Genre:

Essay

Subjects:

Navigation, Engineering, Machinary, Technology

    Reports on the progress made in the construction of a 'stone beacon' with a warning 'bell apparatus' on Carr rock, started in 1812 by the Northern Lighthouse Board. Carr rock is part of a reef which forms 'a turning-point in the course of all northern bound ships to or from the Firth of Forth, and has often proved fatal for shipping'. Relates that the construction will take longer than the four years it took to construct Bell Rock Lighthouse, stating: 'we are informed by Mr Stevenson, engineer, for both works, that this is partly owing to the waters of the ocean being more easily agitated and disturbed when flowing over the shelving rocks bounding the shores, than over those more in the open sea'. (358) Later states that during 1815 '[t]he operations could go on only in good weather, and only at the return of the spring tides. A whole year's work, under these circumstances, did not exceed 130 hours working upon the rock' (358–59). Describes the mechanism by which the bell will be tolled by the action of the tides.