Account of the Skerryvore lighthouse

by Alan Stevenson

The advantages of this arrangement, as applied to the Northern Lighthouses, were much less palpable than those which are described in the beginning of Dr Faraday’s paper, because their ventilation was very good before its introduction; and the flame in particular was perfectly steady, being by no means subject to derangement from sudden gusts of wind from the roof in the manner noticed above.

Arrangements and internal management of a Lighthouse. All the Lighthouses in the district of the Commissioners are under the charge of at least two Lightkeepers, whose duties are to cleanse and prepare the apparatus for the night illumination, to mount guard singly after the light is exhibited, and to relieve each other at stated hours, fixed by the printed regulations and instructions, under which they act. The rule is, that no keeper on watch shall, under any circumstances, leave the Lightroom until relieved by his comrade; and, for the purpose of cutting off all pretext for the neglect of this universal law, the dwelling-houses are built close to the Light Tower, and means are provided for making signals directly from the Lightroom to the sleeping apartments below. These signals are communicated by air-tubes, through which, by means of a small piston, or a puff of wind from the mouth, calls can be exchanged between the keepers, enabling the man on guard in the Lightroom, at the end of the watch, or on any sudden emergence, to summon his comrade from below, who, on being thus called, answers by a counter-blast, to shew that the summons has been heard and will be obeyed. For the purpose of greater security, in such situations as the Bell Rock and the Skerryvore, four keepers are provided for one lightroom; one being always ashore on leave with his family, and the other three being at the Lighthouse, so that, in case of the illness of one lightkeeper, an efficient establishment of two keepers for watching the light may remain. At all the land-lighthouses also, an agreement is made with some steady person residing in the neighbourhood, who is instructed in the management of the light and cleansing of the apparatus, and comes under an obligation to be ready to do duty in the light-room when called upon, in the event of the sickness or absence of one of the lightkeepers. This person is called the occasional keeper, and receives pay only while actually employed at the Lighthouse; but in order to keep him in the practice of the duty, he is required to serve in the lightroom for a fortnight annually in the month of January. The details of the lightkeeper’s duty may be seen by referring to the [instructions] already alluded to, which will be found in the Appendix.

Each of the two lightkeepers has a house for himself and family, both being under a common roof, but entering by separate doors, as shewn in [Plates XXVII.] and [XXVIII.], which exhibit the buildings for the new Lighthouse at Ardnamurchan Point, on the coast of Argyllshire. The principal keeper’s house consists of six rooms, two of which are at the disposal of the visiting officers of the Board, whose duty in inspecting the Lighthouse, or superintending repairs, may call them to the station; and the assistant has four rooms, one of which is used as a barrack-room for the workmen, who, under the direction of the Foreman of the lightroom works, execute the annual repairs of the apparatus.

The early Lighthouses contained accommodation for the lightkeepers in the Tower itself; but the dust caused by the cleaning of those rooms in the Tower was found to be very injurious to the delicate apparatus and machinery in the lightroom. Unless, therefore, in situations such as Skerryvore, where it is unavoidable, the dwellings of the lightkeepers ought not to be placed in the Light Tower, but in an adjoining building.

Great care should be bestowed to produce the utmost cleanliness in everything connected with a Lighthouse, the optical apparatus of which is of such a nature as to suffer materially from the effect of dust in injuring its polish. For this purpose covered ash-pits are provided at all the dwelling-houses, in order that the dust of the fire-places may not be carried by the wind to the lightroom; and for similar reasons, iron floors are used for the lightrooms instead of stone, which is often liable to abrasion, and all the stonework near the lantern is regularly painted in oil.

If, in all that belongs to a lighthouse, the greatest cleanliness be desirable, it is in a still higher degree necessary in every part of the lightroom apparatus, without which the optical instruments and the machinery will neither last long nor work well. Cleansing of Apparatus. Every part of the apparatus, whether lenses or reflectors, should be carefully freed from dust before being either washed or burnished; and without such a precaution, the cleansing process would only serve to scratch them. For burnishing the reflectors, prepared rouge (tritoxide of iron) of the finest description, which should be in the state of an impalpable powder of a deep orange-red colour, is applied, by means of soft chamois skins, as occasion may require; but the great art of keeping reflectors clean consists in the daily, patient, and skilful application of manual labour in rubbing the surface of the instrument with a perfectly dry, soft, and clean skin, without rouge. The form of the hollow paraboloid is such, that some practice is necessary in order to acquire a free movement of the hand in rubbing reflectors; and its attainment forms one of the principal lessons in the course of the preliminary instruction, to which candidates for the situation of a light-keeper are subjected at the Bell Rock Lighthouse. For cleansing the lenses and glass mirrors, spirit of wine is used. Having washed the surface of the instrument with a linen cloth steeped in spirit of wine, it is carefully dried with a soft and dry linen rubber, and finally rubbed with a fine chamois skin, free from any dust which would injure the polish of the glass, as well as from grease. It is sometimes necessary to use a little fine rouge with a chamois skin, for restoring any deficiency of polish which may occur from time to time; but in a well-managed lighthouse this application will seldom, if ever, be required.

The machinery of all kinds, whether that of the mechanical lamp or the revolving apparatus, should also be kept scrupulously clean, and all the journals should be carefully oiled.

Mode of measuring the relative intensity and power of Lights. As I have had frequent occasion to speak of the comparative power of lights, it will not be out of place to present the reader with a few practical observations, chiefly drawn from the excellent work of M. Peclet to which I have so often referred, on the measurement of the intensity of lights by the method of shadows.

Fig. 93.