Life of Sir James Nicholas Douglass: F.R.S., &c., &c. (formerly Engineer-in-Chief to the Trinity House.) |
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afterwards arrived assistant Bartholomeusz beacon Bishop rock boats brave brother Buoy Yacht burners Captain carbons carried catoptric Chance Brothers CHAPTER commenced completed connection construction Corporation of Trinity course dangerous dioptric dioptric apparatus duties Eddystone lighthouse efficient Elder Brethren electric employed engaged engineer-in-chief erection executive father feet firm five flames fog signals granite tower Hanois rock honour hundred candles iron island James Kenward James Nicholas Douglass labours lamp landing lantern latter light keepers light vessels lighthouse builders lighthouse illumination mariner Messrs miles Minicoy night optical apparatus party Penzance Professor Tyndall reader reef resident engineer Rosevear rough Runnelstone rock says scientific adviser Scilly Scilly Isles season ship shore Sir Cloudesley Sir Cloudesley Shovel Sir James Douglass Sir James Nicholas Siren Smeaton's tower Solva South Foreland staff stone structure Trinity House undertaking Walker waves weather William Douglass Wolf Wolf rock lighthouse workmen workyard
Popular passages
Page 23 - But och ! it hardens a* within, And petrifies the feeling ! To catch dame Fortune's golden smile, Assiduous wait upon her ; And gather gear by every wile That's justified by honour ; Not for to hide it in a hedge, Nor for a train attendant ; But for the glorious privilege Of being independent.
Page iii - So nigh is grandeur to our dust, So near is God to man, When Duty whispers low, Thou must, The youth replies, I can...
Page iii - The latest Gospel in this world is, Know thy work and do it. 'Know thyself: long enough has that poor 'self of thine tormented thee; thou wilt never get to 'know' it, I believe! Think it not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou art an unknowable individual: know what thou canst work at; and work at it, like a Hercules!
Page 132 - On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung, And over the waves its warning rung. When the Rock was hid by the surge's swell, The mariners heard the warning Bell ; And then they knew the perilous Rock, And blest the Abbot of Aberbrothok.
Page 84 - Come one, come all ! this rock shall fly From its firm base as soon as I.
Page 49 - Get leave to work In this world — 'tis the best you get at all; For God, in cursing, gives us better gifts Than men in benediction. God says, "Sweat For foreheads," men say "crowns," and so we are crowned, Ay, gashed by some tormenting circle of steel Which snaps with a secret spring. Get work, get work; Be sure 'tis better than what you work to get.
Page 4 - Deign on the passing world to turn thine eyes, And pause awhile from letters to be wise; There mark what ills the scholar's life assail, Toil, envy, want, the patron, and the jail. See nations, slowly wise and meanly just, To buried merit raise the tardy bust. If dreams yet flatter, once again attend, Hear Lydiat's life, and Galileo's end.
Page 29 - A man proves himself fit to go higher who shows that he is faithful where he is. A man that will not do well in his present place, because he longs to be higher, is fit neither to be where he is nor yet above it; he is already too high, and should be put lower.
Page 63 - Heavy iron stanchions were sunk into the rock around the site for the foundation, and each man worked with a safety-rope lying near him, one end of which was attached to the nearest stanchion. An experienced man was always stationed on the summit as " crow," to look out for the sea, who would give warning of such waves as were likely to sweep the rock, when the men would hold on, head to the sea, while it washed over them; picks, hammers, and jumpers, some exceeding 20 lbs.
Page 155 - Edinburgh, a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, and in 1883 he received the honorary degree of LL.D. from the University of Glasgow. He died on the 12th of June, 1885, after a few days' illness, due to a slight surgical operation.