The Lighthouse Stevensons

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Robert Stevenson’s fame was not only confined to Lighthouses. Among other achievements, he was responsible for the design of London Road and Regent Road in Edinburgh, the Hutcheson Bridge in Glasgow and various railway lines. Lighthouses built by Robert Stevenson Stevenson did not resume attending church in Scotland. However, he did teach Sunday School lessons in Samoa, and prayers he wrote in his final years were published posthumously. [35] "An Apology for Idlers" [ edit ] The Granton Shore Station housed the families and keepers of various lighthouses. The houses are now privately owned. Trinity House Leith TIDESPACE TALKS LAND series starts with a conversation with TIDESPACE Writer In Residence Bella Bathurst. Her acute first hand observations on a contemporary farm, of the significant changes in relationships between one generation to the next and with and within the same land in her book FIELD WORKS - What Land Does To People & What People Do To Land makes a very significant read. Outside the harbour, the Forth estuary has several islands. Inchkeithand Oxcars Lighthousesare in the middle of the Firth of Forth, and if you have the time it’s worth taking a boat trip out from South Queensferry.

The Lighthouse Stevensons by Bella Bathurst | Goodreads

This material cannot usually be geographically located as it does not have a specific place associated with it. It is findable using the text-based search. These types of plans cover the whole period during which the Stevensons were active, although the subject matter covered changes with the specific research interests of the family members who were active at the time. The building and monument plans in the collection are generally very large scale plans depicting individual buildings or streets in significant detail. They may be useful in providing a very detailed representation of parts of central Edinburgh from the first few decades of the nineteenth century.Work on river improvements was an ongoing concern for the Stevensons and plans relating to river works represented 12% of the archive – the joint second most common subject. Although river material covers the whole period, the specific focus changes over time. Plans dating from the first half of the nineteenth century by Robert Stevenson tend to relate primarily to the River Tay. In the second half of the century under the management of David Stevenson, a much wider variety of rivers are represented, including work on the River Clyde. The rivers that are most extensively covered in the archive in general are the Tay (92 plans) and the Clyde (79 plans). Other rivers that are relatively well covered include the Almond Water (24 plans), the Tweed (18 plans), the South Esk (15 plans), the Water of Leith (12 plans), the Don (12 plans), the North Esk (12 plans) and the Conon (10 plans).

The Lighthouse Stevensons - William Collins

Both engineers agree in describing the lighthouse as being a copy of Smeaton's Eddystone Tower with sundry improvements in details and dimensions."Because of the engineering challenges that were overcome to build the lighthouse, it has been described as one of the Seven Wonders of the Industrial World. [7] History [ edit ] Stevenson was born at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850 to Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife, Margaret Isabella (born Balfour, 1829–1897). He was christened Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. At about age 18, he changed the spelling of "Lewis" to "Louis", and he dropped "Balfour" in 1873. [4] [5] The masonry work on which the lighthouse rests was constructed to such a high standard that it has not been replaced or adapted in 200 years. [5] The lamps and reflectors were replaced in 1843; the original ones are now in the lighthouse at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, where they are currently on display. [6] The working of the lighthouse has been automated since 24 October 1988. [1] The Northern Lighthouse Board, which has had its headquarters at 84 George Street in Edinburgh since 1832, remotely monitors the light. Robert Louis Stevenson was the most famous of the Stevensons, but not by any means the most productive. The Lighthouse Stevensons, all four generations of them, built every lighthouse round Scotland, were responsible for a slew of inventions in both construction and optics, and achieved feats of engineering in conditions that would be forbidding even today. The same driven energy which Robert Louis Stevenson put into writing, his ancestors put into lighting the darkness of the seas. ‘The Lighthouse Stevensons’ is a story of high endeavour, beautifully told; indeed, is was one of the most celebrated works of historical biography in recent memory.

Illuminating Scotland: The story behind the Stevenson Illuminating Scotland: The story behind the Stevenson

Engineering skills were in high demand after the Battle of Waterloo, which marked the end of the continental wars, as the focus turned toward improving the country's infrastructure. So Stevenson was kept busy. In addition to his work for the Northern Lighthouse Board, he served as a consulting engineer on many projects, collaborating with other engineers such as John Rennie, Alexander Nimmo, Thomas Telford, William Walker, Archibald Elliot, [7] and William Cubitt. These projects included the construction of roads, bridges, harbours, canals, railways, and aids to river navigation. He designed and oversaw the construction in Glasgow of the Hutcheson Bridge, and in Edinburgh of the Regent Bridge [7] and approaches to it from the east. He also produced a number of designs for canals and railways which were not built, and new and improved designs for bridges, some of which were later implemented by his successors. He invented the movable jib and the balance crane as necessary aids to lighthouse construction, and, as George Stephenson noted, he led the trend toward using malleable rather than cast-iron rails in the construction of railways. [8]

In July 1955 these two lights were discontinued (Notice to Mariners No 13 of 1955 refers) and the Dalen revolving light, giving one flash of 0.5 seconds duration every 10 seconds, was re-exhibited until further notice.