Who wants to be a lighthouse keeper

[Chancer]

See Commissioner of Irish Lights website for photos and info on all lighthouses in Ireland

Eagle Island Lighthouse

54°17.022\' North
10°05.564\' West
Aids to Navigation
Light:
Fl (3) W 10s - Shown through 24 hours. Nominal Range: 23 nautical miles
Height of Tower:
11 metres.
Height of light above mean high water springs:
67 metres.

History:
In 1830 Commanders Blake and Glascock of the Coast Guard Service made applications to the Ballast Board for a light on Blackrock or Inishmann Point. However George Halpin, the Board\'s Inspector, reported in favour of Eagle Island.

The Board informed Admiral Paget, through whom the application was made, that Eagle Island had been selected as the most suitable location and Trinity House gave its sanction on 27th November 1830.

Two lighthouses were built, Eagle Island East and Eagle Island West. The base of the West tower was 196 feet above high water and during the construction a great sea swept the partly built tower, two courses high, and much of the building materials clear into the sea. The two towers were finally completed and a massive storm wall was built on the sea side of the towers. The towers, 64 feet and 87 feet high were 132 yards apart with their lanterns at the same level, 220 feet above high water. When the two lights at night, or towers in daytime, were in line they guided vessels past all dangers from Blacksod Bay to Broadhaven including The Stags. The towers, built of cut stone quarried on the Island were painted white and had first order catoptric fixed white lights visible for twenty miles in clear weather.

Eagle Island seems destined to be struck by severe storms. On the night of 17th January 1836 the lantern of the West tower was struck by a rock shattering one of the panes of glass and extinguishing the light but the Keepers had the light working again within an hour. The Keepers\' dwellings were badly damaged and in those days Keepers and their families lived on the island. Both lanterns were badly damaged by a violent gale on 5th and 6th February 1850 and the lights were not restored until the 11th because the man sent out to repair them could not make the passage until the 14th, when a landing was effected and the whole story told.

On the 11th March 1861 at midday the light room of the East tower was struck by the sea smashing 23 panes, washing some of the lamps down the stairs, and damaging the reflectors with broken glass beyond repair. It must have been an incredible wave to have come up 133 feet of rock and then a further 87 feet of lighthouse tower to cause so much damage. In spite of the efforts of the Keepers to repair the damage it wasn\'t until the night of the 12th that the light was restored and then only with 12 lamps and reflectors.

Another interesting aspect of this disaster was that so much water cascaded down the tower it was impossible for the Keepers to open the door of the tower. They had to drill holes in the door to let the water out.

The storm which struck Eagle Island and many other west and north coast stations on 29th December 1894 damaged the dwellings of the East station beyond repair and also broke the lantern glass, put out the light and damaged the protecting wall. The families took shelter in the tower and it was not until the next day that the families at the West tower realised their friends\' plight. Women and children were brought ashore and housed in Belmullet.

Mr Douglas, the Commissioners\' Engineer suggested in his report that the East station should be abandoned and the West should be improved. In the meantime, the fixed light apparatus that had been taken out of Tory Island should be installed at the West station with a six wick burner and the East tower worked by Keepers at the West dwellings. This state of affairs lasted until 1st November 1895 when the new dioptric first order light at the West station came into operation and the East tower was discontinued and lopped by 20 feet so that it did not cause a shadow. The new light was group occulting and showed white towards the sea and red towards land.

On the 25th January 1935 another storm struck the light putting it out of action. The Keepers were commended on their action of operating the fog signal while the light was defective.

The shore dwellings were abandoned in 1955 and sold in October 1956.

The light was converted to electric on 17th July 1968 with the same character—group flash 3 white every 10 seconds; the candlepower was increased to 1,400,000 and can be seen for twenty six miles.

Reliefs were for a long time carried out by contractor\'s boat from Scotchport, two miles south of the island on the Mullet. However from 1969 a helicopter took over, landing the Keepers at Blacksod.

Substantial damage was again done by storms in January 1987 and February 1988.

On 31st March 1988 the lighthouse was converted to automatic operation and the Keepers were withdrawn from the station. The station is in the care of an Attendant and the aids to navigation are also monitored via a telemetry link from the Lighthouse Depot in Dun Laoghaire.

[knotman2]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNpH5tx4 ... re=related.
This is how it happens! Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but may be converted from one form into another.
The wave, travelling forward, contains a HUGE amount of Kinetic Energy (moving energy). Suddenly blocked by a big rock etc., that energy instantly starts converting to Potential Energy ( energy in water due to height above sea/ground level). It had nowhere else to go. The only way is up up up.
This rising column of (heavy, 64.2lbs per cubic foot)) water, again gains new Kinetic Energy from the horizontally howling wind, and hey presto, in go all the windows.
To get a feel for the weight (momentum) of moving water, on a smaller scale, one could direct a hose of water onto one\'s eyeball! If any idiot ( Isaac Newton excluded) wants to actually try this at home, perhaps he/she would be so kind as to let us know the results, that is of course, once their eyesight has returned to normal, assuming it ever would. Just kidding of course. DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME.
Isaac Newton, once famously wiggled a pointed object, knitting needle dimensions, in under and behind his eyeball to examine the effects of a distorted eyeball on vision and colour. Hence the above exclusion. Sennen

[niallmadden]

For those with in an interest in such things, some photos from the late 1800s and early 1900s of Irish Lighthouses are in an exhibition in the James Hardiman Library at NUI Galway. Most were taken by astronomer and mathematician Sir Robert Ball (1840-1913) and belong to a collection donated by the Commissioners of Irish Lights to the National Photographic Archives.

Niall.

[CeannDubh]

Other authors have interpreted these boulders as being shaken loose from clifftop outcrop by storm generated seismisity rather than being physically hurled upwards from sea level citing evidence from two years of data from the clifftop section. As well as the degree to which the boulders showed evidence of working by the sea and lithology.