Lighthouse construction in Cornwall

• Trinity House engineers designed each of the Cornwall lighthouses, then they were built by local firms
• the Douglass family were the main engineers in the 19th century. Nicholas Douglass (b1798) became Engineer to Trinity House, his two sons (James and William) followed him into Trinity House, as did his grandson William
• of the Douglass family, James, later Sir James was the most famous, becoming Engineer in chief to Trinity House, and working on the two towers at Bishop Rock, Wolf Rock and the present Eddystone lighthouses.
• not only did the tower need be designed, but first the landing platform and foundations had to be put in place.
• for example, when work started on Wolf Rock in 1822, only 83 hours of work were possible that entire year.
• a foundation pit was dug in the rock by hand using picks, hammers and hand drills
• the granite stones were cut and shaped in Penzance, with each course of stones being tested for fit with the layer above and below
• the blocks were loaded into special barges, which had wooden rollers for moving the stones to the correct position for lifting
• they were taken to the rock, and offloaded by crane and winched tot he correct position on the lighthouse
• a lighthouse would have maybe 70 layers of stones in total
• the earliest lights were coal fires, but these progressed to oil and later electricity

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