The Lighthouse Stevensons

The Lighthouse Stevensons PDF Author: Bella Bathurst
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062094742
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
For centuries the seas around Scotland were notorious for shipwrecks. Mariners' only aids were skill, luck, and single coal-fire light on the east coast, which was usually extinguished by rain. In 1786 the Northern Lighthouse Trust was established, with Robert Stevenson appointed as chief engineer a few years later. In this engrossing book, Bella Bathhurst reveals that the Stevensons not only supervised the construction of the lighthouses under often desperate conditions but also perfected a design of precisely chiseled interlocking granite blocks that would withstand the enormous waves that batter these stone pillars. The same Stevensons also developed the lamps and lenses of the lights themselves, which "sent a gleam across the wave" and prevented countless ships from being lost at sea. While it is the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson that brought fame to the family name, this mesmerizing account shows how his extraordinary ancestors changed the shape of the Scotland coast against incredible odds and with remarkable technical ingenuity.

The Lighthouse Stevensons

The Lighthouse Stevensons PDF Author: Bella Bathurst
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062094742
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
For centuries the seas around Scotland were notorious for shipwrecks. Mariners' only aids were skill, luck, and single coal-fire light on the east coast, which was usually extinguished by rain. In 1786 the Northern Lighthouse Trust was established, with Robert Stevenson appointed as chief engineer a few years later. In this engrossing book, Bella Bathhurst reveals that the Stevensons not only supervised the construction of the lighthouses under often desperate conditions but also perfected a design of precisely chiseled interlocking granite blocks that would withstand the enormous waves that batter these stone pillars. The same Stevensons also developed the lamps and lenses of the lights themselves, which "sent a gleam across the wave" and prevented countless ships from being lost at sea. While it is the writing of Robert Louis Stevenson that brought fame to the family name, this mesmerizing account shows how his extraordinary ancestors changed the shape of the Scotland coast against incredible odds and with remarkable technical ingenuity.

The Lighthouse Stevensons

The Lighthouse Stevensons PDF Author: Bella Bathurst
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007358970
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 57

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Book Description
Bella Bathurst’s epic story of Robert Louis Stevenson’s ancestors and the building of the Scottish coastal lighthouses against impossible odds.

The Lighthouse Stevensons

The Lighthouse Stevensons PDF Author: Bella Bathurst
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0007204434
Category : Civil engineers
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
Bella Bathurst tells the story of how Robert Louis Stevenson's ancestors built the network of lighthouses around the coast of Scotland. The family built all of the Scottish lighthouses, the last one of which became automated in 1998.

Sentinels of the Sea

Sentinels of the Sea PDF Author: R. G. Grant
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780500519769
Category : Lighthouses
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Lighthouses have always unsettled and attracted in equal measure, highlighting the triumphs and failures in humanity's battle with the forces of nature. Taking as its heroes the lighthouses themselves, Sentinels of the Sea describes the engineering genius that allowed their construction on even the smallest of rock outcrops and the innovations that made the lights so powerful and reliable. Intricate, elegant architectural plans and elevations, and evocative period drawings and photographs showcase the innovative designs and technologies behind fifty historic lighthouses built around the world from the 17th to the 20th century. R.G. Grant's engaging and authoritative text chronicles the incredible feats of engineering and endurance that brought these iconic, isolated towers into being, the advances in lens technology that made the lights so effective, and the everyday routines of the lighthouse keepers and the heroic rescues that some performed. Packed with extraordinary stories of human endeavour, desperate shipwrecks, builders defying the elements and heroic sea rescues, the book also reveals the isolation and vulnerability of the dedicated lighthouse keepers.

The Wreckers

The Wreckers PDF Author: Henry Bennet Brewster
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cornwall (England : County)
Languages : en
Pages : 52

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Book Description


An Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse

An Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse PDF Author: Robert Stevenson
Publisher: Independently Published
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 558

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Book Description
Bell Rock, a small outcrop lying just below the roiling waves of the North Sea, had long been the site of smashed ships and doomed sailors, with an estimated 6 shipwrecks per year as the 18th century drew to a close. With the need for navigational warning, Robert Stevenson took command of the planning and construction of what would become the legendary Bell Rock Lighthouse. In his Account, Stevenson details the monumental task of building a structure to stand up to the ferocity of the open ocean, using revolutionary engineering and construction techniques, on a rock only visible a few hours a day at low tide.

The Lighthouse Stevensons

The Lighthouse Stevensons PDF Author: Bella Bathurst
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Civil engineers
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description


Records of a Family of Engineers

Records of a Family of Engineers PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description


Dynasty of Engineers

Dynasty of Engineers PDF Author: Roland Paxton
Publisher: Whittles
ISBN: 9780956720900
Category : Engineers
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Account of the building of the lighthouse and the famous engineering Stevensons

Stargazing

Stargazing PDF Author: Peter Hill
Publisher: Canongate Books
ISBN: 1847677495
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
When Peter Hill, a student at Dundee College of Art, answered an advert in The Scotsman seeking lighthouse keepers, little did he imagine that within a month he would be living with three men he didn't know in a lighthouse on Pladda, a small remote island off the west coast of Scotland. Hill was nineteen, it was 1973 and, with his head fed by Vietnam, Zappa, Kerouac, Vonnegut, Watergate and Coronation Street, he spent six months on various lighthouses, "keeping" with all manner of unusual and fascinating people. Within thirty years this way of life was to have disappeared entirely. The resulting book is a charming and beautifully written memoir that is not only a heartfelt lament for Hill's own youth and innocence but also for a simpler and more honest age.