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He looked at me out of his deep-set eyes, and then he turned them around the light-room, where he'd been so long. "No," said he, wagging his head. "It ain't for such as me." I never saw so humble a man. "But look here," he went on, more cheerful.
The remaining portion of the building is divided into store-rooms and berths for the attendants in the lighthouse. The light-room consists of cast-iron plates five feet high, on which are fixed metal sash-bars filled with plate-glass; these, terminating with a point, are covered with a copper roof, whence rises a short lightning-rod, trebly gilt at the point.
The communication with the other apartments is by means of wooden steps. The three lower apartments have two windows each, and the upper rooms four windows each. All the windows have double sash-frames, glazed with plate-glass, besides storm-shutters of timber. The light-room is octagonal, twelve feet across and fifteen feet high.
These stones were prepared at Edinburgh during the winter, and the iron frame-work, and the several compartments of the light-room got ready.
A large-herring gull struck one of the south-eastern mullions of the light-room with such force, that two of the polished plates of glass measuring about two feet square and a quarter of an inch thick, were shivered to pieces, and scattered over the floor, to the great alarm of the keeper on watch, and the other two inmates, who rushed instantly into the light-room.
"Gibson," cried Lieutenant Wood suddenly from his place in the light-room, his voice sounding muffled on account of the small space, "those are not our ships." Spencer looked through the telescope and arrived at the same conclusion. "No," he said; "we have no ships like that, but they're coming nearer and we'll soon be able to make out what they are!"
The latter did not appear for a length of time to have visited the light-room. On asking the cause did Mr. I could not bring Mr.
The ninetieth or last course of the building having been laid to- day, which brought the masonry to the height of one hundred and two feet six inches, the lintel of the light-room door, being the finishing-stone of the exterior walls, was laid with due formality by the writer, who, at the same time, pronounced the following benediction: "May the Great Architect of the Universe, under whose blessing this perilous work has prospered, preserve it as a guide to the mariner."
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.
At some of the stations the light-room and the bed-rooms are connected by a set of tubes, by blowing gently into which the keepers on watch can sound an alarum-bell in the room below, and rouse his comrade to change guard. The man below answers this call by a counterblast through the tubes, and a small index in the light-room is thereby raised to signify that the signal has been obeyed.
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