Eddystone

ed'di-ston, a name given to three ridges of submerged rock off the coast of Cornwall, England. They are exceedingly dangerous to navigation, and have been the cause of shipwrecks innumerable. Many a gallant ship, returning home to England after a long and perilous voyage, has been dashed to pieces almost within sight of home. In 1700 Henry Winstanley, a public-spirited man, erected there a wooden lighthouse 100 feet high, with a stone base. Three years later builder and lighthouse were washed away. In 1709 a rich silk merchant erected a second lighthouse on much the same plan. It was burned down in 1755. In 1759 a third tower was completed, this time at the expense of the government. It had a diameter of twenty-seven feet at the base and fifteen feet at the top. It was seventy-two feet high. It was built of granite blocks weighing from one to two tons each. They were ingeniously dovetailed together. This lighthouse was undermined by the sea, and was replaced by a new tower in 1882. It has a total height of 133 feet. Its light, having a total strength of 160,000 candle power, is visible on a clear night for a distance of nearly eighteen miles.