LIGHT-HOUSE. 



places, and it was always repaired the firft opportunity with 

 Pozzolana or Dutch terras ; which repairs, if they with- 

 ttood one rough tide, were never found to tail afterwards ; 

 b'Jt fome places were found fo difficult, that it became ne- 

 cefTary to mix oakum, chopped very Ir.'.all, witli tha mortar, 

 and this method always fucceeded. On the i ith of Augult 

 the Cxljafement courfes were completed, and the firll entire 

 courfe, N"' 7, was begun. All the (lones for this cuurfe 

 were fitted and put together in the work- yard, as Ihewn in 

 Jig. 4. They are numbered, fo that after being taken to 

 pieces, they could be rellored to the lame relative pofition 

 on the building ; but to do this accurately, while they were 

 in the work-yard, radial lines were drawn from the centre to 

 the circumference, fo as to iuterfect each ilone ; and concen- 

 tric circles were drawn through the middle of each tier of 

 Itones. Where any of thefe lines eroded the joints, a nick 

 was fawn in the edge of the Itone, that the mark might 

 be felt as well as feen ; and by the coincidence of thele 

 lines the ftones were fet with the greatell accuracy. On 

 the llones arriving at the work, the central ilone was firll 

 fet; the hole to receive the centre joggle was cut through 

 the centre of courfe fix, and the joggle fet up therein, as 

 fliewn \njig. 2, and the centre flone ot courle feven let down 

 upon it, a mortar bed being made beneath. When the 

 ftone was thus fixed, the joints round the joggle were iiiled 

 in by grouting, which is mortar made very thin and poured 

 in from ladles. Tiie four Hones furrounding the centre 

 were now fet, and the work proceeded thus to the circum- 

 ference, every Ilone being wedged snd trenailed as foon as 

 fet, and the joints grouted. To fix the eight fmaller joggles, 

 they were let, wedged, and grouted into their holes in the 

 lower courfe ; but the holes for their reception in the lower 

 fide of the upper courfe, being only cut half through, did 

 not admit of wedging ; they were therefore fixed by the 

 mortar only, as much being put on the top of the joggle 

 as would nearly fill the hole, but not quite, and the remain- 

 der was introduced through a hole previoufly drilled through 

 the ilone, and forced down by a wooden ramrod. 



The mortar ufed in the building was compounded of 

 equal portions of lime and pozzolana. The lime was burned 

 from the blue Lyas limellone found near Watchet, a fmail 

 feaport in Somerletlliire. It was carried out in tight calks, 

 which W'ere opened at the rock, and a fmall quantity beat up 

 in a ilrong bucket with a wooden peltle, and ufed imme- 

 diately. The work proceeded in the fame manner without 

 any deviation or accident, except now and then loling a 

 few llones by llorms, until the end of September, when the 

 ninth courfe, being completed, the work was given up for 

 the year, and the Bufs left her m.oorings. 



During the winter, the buoy of the moorings for the 

 Bufs was loll, but was recovered on the nth of May, 1758. 

 Y,f t, before any work could be begun, the chains were broken, 

 and the buoy of the anchors having got loofe, the moor- 

 ings were loll ; much time being confumed in preparing new 

 ones, it was the 2d of July before tiie work wa3 renewed ; 

 but by the Sth of Auguil, the 14th courfe, completing the 

 entire folid, was laid, and by the 20th the entry door was 

 covered in, and by the 24th of September, the whole of 

 the fohd, up to the ftore-room floor, was finilhed. Above 

 this the method of working was totally altered, but not 

 being now fo liable to the atlion of the fea, it became lefs 

 difficult, r.nd requires lefs defcription. In addition to what 

 has been faid before, the iron cramps were all filled in their 

 places with lead, and a whole courfe was done at once, by 

 putting each cramp into a kettle of red-hot lead, till it was 

 equally hot. A fmall quantity of oil was poured into the 

 holes ia the ilone, and the hot cramp put in ; this oil caufcd 



the lead, when poured in, to occupy every cavity in the 

 ftone. 



On the 3cth of September, the work had arrived at the 

 ftore-room floor, and here the iron chain, (hewn \a Jig. 5, 

 was let into the ilone, and filled in with lead in the to.low- 

 ing manner : — the chain was oiled before putting it in, and 

 the groove divided into four parts by dams of clay. Two 

 kettles were ufed, which together would hold lead enough 

 to fill the whole groove, which was 1 1 cwt. In thefe the 

 lead was made red-hot, and tv.o perfons with ladies filled the 

 lead into the fame quarter of the groove. As foon as it 

 was at all fet, they removed one of the clay dams, and filled 

 the next quarter, pouring the lead on the end of the firft 

 quarter, till it re-melted and united with the fecond. The 

 dam at the oppofite end of the firll quarter was now re- 

 moved, and the third filled, and then the 4th. By this means 

 the lead was all round united in one mafs. 



The centering for the floor was next fet up, and the 

 floor partly put together, the outward llones being fet firil, 

 and then the centre ones. When the firll room had been 

 thus finilhed, Mr. Smeaton propofed exhibiting a temporary 

 light during the winter, and, by fixing three floors in the 

 well for the ilaircafe, to form ftore rooms, and lodging for 

 two men : but this idea was given up, as it did net meet the 

 approbation of the Trinity corporation, and .the work was, 

 on the 7 h of October, left for the year, the floor being 

 partly finilhed. The winter was Ipent in preparing the iron, 

 glals, and copper work for the lantern ; and the fpring in un- 

 iuccefbiul endeavours to recover the moorings which were 

 again loll, and on the 5th of July the work was begun again. 

 They found one of the llones for the floor, which was lodged 

 in the ilore room H the year before, had been walhed dowR 

 the well, and thence through the entry into the fea, though it 

 weighed four or five cwj. The flones for the building had 

 hitherto been railed out of the boats, by what are termed 

 Jhears, formed of two poles, united bt top, and their feet 

 pitched on the rock dole to the building, at a proper dif- 

 tance alunder. A block of puUics was fufpeuded from the 

 top of the two beams, to take up the Ilone. The fliears were 

 fupported by a tackle called a guys, which was attached to 

 the top of tile iliears, and hooked to the far fide of the 

 building, fo that the Ilone, being raifed up frgm the boat 

 by a windlafs fixed on the rock at Y, Jig. l, the guy was 

 drawn in to fuing the ftone over the building. When the 

 work got above tlie entry E, the ftones were landed into it, 

 and drawn up the well X by a tackle fufpended from a 

 fmall triangle fet over the well ; but when the floor was 

 covered in, the hole in the centre being too fmall to let 

 the llones come up, a fmaller pair of iliears were msde to 

 lie upon tlie buiiding and rife as it advanced. Thefe were 

 worked by a windlafs fet up in the ilore room H, and as 

 they hung over the fides of the building-, they drew up the 

 ftones clear of the wah. The work proceeded in this man- 

 ner till the 17th of Auguft, when the laft piece of the 

 cornice Q was fixed, which completed the i\liolecolumn,.and 

 the workmen W'ere enabled to lodge in the building. The 

 balcony rails P, and the Ilone bafement R of the lantern, 

 were foon completed ; and by the 26th, the flairs and a!l 

 the niafonry were finilhed. The iron frame of the lantern 

 was next fcrewed together in its place, ail the joints being 

 firft fmeared with thick white lead and oil to prevent them 

 from ruftmg : it was then raifed up ou wedges a Imall height, 

 and lead poured in the joint between it and the ftone to 

 make a folid bed for it upon the ilone. On the 17th of 

 September, the copper cupola O was fet up, by a parti- 

 cular kind of Ihears made for the purpofe, the guys, in dif- 

 ferent dircilions, being fatlened to booms projected out from 



the 



