lapsuskalamari
Portland Bill Lighthouse
Location: The Bill of Portland, Dorset, England, UK
Date of Photograph: pm 1 April 1994
OS Grid Reference: SY677683
Co-ordinates: 50:30:51N 2:27:23W
Elevation: 43 meters
In former times Weymouth was an important port, one of the busiest in England. Its ancient function is possibly best remembered for the facts that The Black Death made its British landfall there on 25th June 1348, and that in February 1805 William Wordsworth’s brother John, Captain of “The Earl of Abergavenny”, an East Indiaman, lost his life when his ship foundered in Weymouth Bay.
Weymouth is in the lee of Portland Bill, a windswept limestone promontory that juts miles into the Channel between England and France.
A fierce tidal current called The Portland Race arises from the opposition of tides confined between Portland Bill and The Shambles sandbank some three miles to the South-East.
The function of the light is to guide traffic entering Portland and Weymouth; mark the bank with a red sector; and act as a waymark for Channel through-shipping.
In 1669 Sir John Clayton took an abortive patent to erect a light at the Bill, but it was not until 26th May 1716 that the people of Weymouth were successful in petitioning Trinity House to erect a light. Two coal-fired lights were set up but very ill-run by the lessees. After sixty-one years the lease reverted to Trinity House.
In 1789, the brethren commissioned William Johns of Weymouth to demolish one of the existing pillars and replace it with another tower. In that year Argand lamps were installed, Portland being the first light in England so equipped. There were two banks of seven oil-fired Argand lamps with highly-polished reflectors. Further improvements were made shortly after when Thomas Rogers installed a separate low light with a catoptric system housing six Argand lamps to improve visibility at sea.
In 1869, the high and low lights were replaced with the current single tower. The low lighthouse survives as a bird observatory.
The present optic is arranged to transition from one flash to four between bearings 221° and 224°; and from four flashes to one between 117° and 141°. The lamp is an electric 1 Kw Mbi with a four-panel first-order catadioptric fixed lens, giving a white group flashing four times every twenty seconds. The power is 635,000 candela. The tower is sited 43 meters above Mean High Water, and has a height of 41 meters: The effective elevation of the lantern is therefore 84 meters yielding a visible range of about twenty-five nautical miles. There is an obsolete fog signal capable of blasting for three and a half seconds every thirty seconds.
The facility was demanned on 18th March 1996. Monitoring and control is now managed remotely from The Trinity House Operations Control Centre in Harwich.
Portland Bill Lighthouse
Location: The Bill of Portland, Dorset, England, UK
Date of Photograph: pm 1 April 1994
OS Grid Reference: SY677683
Co-ordinates: 50:30:51N 2:27:23W
Elevation: 43 meters
In former times Weymouth was an important port, one of the busiest in England. Its ancient function is possibly best remembered for the facts that The Black Death made its British landfall there on 25th June 1348, and that in February 1805 William Wordsworth’s brother John, Captain of “The Earl of Abergavenny”, an East Indiaman, lost his life when his ship foundered in Weymouth Bay.
Weymouth is in the lee of Portland Bill, a windswept limestone promontory that juts miles into the Channel between England and France.
A fierce tidal current called The Portland Race arises from the opposition of tides confined between Portland Bill and The Shambles sandbank some three miles to the South-East.
The function of the light is to guide traffic entering Portland and Weymouth; mark the bank with a red sector; and act as a waymark for Channel through-shipping.
In 1669 Sir John Clayton took an abortive patent to erect a light at the Bill, but it was not until 26th May 1716 that the people of Weymouth were successful in petitioning Trinity House to erect a light. Two coal-fired lights were set up but very ill-run by the lessees. After sixty-one years the lease reverted to Trinity House.
In 1789, the brethren commissioned William Johns of Weymouth to demolish one of the existing pillars and replace it with another tower. In that year Argand lamps were installed, Portland being the first light in England so equipped. There were two banks of seven oil-fired Argand lamps with highly-polished reflectors. Further improvements were made shortly after when Thomas Rogers installed a separate low light with a catoptric system housing six Argand lamps to improve visibility at sea.
In 1869, the high and low lights were replaced with the current single tower. The low lighthouse survives as a bird observatory.
The present optic is arranged to transition from one flash to four between bearings 221° and 224°; and from four flashes to one between 117° and 141°. The lamp is an electric 1 Kw Mbi with a four-panel first-order catadioptric fixed lens, giving a white group flashing four times every twenty seconds. The power is 635,000 candela. The tower is sited 43 meters above Mean High Water, and has a height of 41 meters: The effective elevation of the lantern is therefore 84 meters yielding a visible range of about twenty-five nautical miles. There is an obsolete fog signal capable of blasting for three and a half seconds every thirty seconds.
The facility was demanned on 18th March 1996. Monitoring and control is now managed remotely from The Trinity House Operations Control Centre in Harwich.