Scientist of the Day - William Douglass
The new Fastnet Rock Lighthouse in place, with the old one behind it not yet dismantled, cover photograph, Scientific American, Sep. 28, 1907, vol. 97, no. 13, p. 217 (Linda Hall Library)
William Douglass, an English lighthouse engineer, died Mar. 10, 1923, at the age of about 92. His father, Nicholas, was an engineer for Trinity House in London, the institution that built and operated all the lighthouses in England, and so was William's older brother, James. William spent some time working for Robert Stevenson, who had been chief engineer on the formidable Bell Rock Lighthouse, completed back in 1811, and had built many more since then.
Portrait of William Douglass, undated photograph (douglashistory.co.uk)
William got the chance in 1860 to be resident engineer on a Stevenson project, the Les Hanois Lighthouse off the south-west coast of Guernsey. It was the first lighthouse to have granite stones dovetailed both horizontally and vertically (a suggestion of William's father, Nicholas); it was completed in 1862 (third image). The stones were cut and fitted in Cornwall and then ferried across the Channel to Guernsey.
Les Hanois Lighthouse, Guernsey, William Douglass, resident engineer, recent phonograph; the helipad on top is a later addition (Wikimedia commons)
William then got the chance to take over the building of the Wolf Rock Lighthouse off Land’s End, Cornwall, near the Isles of Scilly, site of the great naval disaster of 1707. James Douglass had started as resident engineer, but was called up to Trinity House to become chief engineer, and William stepped in to finish the project in 1869. Its situation was as difficult as Bell Rock had been, with initial construction possible only at low water, but William managed to pull it off. It still stands (fourth image).
Wolf Rock Lighthouse, Land’s End, William Douglass, resident engineer, recent phonograph; the helipad on top is a later addition (Wikimedia commons)
William, however, is most often identified with the Fastnet Rock Lighthouse off the southern coast of Ireland. He had retired from Trinity House in 1878 and gone to work for the Commissioners of Irish Lights, for whom he worked on several projects successfully, until he was given the opportunity to design a new lighthouse for Fastnet Rock, the southernmost bit of land in Ireland, eight miles off the southern coast. A lighthouse had been installed there at some expense in 1854, but it was cast iron and sat on the top of the rock, and so it lacked a good structural connection with the rock. In addition, its light was too meager to be seen at any distance. Douglass decided to start at the bottom of the rock, and the first 10 courses of granite were dovetailed right into the cliff (fifth image). The bottom course was over 50 feet across, improving its stability. Higher courses were joined to the lower ones with dovetails just as in the Les Hanois Lighthouse. The granite stones, over 2000 of them, were, as with the Les Hanois Light, cut and fitted in Cornwall before being shipped to Fastnet Rock.
Diagram of William Douglass’s design for the new Fastnet Rock Light, on the right; the old lighthouse on the left, erected in 1854, was removed once the new lighthouse was functional (bredendieck.com)
Constructing one of the early courses of the new Fastnet Rock Lighthouse, photograph ca 1899, Scientific American, Sep. 28, 1907, vol. 97, no. 13, p. 226 (Linda Hall Library)
The Fastnet Rock Light, when completed in 1904, sent its beam out 159 feet above high water, and could be seen from 27 miles out (first image). It has stood the test of time, surviving rogue waves almost as tall as the tower, and it has watched yachts sail around it every other year during the annual Fastnet Rock race from the Isle of Wight to Fastnet Rock and back to Plymouth (the old course - now they finish in France). Douglass never saw any of this – the race started in 1925, two years after he died.
Fastnet Rock Light, recent photograph, with the camera slightly off-level, but an excellent photo nevertheless; the base of the old lighthouse can be seen just behind the Douglass Tower, photo by Colin Prak (geograph.org.uk)
I found only one portrait photo of Douglass, as an older man, after he retired to Penzance, Cornwall, which he did in 1900 because of poor health, even before Fastnet was completed. As design engineer, rather than resident engineer, he could do that, without impeding construction. But he lived another 22 years in retirement; Cornwall was always good to him. The site of his grave is unknown. But he will always have the lights at Les Hanois, Wolf Rock, and Fastnet Rock as monuments.
William B. Ashworth, Jr., Consultant for the History of Science, Linda Hall Library and Associate Professor emeritus, Department of History, University of Missouri-Kansas City. Comments or corrections are welcome; please direct to ashworthw@umkc.edu.
