the Official Engineer to the Board, who was his 

 junior both in years and in experience; and who, in sending his 

 design and estimate to 'Sir. Rennie, says (in a letter dated 28th 

 December 1805), "In lianding you these plans I by no means 

 should wish to he understood to do anything more than lay before 

 you a subject which lias cost me much, very much trouble, and 

 consideration, without at all supposing that they are the best that 

 may be thought of for the purpose." (Yet these very plans by Mr. 

 Stevenson were substantially those which were afterwards exe- 

 cuted.) "On the contrary, your great experience and practice, 

 must make a subject of this kind familiar to your mintl, and be 

 higlily improved in your hands." 



7th, Tlie only drawing furnished to the Board by Mr. Rennie is 

 that shown in Plate VIII., fig. 2, which was prepared in 1807, six 

 years after Mr. Stevenson's original design, and is a mere pictorial 

 sketch, copied from the Eddystone, and not a working drawing. 

 It is obvious that it was made merely for the purpose of illustrating 

 Mr. Rennie's views as to the extension of the base of the Tower, 

 a modification of the original design which seems to have been 

 acceded to by Mr. Stevenson, as it is recommended in their joint 

 Report of 29th December 1806, but which Mr. Stevenson after- 

 wards found it was not advantageous to follow to the full extent 

 indicated by the sketch alluded to, as the diameter of the existing 

 Tower is only 42 feet, being the same as Mr. Stevenson's original 

 design, instead of 45, as shown in Mr. Rennie's sketch. In other 

 respects the sketch is a servile copy of the Eddystone, as will be 

 seen by comparing it with fig. 4, which is a section of that work. 

 It shows no details; not even the position and level of the door, 

 which, in such a building, is a matter of no small moment. In 

 fact, it is clear that it never was intended by Mr. Rennie to 

 represent more than the line of the proposed extension of the 

 base: the whole of the im]irovenients on the interior work of the 

 Eddystone having been introduced into Mr. Stevenson's original 

 design. 



Stk, The Bell Rock Lighthouse, as executed, is shown in 

 Plate VIII., fig. 3. Any professional reader will at once see, from 

 the sections, that the interior work of the tower is in general ac- 

 cordance witli that of the original design by Mr. Stevenson, fig. 1 ; 

 and differs from the Eddystone, amongst other things, in this 

 respect, that the arched form of floor is discontimietl, and the 

 thrust on the walls counteracted. It will also be apparent, that, 

 as already noticed, the diameter of the tower at the base, as 

 executed, is the same as the original design, being 42 feet, while 



the diameter of Mr. Rennie's sketch is 4.5 feet. It is farther 

 worthy of notice, that Mr. Rennie recommended (in his Report of 

 30tli December 1805, which, by the vvay, is strangely enough 

 stated by Sir John as a jiroof of his having directed the details) 

 tliat the solid part of tlie tower should be carried up 50 feet from 

 the rock, wliereas it is in reality only 30 feet, in terms of Mr. Ste- 

 venson's original design of 1800. It will also be seen, that the 

 greater diameter at the top wliich characterises Mr. Stevenson's 

 original design and the work as e.vecuted, forms an important dis- 

 tinction between Mr. Stevenson's and Mr. Rennie's views. Jlr. 

 Rennie, in his sketch, has f(dlowed the Eddystone, whereas Mr. 

 Stevenson increased the diameter of the tower at its top, and thus 

 obtained much better accommodation for the lighting apparatus. 



9tli, As to the extract from Mr. Rennie's Report of 2nd October 

 1HU9, on the strength of which Sir John Rennie tries to found a 

 claim for his Father, as having set aside Mr. Stevenson's plan, all 

 that can he drawn from that Report is, that Mr. Rennie recom- 

 mended the addition of tlie dovetails of Smeaton's floors to the 

 plan shown in Mr. Stevenson's design of 1800, wliich shows the 

 floor-stones passing tlirough the outer wall, and the radiated stones 

 also connected to each other by means of feathers, as actually 

 adopted in the work. Sir John Rennie marks in italics the 

 description of the stones as ^^radiated from a circular block in the 

 middle;" but this is the very description of Mr. Stevenson's plan 

 (fig. (i, in the Plate), and the only change is the introduction of 

 the Smeatonian dovetails at the centre-stone, as shown in fig. 9, 

 in addition to the fmthera on the sides of the stones. As to the 

 other words italicised by Sir John Rennie, "I have already drawn 

 out," I shall not oppose to them Mr. Stevenson's words (at p. 501 

 of Account), which were never contradicted, where, speaking of 

 Mr. Rennie's sketch (fig. 2), he describes it "as the only plans or 

 drawings furnished for this work by that eminent engineer;" but 

 shall rather find a more natural explanation, by supposing that Jlr. 

 Rennie had casually made some sketch, showing his idea of adding 

 Smeaton's dovetails in tlie centre-stone. Again, as to "the stones 

 being deeper in the direction of the radius of the Lighthouse" 

 (Rennie's Report of 29th October 1807), what is that, I would 

 ask, but the method shown in Mr. Stevenson's original plan (see 

 section, fig. 7), in which the stones, as already said, go through the 

 whole wall, instead of resting in notches cut in it, as shown in 

 Smeaton's section (fig. 12).'' Let it also be borne in mind that Mr. 

 Rennie, in this Report, is detailing what luid been done, and is not 

 setting forth what is to be done. 



loth. But such a tower is, after all, merely a likeness of Smea- 

 ton's Eddystone; and the general conception of it, — if the details 

 of the joggling, &c., and of the floors to prevent thrust, &c., be 

 excepted, — implies nothing original. The great merit lies in the 

 execution. Now, for four seasons, Mr. Stevenson personally con- 

 ducted the operations with the -greatest fortitude and ])erseverance, 

 while Mr. Rennie, during that period, was only tirice (perhaps 

 thrice) on the rock, and never saw a single stone of the structure 

 laid! In this respect, ftlr. Stevenson followed the path of Smeaton, 

 who laid aside every other engagement, and gave his personal at- 

 tention to the execution of his great work. 



llth. All that can be really said to be original in the design of 

 the Lighthouse, or in the management of the works, is due to Mr. 

 Stevenson, who proposed and designed the stone tower, planned 

 the tying floors, the ring or band joggles, and laid out the gradu- 

 ally-diminishing thickness of the walls (see Account, p. 445; 

 and Plate VII., fig. 6, of his Account\ He also conceived the 

 nioveable jib-crane (Account, p. 91), the balance-crane, used in 

 building the upper part of the tower (Account, p. 295); and, above 

 all, the tempirrary wooden barrack, and the floating light (proposed 

 in Mr. Stevenson's Report of 15th November 1800), witliout which 

 the completion of the work would have been much retarded. 

 The value of these suggestions, and the estimation in which they 

 were held by the Board, will best appear from the following ex- 

 tract from the minutes of meeting of Northern Lights of 9th 

 July 1811 : — 



" Read Report by Messrs. Hamilton and Duff,* of the following 

 tenor : — 



" In observance of the minute of the Bell Rock Committee of the 18th 

 June, we went and inspected the models deposited in the store of the de- 

 partment at Leith, and found them all there entire, and in preservation, 

 except the model for the coflerdara, which, being of a large size, and incon- 

 venient to be preserved, has been broken up. Mr. Hamilton, however, re- 

 members having seen it, so that there is no doubt that all the models men- 

 tioned were prepared by the engineer. These were assuredly deserving of 

 credit, and were highly necessary to induce the Commissioners to engage in 

 the great undertaking of the Hell Rock ; and we are both of opinion, that 



* Ttie Committee appointed to audit accounts. 



