in length, at the upper end of which was another screw
for securing a wooden column. These columns were prepared of Baltic
timber; the one in the centre was fifty-six feet, and each of the
remainder forty-six feet in length, bound firmly round with iron hoops
and coated with pitch.

The framing upon which the house stands is firmly secured round the
centre column and to the heads of the outer columns by means of hollow
cast-iron capitals let down over the heads of the columns and secured
with screw-bolts. To give lateral strength to the building, round iron
angle-braces were applied, by which means a resisting power equal to
at least three hundred and fifty tons is presented in every direction.

The platform upon which the house stands is twenty-seven feet in
diameter. The dwelling-house is twenty feet in diameter, and nine feet
high: it has an outside door, and three windows, and is divided into
two apartments, one having a fire-place; the floor is tiled, and the
walls and ceiling lathed and stuccoed. Access to the platform is
secured by means of a Jacob's ladder of wrought iron secured to one of
the columns: access to the lantern is by a winding stair within the
house.

From the summit of the house rises the lantern; it is twelve-sided,
ten feet in diameter, and eight feet high. The light is thus elevated
about forty-six feet above low-water level. It is of the dioptric
kind, and is bright, steady, and uniform, ranging over an horizon of
eight miles, and visible at the distance of ten miles from a coaster's
deck. During foggy weather a bell is tolled by machinery. Tide-time
for vessels of twelve feet draft is also denoted by signals. Signals
put out by vessels requiring a Wyre pilot will also be understood at
this lighthouse, where corresponding signals are hoisted until the
pilot is provided.

This admirable and useful structure was erected in two of the shortest
day months of the year, in which time day-light did not occur at any
low-water period; the workmen therefore had to depend on torches and
moonlight. Nor is the portability of this form of building its least
advantage: should there occur any local changes which might threaten
the safety of the house, it can be taken down, and erected in another
site within a month.

Perhaps one of the boldest schemes ever devised for lighthouses was
the structure proposed to be erected by Mr. Bush, on a plan patented
by him, on the Goodwin Sands, or on the Varne in the