Edyystone lighthouse

John Smeaton (1724-1792)

Source: Lighthouse Construction and Illumination

“Smeaton was the first lighthouse engineer who adopted dovetailed joints for the stones, which averaged one ton in weight. In Plate II. will be found drawings of the ingenious method which he employed for keeping them together during construction. He adopted a vaulted form for the floors of the different apartments, the voussoirs of the arch being connected together so as to form a continuous mass, in addition to which he inserted metallic hoops (shown black in diagram) to prevent lateral thrust or tendency to spread outwards” (15)

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