W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh.
PLATE II.
SECTION OF THE BELL ROCK LIGHT HOUSE.
W. & A. K. Johnston, Edinburgh.
[Plate I.] is an elevation of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, and [Plate II.] is a section showing the manner in which the interior is laid out, and, so far as the size of scale admits, the peculiar arrangements of the masonry, to which reference has been made.
The following is a brief statement of the progress of the work:—
The spring of 1807 was occupied in preparing a floating lightship to be moored off the rock, erecting the timber framework which was to support the barrack to be occupied as a temporary dwelling by the workmen, and in carrying out other preliminary arrangements. During this first season the aggregate time of low-water work, caught by snatches of an hour or two at a tide, amounted to no more than thirteen and a half days’ work of ten hours each.
In 1808 the foundation-pit was excavated in the solid rock, and the building was brought up to the level of the surrounding surface, the aggregate time of low-water work amounting to twenty-two days of ten hours, so that little more than a month’s work was obtained during the first two years.
In 1809 the barrack for the workmen was completed, and the building of the tower brought to the height of seventeen feet above high water of spring-tides.