I8t9. 1 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



249 



quite free from private claims. Some steps have also been taken 

 towards reducing tlie tolls which are a heavy burden on commerce, 

 and bein^ levied per voyage, fall with unjust severity on the coasting 

 and packet trade. 'When the debt for purchase has been extin- 

 guished, further remissions are promised. 



In Scotland, the earliest lighthouse was that of Cambrae, on 

 Little Cambrae Island, built in 1756, and rebuilt in 1793. The 

 Leith light was established in 1780, and that on Cape Wrath, 

 completed in 1796, is visible for 26 miles, being the widest range 

 of any British light. The Bell Rock, finished in 1811, at a cost of 

 61,331/. and the Skerryvore Lighthouse in Argyleshire, completed 

 as lately as 184.4, for which the estimated cost was 31,500/., are the 

 works of most interest in an engineering point of view. Enor- 

 mous difficulties were overcome in the construction of these 

 edifices, and both remain triumphs of British skill and science. 

 Their details are, however, too well known by the memoirs of their 

 respective engineers, Alan and Robert Stevenson, to justify a re- 

 petition. The height of the Bell Rock tower is 100 feet, that of 

 the Skerryvore 138 ft. 5 in. In the lantern of the former there 

 were 2i parabolic reflectors, each 18 inclies across the tips, and 

 containing 21/. worth of silver on its polished surface. Ireland 

 first possessed a lighthouse in 1768 at Poalbeg, at the entrance of 

 the Dublin river. The Balbriggen light was erected in the fol- 

 lowing year; that on Clare Island in 1807, and is visible for 15 

 miles. Cape Clear and Arran lights were built in 1817. The 

 Scellig Rock Lighthouse was the most expensive of the Irish bea- 

 cons, costing 41,651/. 



The Isle of Man has seven lights, that of the Calf being the 

 chief. Two beacons, one in Denby Haven, built in 1659, and 

 another in Castletown Harbour, built in 1765, are intended to aid 

 the herring fishery, and are lighted only during that season. 



At present the British system of lighthouses remains under the 

 control of three boards — 1. The Trinity-house Brotherhood, con- 

 sisting of 31 members, 11 of whom are honorary, and the rest 

 more or less connected with commerce or shipping. Established 

 about 1553. — 2. The Commissioners of Northern Lights, holding 

 jurisdiction over the Scotch and Isle of Man lighthouses, consist- 

 ing of 25 members, being sheriffs and county magistrates. Estab- 

 lished 1786. — 3. The Dublin Harbour Corporation, otherwise 

 called the Ballast Board, to whom was committed, in 1810, the 

 custody of the Irish lights, consists of 20 members, chosen for 

 life among the chief merchants and bankers, together with the 

 mayor and the sheriffs of Dublin for the time being. One day in 

 each week the board sits for lighthouse purposes. — A number of 

 small lights remain under the control of local authorities and har- 

 bour trustees, &c. 



The system of lights administered by the three boards above- 

 mentioned, comprised in the year 1841 — Trinity-house, 65 fixed 

 and 23 floating lights; Northern Commissioners, 32 fixed, 2 float- 

 ing; Dublin Board, 27 fixed, 4 floating; local and harbour lights 

 made up a grand total of 312 British lighthouses. The cost of 

 maintaining the public lights was, on the average, about 500/. per 

 annum for the fixed, and 1,200/. for the floating lights. The gross 

 sum collected by the three boards for 150 lights (local and harbour 

 being exclusive) was 349,475/. Of this 131,036/. vvas expended on 

 maintenance, and 15,814/. in charges of collection, leaving a sur- 

 plus of 196,631/. on the year's receipts. Tlie charge for collection 

 amounts to 4/. 5s. per cent., an exorbitant sum, when the Customs 

 duties are collected for 2/. 2s. 8rf., and the parish rates for Mary- 

 lebone at 1/. 6*. Sd. per cent. The tolls are now paid by a rate 

 per ton for every lighthouse passed in the ship's voyage. No 

 symmetry is, however, preserved by the different boards in the 

 rates levied. The Irish Corporation charges ^d. per ton for every 

 light without exception. Tlie English lighthouses vary their tolls 

 from grf. tofrf.; and the Scotch from jd. to Irf. per ton per light. 

 These are for English merchant vessels; foreigners pay double, 

 and Royal Navy ships nothing. Many complaints are urged 

 against the amount of these tolls, and of the injury they inflict on 

 trade. England is the only country, indeed, where the lightliouses 

 are not supported out of the general finances of the State, instead 

 of being made a source of revenue wrung from the shipowner and 

 trader. 



Of the original cost of the early lighthouses no accurate account 

 has been kept Of course the local difficulties occasioned an enor- 

 mous difference in the necessary outlay on each. The most ex- 

 pensive seems to have been the Bell Rock, 61,331/. The Isle of 

 Man Beacon, exhibiting three lights, cost 20,823/.; the Cape 

 Wrath, 14,506/.; and the Barrhead 12,575/. The engineering im 

 provements of modern days have much diminished the expense of 

 their construction: 12 lighthouses erected by the Trinity Board 

 between 1820 and 1834, cost 47,124/., or, on the average, 3',918/. a- 



piece. In the way of receipts, the Bideford Bar light stands 

 lowest; its annual return having been 350/., while the cost of main- 

 tenance was nearly 800/. It is the only losing concern in the 

 whole lighthouse system. Eddystone has four keepers regularly 

 employed; about 12 others, 2; and the rest 1. The consumption 

 of oil varies from 1,200 gallons per annum at Beachy Head to 64 

 at Pakefield. 



France, in 1845, possessed 153 lighthouses — 77 in the Channel, 

 47 on the west coast, 24 in tlie Mediterranean, including Algiers, 

 and 5 in Corsica. No less than 93 of these were on the lens or 

 dioptric principle. By an ordninance of the Emperor, in 1806, the 

 lighthouses were placed under the control of the Minister of 

 Travaux Publiques and defrayed out of the Exchecjuer. The cost 

 vvas about 110/. annually per light. 



America, at the same date, possessed 272 lights of various de- 

 scriptions on her seaboard. For the cost of them 83,333/. was 

 charged upon the public service of the year, amounting to a little 

 over 300/. for each establishment. — Daily News. 



REGISTER OP NEW PATENTS. 



MACHINERY FOR ROLLING IRON. 



Wiix7AM Clay, of Clifton Lodge. Cumberland, engineer, for 

 ^'■improvements in machinery for rolliug iron or other metals, parts of 

 which improvements are applicable to other machinery in which cylin- 

 ders or rollers are Jtserf."— Granted December 16, 1848 ; Enrolled 

 June 16, 1849. [Reported in the Patent Journal.'] 



The improvements relate to rolling certain forms of iron and 

 other metals which are wholly or partially taper, or conical. In 

 the ordinary methods of manufacturing such taper bars, the cen- 

 tres of the compressing rollers are maintained at the same distanc 

 apart during the whole of the process of rolling; the requisite 

 taper being given to the bar rolled by eccentricity of the grooves 

 or their depth below the surface of the rollers; thus, if the depth 

 of the grooves upon the rollers progress the same depth through- 

 out, the result will be parallel bars; but if the depth gradually 

 varies, then the result is a gradual taper bar. 



rfi 



Fig. 1. Fif. 



The improvements are for producing taper bars from rollers, 

 although the grooves in them may be the same depth throughout. 

 This is to be effected by the gradual separation of the centres of 

 the two rollers; and, as the bottoms of the grooves are concentric 

 to the centres, it follows that their surfaces are also increasing 

 their distance apart, and thus allow the bar of metal which passes 

 between them during the time of this separation, to assume a 

 taper form; the amount of taper given corresponding to the pro- 

 portionate rate at which the rollers are separated from each other. 



The patentee describes two modes of effecting the object in 

 question; the first by means of hydraulic apparatus; and the se 

 cond by means of an eccentric or heart-shaped cam. 



The first method is shown in the annexed engravings, fig 1 



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