Talk:Eddystone Lighthouse

Swallowing lead
I removed this phrase from the article:
 * One of the keepers who tried (in vain) to fight the fire swallowed a large amount of molten lead, which killed him after some days.

If someone can confirm or deny this, it would be great.

-- BCorr ¤ &#1041;&#1088;&#1072;&#1081;&#1077;&#1085; 22:47, Feb 29, 2004 (UTC)

I have put it back in, with more detail. I'll get the name of the museum in Edinburgh as soon as I can!

Henry Hall may have ingested molten lead, but he certainly would not have died from lead poisoning - try 1st degree internal burns. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.31.95.41 (talk) 12:24, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

I agree: there is no suggestion in the reports cited that he died from lead poisoning. He ingested over 200g of molten lead (melting point 327 degrees) which caused serious, and ultimately fatal burns to his mouth throat and stomach. 202.61.229.152 (talk) 03:56, 27 November 2013 (UTC)


 * It has been five years since this was challenged, and over ten since the assertion was added by an IP editor.. The claim that Hall died of lead poisoning is not supported by the cited sources, and has been removed.  Because of its presence in the article since 2004, the assertion has been copied into other sources, which cannot be relied on should an attempt be made to re-add it.  Kablammo (talk) 02:21, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Devon or Cornwall?
Does Eddystone Lighthouse fall in the county of Devon or Cornwall? Most sources seem to say Devon but the article implies Cornwall. (I am categorising a collection of postcards). Tony Corsini 23:47, 17 May 2006 (UTC)
 * This Hansard debate seems to indicate that it's in the parliamentary constituency of South-East Cornwall.--JBellis 18:57, 20 May 2006 (UTC)
 * According to the Ordnance Survey, who I think we can regard as being pretty definitive, the Eddystone is part of the City of Plymouth and hence the County of Devon. See the OS reference now on the article page. -- Chris j wood 12:07, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Parliamentary constituency boundaries do not always follow county boundaries. Historically a few parishes now in the Rame district were in Devon (probably before 1880s reform) --Felix Folio Secundus (talk) 21:06, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Edison Lighthouse?
I've removed the following from the Trivia section of the article:


 * The lighthouse may also have inspired the name of the popular music group Edison Lighthouse, being a weak pun on Eddystone, although the etymology of the group's name is uncertain.

A search on Google shows no sign of this etymology, which is unsourced and even the wording suggests the author is unsure of the facts. If you can find one, please feel free to reinsert with an appropriate reference. -- Chris j wood 18:44, 8 September 2006 (UTC)


 * It doesn't really need a source as the sounds of the names are so similar that the balance of probabilities suggests that it was the inspiration for the group's name. It would be more appropriate to ask for a source for any alternative derivation. DavidFarmbrough 18:53, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Absolutely disagree. If we are just going to go on personal guesswork, I would suggest that it is more likely they were named after Edison, the inventor of the lightbulb (amongst other things). But I would never write that in an article, because I don't have a source for it. I didn't want to add the Fact template to this article, because I've just put a lot of work into ensuring every other statement in the article is properly sourced. I would have done the same for this one, if I could have found a source. But you have forced my hand. Articles with unsourced statements it is. Thanks. -- Chris j wood 16:13, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
 * Speculation is surely original research and should be omitted. See WP:OR--JBellis 06:39, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

The Keeper of the Eddystone Light was earlier in the article for no obvious reasonn: it still looks strange as I am unsure how to deal with verse which would look better laid out in lines--Felix Folio Secundus (talk) 21:23, 5 February 2009 (UTC)

Potentialy nice pic
From the turn of the century:

http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsc.08791

©Geni 23:50, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/the-winstanley-lighthouse-14865

Painting of the first lighthouse.

©Geni 04:53, 7 July 2011 (UTC)

Isaac Sailmaker painting
Isaac Sailmaker painted the lighthouse: image:Isaac Sailmaker - Men-o'-War and other Vessels before the Eddystone Lighthouse.jpg. The ensigns used by the ships in the painting date the scene as being prior to the Acts of Union, so before 1707.. though the form seems more like the 1709 version. Martocticvs (talk) 00:33, 25 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Ignore that :) I can see the blue in the canton, looking at it again, so they are post-1707 ensigns. Martocticvs (talk) 22:48, 14 April 2010 (UTC)

Location
It is possible to get an idea of where the lighthouse is on the map if you locate the town, BUT neither the townname or the location of the lighthouse is shown on the map. Could somebody who knows how to edit the map correct that fault? Seniorsag (talk) 16:12, 25 May 2015 (UTC)
 * Not really sure I understand the bit about the town, but the map does show the offshore location using the lighthouse icon Legenda_latarnia.svg. I did look to see if adding the label made things better, but as it is at the bottom of the map it looked messy, and cluttered, so I didn't leave it in...Jokulhlaup (talk) 16:48, 29 May 2015 (UTC)

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Internal consistency
The lead section states that "the Cordouan lighthouse preceded it as the first offshore lighthouse". However, the section on Winstanley's lighthouse states, "The lighthouse was also the first recorded instance of an offshore lighthouse". Both refer to a Britannica.com article. This says that Cordouan was "the first lighthouse to be built in the open sea" but then states that Eddystone was the first tower "fully exposed to the open sea". So the Britannica.com article does not seem to be entirely self consistent either. I don't know enough about the subject to fix this but suggest someone needs to look into this and tidy up this article to make it internally consistent. --Prh47bridge (talk) 13:14, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

Douglass's lighthouse - Oil Storage Capacity
The oil storage capacity stated seems implausible. The Story of our Lighthouses and Lightships: Descriptive and Historical does state a storage capacity of 2,660 tons (presumably long tons). I think that this is an error in the cited source and it should actually be gallons.

The oil referred to is colza oil with density of 0.93 tons per cubic metre. This would give a volume for 2,660 tons of 2,906 cubic metres - more than the ubiquitous olympic sized swimming pool and very much larger than the two oil rooms which have a total volume of about 26 cubic metres and also contain the staircases and the housing for the weight. If the 2,660 tons lasted for nine months, about 10 tons would need to be carried from the oil rooms to the top of the tower every day... The crew would have to be superhuman.

Looking at contemporary oil consumption, a figure of 2,026 gallons per annum is broadly in keeping with the storage being 2,660 gallons rather than tons.

... not a Pharologist, but a Pharophile  ... Graham Stephen 16:56, 11 May 2019 (UTC)