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John Richardson Wigham
:''This article concerns the Irish-based inventor and lighthouse engineer, not his cousin the shipbuilder John Wigham Richardson''. John Richardson Wigham (15 January 1829 – 16 November 1906) was a prominent lighthouse engineer of the 19th century. Early life Wigham was born to a Quaker family in Newington, Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, John, operated a mill for the manufacture of shawls and his mother, Jane née Richardson, died in 1830. When he was 15 years old he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law Joshua Edmundson in Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland. Edmundson & Co. dealt in ironmongery, ran a brass foundry, and carried out tin plate working and japanning (metal paintwork). After John joined, they also provided gas generation plants. On 26 January 1848, Joshua died of typhus, which he contracted whilst providing relief within soup kitchens during the Great Famine. Though John was only 19 years old, he took over operation of the company and provided for his sister and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Wigham Richardson
John Wigham Richardson (7 January 1837 – 15 April 1908) was a British shipbuilder on Tyneside during the late 19th and early 20th century. Career Richardson was born on 7 January 1837, the son of devout Quakers Edward Richardson and Jane Wigham, and grew up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was educated at Bootham School, York. His nephew, Charles Merz, was a pioneer of electricity distribution in the UK and internationally conceiving the idea of a synchronised electricity grid, now common throughout the world. Although the family business was in leather tanning, he devoted his life to shipbuilding, learning his skills initially as a draughtsman for Lloyds Register of Shipping in Liverpool (in 1853) and then as an apprentice to Jonathon Robson, a steam-tug builder in Gateshead (from 1853 to 1856). In 1860, at the age of just 23, he founded the Neptune Works, often incorrectly referred to as Wigham Richardson, at Walker on Tyne, with a loan of less than £5,000 from his f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Navigational Aid
Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, marine navigation, aeronautic navigation, and space navigation. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks. All navigational techniques involve locating the navigator's position compared to known locations or patterns. Navigation, in a broader sense, can refer to any skill or study that involves the determination of position and direction. In this sense, navigation includes orienteering and pedestrian navigation. History In the European medieval period, navigation was considered part of the set of '' seven mechanical arts'', none of which were used for long voyages across open ocean. Polynesian navigation is probably the earliest form of open-ocean navigation; it was b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresnel Lens
A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens developed by the French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel (1788–1827) for use in lighthouses. It has been called "the invention that saved a million ships." The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design. A Fresnel lens can be made much thinner than a comparable conventional lens, in some cases taking the form of a flat sheet. The simpler dioptric (purely refractive) form of the lens was first proposed by Count Buffon and independently reinvented by Fresnel. The ''catadioptric'' form of the lens, entirely invented by Fresnel, has outer elements that use total internal reflection as well as refraction; it can capture more oblique light from a light source and add it to the beam of a lighthouse, making the light visible from greater distances. Description The Fresnel lens redu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clockwork
Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or weight. A clockwork mechanism is often powered by a clockwork motor, description of the clockwork motor in an antique phonograph consisting of a mainspring, a spiral torsion spring of metal ribbon. Energy is stored in the mainspring manually by ''winding it up'', turning a key attached to a ratchet which twists the mainspring tighter. Then the force of the mainspring turns the clockwork gears, until the stored energy is used up. The adjectives ''wind-up'' and ''spring-powered'' refer to mainspring-powered clockwork devices, which include clocks and watches, kitchen timers, music boxes, and wind-up toys. History The earliest known example of a clockwork mechanism is the Antikythera mechanism, a first-century BC geared analogue computer, somewhat astrolabe-li ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wicklow Head
Wicklow Head () is a headland near the southeast edge of the town of Wicklow in County Wicklow, approximately from the centre of the town. Geographically, it is the easternmost point on the mainland of the Republic of Ireland. Lighthouses The original Wicklow Head Lighthouse was one of two lighthouses built on the headland. The original lighthouse actually consisted of two structures to differentiate between Hook Head Lighthouse to the South in Wexford and Baily Lighthouse on Howth Head to the North in Dublin. The rear tower was built as an eight-sided lantern in 1781 powered by 20 tallow candles reflected against a mirror. On 10 October 1836, the tower was struck by lightning, resulting in the destruction of its interior. It was decided however that the tower was to be left as a landmark that could be used during the hours of daylight. A new lighthouse was built in the 19th century lower down on the headland as it became clear the upper lighthouses were no longer effective ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trinity House
"Three In One" , formation = , founding_location = Deptford, London, England , status = Royal Charter corporation and registered charity , purpose = Maintenance of lighthouses, buoys and beacons , headquarters = Trinity House, Tower Hill, London, England , region = , membership = , leader_title = Master , leader_name = Anne, Princess Royal , leader_title2 = Deputy Master , leader_name2 = Captain Ian McNaught , revenue = £38,405,000 (2020) , expenses = £46,801,000 (2020) , staff = 312 (2020) , website trinityhouse.co.uk The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond, also known as Trinity House (and formally as The Master, Wardens and Assistants of the Guild Fraternity or Brotherhood of the most glorious and undivided Trinity and of St Clement in the Parish of Deptford Strond in the County of Kent), is the offi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Tyndall
John Tyndall FRS (; 2 August 1820 – 4 December 1893) was a prominent 19th-century Irish physicist. His scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he made discoveries in the realms of infrared radiation and the physical properties of air, proving the connection between atmospheric CO and what is now known as the greenhouse effect in 1859. Tyndall also published more than a dozen science books which brought state-of-the-art 19th century experimental physics to a wide audience. From 1853 to 1887 he was professor of physics at the Royal Institution of Great Britain in London. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1868. Early years and education Tyndall was born in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow, Ireland. His father was a local police constable, descended from Gloucestershire emigrants who settled in southeast Ireland around 1670. Tyndall attended the local schools (Ballinabranna Primary School) in County Carlow until ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Howth Head
Howth Head ( ; ''Ceann Bhinn Éadair'' in Irish) is a peninsula northeast of the city of Dublin in Ireland, within the governance of Fingal County Council. Entry to the headland is at Sutton while the village of Howth and the harbour are on the north-eastern face. Most of Howth Head is occupied by the Hill of Howth, though there are other regions, such as the tombolo at Sutton, extensive beaches on the northern shores, and small ones in other parts. The Baily Lighthouse is on the southeastern part of Howth Head. Nearby are the districts of Baldoyle and Portmarnock, and adjacent is the nature reserve of North Bull Island. History The earliest mention of the peninsula may be on a map attributed to Claudius Ptolemy, where it was called ''Edri Deserta'' or in Greek (''Edrou Heremos'', Edar's isolated place). Here it was portrayed as an island, but it is not clear if this was due to actual separation from the headland or inaccurate information available to the cartographer. Other ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baily Lighthouse
The Baily Lighthouse (Irish: ''Teach Solais Dhún Criofainn'') is a lighthouse on the southeastern part of Howth Head in County Dublin, Ireland. It is maintained by the Commissioners of Irish Lights. History Early history The first lighthouse on this site was built in about 1667 by Sir Robert Reading, and was one of six that Reading had received letters patent to build from Charles II in 1665. The original facility consisted of a small cottage and a square tower which supported a coal-fired beacon. Parts of the original buildings remain. In 1790, the coal beacon was replaced with a set of six Argand oil lamps, each including a silvered copper parabolic and a bulls-eye glass pane. During this period, the lighthouse was maintained by the Revenue Commissioners. New site In 1810, the Corporation for Preserving and Improving the Port of Dublin took over the operations. The original building's location was high on the headland, so the light was often obscured by fog. On 5 Dece ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coal Gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous fuels produced for sale to consumers and municipalities. The original coal gas was produced by the coal gasification reaction, and thus the burnable component consisted of a roughly equal molecular mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Thus, coal gas was highly toxic. Other compositions contain additional calorific gases such as methane, produced by the Fischer-Tropsch process, and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen. Prior to the development of natural gas supply and transmission—during the 1940s and 1950s in the United States and during the late 1960s and 1970s in the United Kingdom and Australia—almost all gas for fuel and lighting was manufactured fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dublin Ballast Board
Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 census of Ireland, 2016 census it had a population of 1,173,179, while the preliminary results of the 2022 census of Ireland, 2022 census recorded that County Dublin as a whole had a population of 1,450,701, and that the population of the Greater Dublin Area was over 2 million, or roughly 40% of the Republic of Ireland's total population. A settlement was established in the area by the Gaels during or before the 7th century, followed by the Vikings. As the Kings of Dublin, Kingdom of Dublin grew, it became Ireland's principal settlement by the 12th century Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland. The city expanded rapidly from the 17th century and was briefly the second largest in the British Empire and sixt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jonathan Pim (1806–1885)
Jonathan Pim (1806 – 6 July 1885) was an Irish Liberal Party politician. He was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Dublin City at the 1865 general election, and held the seat until the 1874 general election, when his absence abroad when the election was called unexpectedly made it impossible to mount an effective campaign. He was president of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland between 1875 and 1877. A Quaker, he served as secretary for the Quaker Relief fund during the Great Irish Famine: the work involved was so exhausting that he suffered a temporary collapse of health. Nonetheless, he retained a lifelong interest in efforts to alleviate the poverty-stricken condition of the Irish. Under his guidance, the family firm, Pim Brothers, opened a pioneering department store in South Great George's Street in Dublin city centre. He had a reputation for being an especially generous employer. He is buried in the Friends Burial Ground, Dublin in Blackroc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
