There is every reason to believe, that the gigantic figure known as the Colossus of Rhodes formed one of the most celebrated beacon-fires of antiquity. About three hundred years before the Christian era, Charles the disciple of Lysippus constructed this brazen statue, the dimensions of which were so vast that a vessel could sail into the harbour between its legs, which spanned the entrance. It was partly demolished by an earthquake about eighty years after its completion; and so late as the year 672 of the Christian era, the brass of which it was composed was sold by the Saracens to a Jewish merchant of Edessa, for a sum, it is said, equal to thirty-six thousand pounds.
But the most celebrated lighthouse of antiquity was that erected about the year 283 B. C. by order of Ptolemy Philadelphus, on the island of Pharos, opposite to Alexandria. It is from the name of this island that lighthouses have received their generic name of Pharos. Strabo records, that the architect Sostratus, having first secretly carved his own name on the solid walls of the building, covered the words with plaster, and in obedience to Ptolemy’s command inscribed thereon, ‘King Ptolemy to the gods the preservers, for the benefit of sailors.’ The height of this building is stated at four hundred feet; but this, as well as many other accounts relating to it, must be an exaggeration. A more modest account, given by the historian Josephus, is likely to be accurate; but even he states that the fire which was kept constantly burning at the top was visible by seamen at a distance equal to about forty miles.
The most remarkable lighthouses of ancient times were situated in and about the Mediterranean sea; they were generally placed upon extensive moles, or near the entrance of harbours: some of them still remain. The Pharos of Alexandria, and that of Messina, still display their fires, but it is stated that they have shared in none of the improvements of modern science; that even in Spain and Portugal the lighthouse of Corunna, or famous tower of Hercules, exhibits merely a coal-fire with so faint a light that ships can scarcely perceive it until they are in danger of striking against the shores. Of these ancient lights there yet remain those on either side of the Dardanelles; one in the archipelago on the island of Milo, two in the gulf of Salonica, and one near Lagos in Romania; Malta, Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, Genoa, Malaga, Cape Tarifa, and other places, still preserve the fires which guided the prow and the galley of the masters of the old world.
The sum of our knowledge of the ancient history of lighthouses is neither accurate nor extensive: we proceed, therefore, to notice those of modern times. Passing by the many rude contrivances for lighting up a coast, consisting as they did chiefly of pots of fire mounted on poles or rocks, the first lighthouse which merits attention is the Tour de Corduan, which, on account of its architectural magnificence was long regarded as one of the wonders of the world, in the same way as the Pharos of Alexandria had been in ancient times.
The Tour de Corduan is situated on an extensive reef about three miles from land, at the mouth of the river Garonne, and from its position serves as an important guide to the shipping of Bordeaux, the Languedoc Canal, and all that part of the Bay of Biscay. It was founded in the year 1584, but was not completed until 1610, in the time of Henry IV. Its style of architecture is a mixture of classic and gothic, and so very elaborate, that a just idea cannot be formed of it without reference to drawings in detail. The building is one hundred and ninety-seven feet in height, and consists of a number of galleries rising above each other, and gradually diminishing in diameter. The base consists of an immense platform of solid masonry, surrounded by a wall one hundred and thirty-four feet in diameter, so placed as to act as an outwork of defence to receive the chief shock of the waves. The light-keeper’s houses and the store-rooms form a detached range of buildings on the great platform, from which a private staircase conducts to the light-room. At the entrance door of the main tower, the busts of Henry II. and Henry IV. are placed in niches, over these are the arms of France, and an emblematical figure of St. Mary, to whom the building is dedicated; there is also another female figure, holding a branch of palm in one hand and a crown in the other.
In the solid masonry of the platform is the fuel-store; over this is the great hall, twenty-two feet square with an arched roof twenty feet high. On this floor are also two wardrobes and other conveniences. Over the hall is the king’s apartment, twenty-one feet square, with an elliptical roof twenty feet in height. This floor has also a vestibule, two wardrobes, &c. The third floor contains the chapel, in which a priest occasionally performs mass. Its diameter is twenty-one feet, and from the floor to the centre of the dome-roof the height is forty feet. It is highly adorned with mosaic, and is lighted by eight lantern windows. In the crown of the dome-roof is a circular opening surrounded by a balustrade, through which is seen the ornamental roof of the room above. This room is fourteen feet in diameter and twenty-seven feet high; it is used as a watch-room by the light-keepers, and was probably intended as a place to which they could be admitted to hear prayers or mass on the occasion of a royal visit. Over this room is an apartment capable of containing a stock of fuel sufficient for one night’s consumption, and is so constructed as to be convertible into a room for the exhibition of a light, in case of accident or repairs being required in the main light-room. This is situated over the store-room just referred to, and is surrounded by a balcony and a circular stone parapet. The original lantern, or light-room, was constructed for the combustion of oak wood, exposed in a kind of chauffer raised six feet above the floor. The room was not glazed, so that the smoke was carried out sideways in the direction of the wind. The roof was furnished with a sort of chimney in the shape of a spire, which terminated the building with a ball. The whole light-room was of stone, and its height to the top of the spire-funnel was thirty-one feet.
From the rude mode by which light was obtained, the stone mullions which supported the cupola-roof became so much damaged, that in 1717 it was necessary to remove the light to the apartment below, till the light-room and upper works were restored. But the new light being so defective that it could not be seen at sea at a greater distance than six miles, many accidents and complaints arose, when it was determined to construct the light-room of iron instead of stone. By this means the light passed with less obstruction, and in 1727, after a lapse of ten years, it was again exhibited at its accustomed height and with increased brilliancy. The light was further improved in consequence of pit-coal being used instead of timber; and the interior of the roof was converted into a kind of inverted conical reflector, the point of which projected downwards, and its base extended nearly to the full size of the roof. Still, however, the light being exposed in an open chauffer, was little to be depended on at any great distance from the shore, so that about the year 1780 reflectors and lamps were introduced, and in 1822 the light received its last improvement by the introduction of Fresnel’s beautiful apparatus.