CHAP. IV. SMEATON'S LIGHTHOUSE ON THE EDDYSTONE. 39 



is remarkably minute, and as a whole exceedingly in- 

 teresting. 1 



Mr. Smeaton superintended the construction of nearly 

 the entire building. If there was any post of danger 

 from which the men shrank back, he immediately 

 stood forward and took the front place. One morn- 

 ing in the summer of 1757, when heaving up the 

 moorings of the buss preparatory to setting sail for the 

 rock, the links of the buoy-chain came to a considerable 

 strain upon the davit-roll, which was of cast iron, and 

 they began to bend upon the convexity of the roll. To 

 remedy this, Smeaton ordered the carpenter to cut some 

 trenails into short pieces, and split each length into two, 

 with the view of applying the portions betwixt the chain 

 and the roll at the flexure of each link, and so relieve 

 the strain. But some one said that if the chain should 

 break anywhere between the roll and the tackle, the 

 person that applied the pieces of wood would be in 

 danger of being cut in two by the chain or carried over- 

 board along with it. On this Smeaton, making it a 

 rule never to require another to undertake what he was 

 afraid to do himself, at once stepped forward and took 



1 The careful manner in which the 

 details of the foundation work were 

 carried on is related by Smeaton at 

 great length. One of his expedients 

 is worthy of notice the method 

 by which he gave additional firm- 

 ness to the stones dovetailed into 

 the rock, by oak-wedges and cement 

 inserted between each. To receive 

 the wedges, two grooves were cut 

 in the waist of each stone, from the 

 top to the bottom of the course, an 

 inch in depth and three inches in 

 width. The carpenters dropped into 

 each groove two of the oaken wedges, 

 one upon its head, the other with its 

 point downwards, so that the two 

 wedges in each groove lay heads and 

 joints; on which the one was easily 

 driven down upon the other. A 

 couple of wedges were also pitched 

 at the top of each groove; the dor- 



mant wedge, or that with the point 

 upward, being held in the hand, 

 while the drift wedge, or that with 

 its point downward, was driven with 

 a hammer. The object of this wedg- 

 ing was to preserve the whole mass 

 steady together, in opposition to the 

 violent agitation of the sea. In 

 addition to this, a couple of holes 

 being bored through every piece of 

 stone, one course was further bound 

 to another by oak trenails, driven 

 stiffly through, and made so fast that 

 they could more easily be torn asun- 

 der than pulled out again. " No 

 assignable power," says Smeaton, 

 " less than would by main stress pull 

 these trenails into two, could lift one 

 of these stones from their beds when 

 so fixed, exclusive of their natural 

 weight, as all agitation was prevented 

 by the lateral wedges." 



