6TH INDUSTRIAL WONDER
Nearly 200 years after it was first built, the Bell Rock Lighthouse still stands - proudly flashing its warning light.
Eleven miles out to sea off the east coast of Scotland, it is a remarkable sight - a white stone tower over 30m (100ft) high, rising seemingly without support out of the North Sea.
According to legend, the rock is called Bell Rock because of a 14th century attempt by the Abbot of Arbroath to install a warning bell on it.
The oldest existing rock Lighthouse in the British Isles is the tower on the Bell, or Inchcape, Rock a long and treacherous reef lying in the North Sea, some 12 miles East of Dundee and in the fairway of vessels plying to and from the Firths of Tay and Forth.
Even in the old days, this rock had proved to be a danger to navigation.
In his account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, Engineer to the Board, stated "there is a tradition that an Abbot of Aberbrothock directed a bell to be erected on the Rock, so connected with a floating apparatus, that the winds and sea acted upon it, and tolled the bell, thus giving warning to the mariner of his approaching danger.
Upon similar authority, the bell, it is said, was afterwards carried off by pirates, and the humane intentions of the Abbot thus frustrated" Robert Stevenson went on however to state "of the erection of the bell, and the machinery by which it was rung, if such ever existed, it would have been interesting to have some authentic evidence.
But, though a search has been made in the cartularies of the Abbey of Aberbrothock, preserved in the Advocates' Library, and containing a variety of grants and other deeds, from the middle of the 13th to the end of the 15th century, no trace is to be found of the Bell Rock, or anything connected with it.
The erection of the bell is not however an improbable conjecture; and we can more readily suppose that an attempt of that kind was made..."
The erection of a permanent seamark on the Bell Rock presented some difficult structural problems.
The surface of the rock is uncovered only at low water while at high water it is submerged to a depth of some 16 feet.
Under Construction Work on the excavation of the rock was begun in 1807 but it was not until February 1811 that the light was first exhibited.
The tower which is of stone quarried from Mylnfield, near Dundee, and from Rubislaw, Aberdeen, is 115 feet in height, 42 feet is the diameter at the base, tapering to 15 feet in diameter at the top. It is of solid dovetailed masonry for the first 30 feet, half of which is below high water and above are 5 chambers and the light room.
The original optical system used at the Bell Rock consisted of twenty four parabolic reflectors 25 inches in diameter with their inner surfaces silvered to better Plan of masonary reflect the light.
Each reflector had, located at the focus, an argand lamp having a circular wick of three quarters of an inch diameter.
The reflectors were arranged in a rectangle with seven located on each of the major sides.
The ten reflectors on the minor sides had red glass discs fitted to the outer rims such that the light emitted from these would be red in colour.
The whole apparatus was caused to revolve by the action of a clockwork arrangement powered by a weight descending through the tower.
As the optical system revolved a distinctive character of alternating red and white light was seen. This was the first revolving light in Scotland
The parabolic reflectors were later replaced by a 1st Order Fresnel lens in which a paraffin vapour burner provided the illuminant.
The PV burner was replaced by an electric lamp in the mid 1960s.
A Dalen optic in which a gas light is burned in a lens system was installed during 1988 with a range of 18 miles, the character is flashing white every 5 seconds, replacing the existing electric light installed in 1964.
The Lighthouse was demanned on the 26 October 1988 and is now remotely monitored from 84 George Street, Edinburgh.
Bellrock under construction During the first and second World Wars, the lighthouse exhibited a light when ships were expected to pass the Inchape reef which runs for 2,000 feet across shipping routes of the Firths of Tay and Forth.
It was on 27 October 1915 when the Captain of the "ARGYLL" (10,850 tons) one of the Devonshire Class Armoured Cruisers, sent out a routine signal to the Admiral Commanding the Coast of Scotland at Rosyth, requesting the Bell Rock be lit on the night of 27/28 October.
Nearly 200 years after it was first built, the Bell Rock Lighthouse still stands - proudly flashing its warning light.
Eleven miles out to sea off the east coast of Scotland, it is a remarkable sight - a white stone tower over 30m (100ft) high, rising seemingly without support out of the North Sea.
According to legend, the rock is called Bell Rock because of a 14th century attempt by the Abbot of Arbroath to install a warning bell on it.
The oldest existing rock Lighthouse in the British Isles is the tower on the Bell, or Inchcape, Rock a long and treacherous reef lying in the North Sea, some 12 miles East of Dundee and in the fairway of vessels plying to and from the Firths of Tay and Forth.
Even in the old days, this rock had proved to be a danger to navigation.
In his account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, Robert Stevenson, Engineer to the Board, stated "there is a tradition that an Abbot of Aberbrothock directed a bell to be erected on the Rock, so connected with a floating apparatus, that the winds and sea acted upon it, and tolled the bell, thus giving warning to the mariner of his approaching danger.
Upon similar authority, the bell, it is said, was afterwards carried off by pirates, and the humane intentions of the Abbot thus frustrated" Robert Stevenson went on however to state "of the erection of the bell, and the machinery by which it was rung, if such ever existed, it would have been interesting to have some authentic evidence.
But, though a search has been made in the cartularies of the Abbey of Aberbrothock, preserved in the Advocates' Library, and containing a variety of grants and other deeds, from the middle of the 13th to the end of the 15th century, no trace is to be found of the Bell Rock, or anything connected with it.
The erection of the bell is not however an improbable conjecture; and we can more readily suppose that an attempt of that kind was made..."
The erection of a permanent seamark on the Bell Rock presented some difficult structural problems.
The surface of the rock is uncovered only at low water while at high water it is submerged to a depth of some 16 feet.
Under Construction Work on the excavation of the rock was begun in 1807 but it was not until February 1811 that the light was first exhibited.
The tower which is of stone quarried from Mylnfield, near Dundee, and from Rubislaw, Aberdeen, is 115 feet in height, 42 feet is the diameter at the base, tapering to 15 feet in diameter at the top. It is of solid dovetailed masonry for the first 30 feet, half of which is below high water and above are 5 chambers and the light room.
The original optical system used at the Bell Rock consisted of twenty four parabolic reflectors 25 inches in diameter with their inner surfaces silvered to better Plan of masonary reflect the light.
Each reflector had, located at the focus, an argand lamp having a circular wick of three quarters of an inch diameter.
The reflectors were arranged in a rectangle with seven located on each of the major sides.
The ten reflectors on the minor sides had red glass discs fitted to the outer rims such that the light emitted from these would be red in colour.
The whole apparatus was caused to revolve by the action of a clockwork arrangement powered by a weight descending through the tower.
As the optical system revolved a distinctive character of alternating red and white light was seen. This was the first revolving light in Scotland
The parabolic reflectors were later replaced by a 1st Order Fresnel lens in which a paraffin vapour burner provided the illuminant.
The PV burner was replaced by an electric lamp in the mid 1960s.
A Dalen optic in which a gas light is burned in a lens system was installed during 1988 with a range of 18 miles, the character is flashing white every 5 seconds, replacing the existing electric light installed in 1964.
The Lighthouse was demanned on the 26 October 1988 and is now remotely monitored from 84 George Street, Edinburgh.
Bellrock under construction During the first and second World Wars, the lighthouse exhibited a light when ships were expected to pass the Inchape reef which runs for 2,000 feet across shipping routes of the Firths of Tay and Forth.
It was on 27 October 1915 when the Captain of the "ARGYLL" (10,850 tons) one of the Devonshire Class Armoured Cruisers, sent out a routine signal to the Admiral Commanding the Coast of Scotland at Rosyth, requesting the Bell Rock be lit on the night of 27/28 October.
wonderful, so nice,
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