3-008-563 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Wrought-iron lighthouse on the Ushruffee Reef, in the Strait of Jubal, in the Red Sea, 1862. 'The great intercourse which is carried on...by what is called the overland route, has made the Red Sea almost an English highway... the Viceroy of Egypt [agreed to] erect lighthouses on the most dangerous points of the navigation...and the British Government would present the lanterns and light apparatus and the services of an engineer...it became necessary to devise a structure with the least possible quantity of material. That material must be in pieces of convenient dimensions to be...carried over the reef in very shallow boats...The...lighthouse rests upon twelve pillars of teak sixteen feet high...The inclosed space...filled with a concrete formed of English Portland cement, mixed with a due proportion of coral sand...The superstructure consists of a framework of wrought iron...manufactured by Messrs. G. Forrester and Co...The lanterns and apparatus...were constructed by Messrs. Wilkins and Co., the optical part of the latter having been furnished by Messrs. Chance...The light is a revolving one of the most powerful class, and is visible from a ship's deck about eighteen miles, but from a greater elevation, even twenty-five or thirty miles'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.