A Review of Lighthouse Work and Economy in the United Kingdom during the Past Fifty Years ¹

Abstract

III. THE growth of improvement in lighthouse towers, lanterns, and apparatus has been glanced at. The source of light, or lamps, and their aliment, must now be considered. It is probable that the phari of antiquity were open wood fires of great size on the summit of high towers or headlands. “Ignes ”and “flammis” are terms used by Pliny and others, and Statius compares the pharos to the moon, not to a star as a modern poet would rather do. Yet Lucan speaks of “lampada,” and Pliny fears that the flames might be mistaken for a constellation. But in these times oil could hardly have been used, as no form of lamp known could be applied with success. For 2000 years the illuminant was mainly wood or coal. The Cordouan, in 1610, was kindled with oak logs. Coal fires were burnt at Harwich in the end of the eighteenth century. The Lizard was a coal fire in 1812. St. Bees ceased to be one only in 1822. The Isle of May remained a coal light for 181 years. It is now the single specimen of the electric light in Scotland. Sperm oil was not used before 1730, and then but on a small scale until the burners of Argand in 1783 and the reflectors of Teulère in the same year changed the character of lighthouse illumination. The Eddystone in 1759 threw its first beams over the waters from ten pounds of tallow candles, for which, in 1811, wax was substituted.