3-021-214 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Lighthouse on Colaba Point, near Bombay, [India], 1868. 'The Colaba Lighthouse is situated at the south end of the Colaba Point, 18 deg. 53 min. 32 sec. north latitude, 72 deg. 48 min, 5 sec. east longitude. It is a white tower. The height of the building, from the base to the vane, is 93 ft. The centre of lantern is 119 ft. above high water. It shows a two-minute revolving light, which can be seen as far as seventeen or eighteen miles, in clear weather, and is visible all round the horizon. The light apparatus is catadioptric, revolving with five lamps to a face, and was made by Wilkins and Sons, in 1844; and it is in contemplation to erect a new lighthouse and to remove the present one, at a cost of about £50,000, one mile and a half farther out on the dangerous reef, which extends two miles and three quarters beyond the present lighthouse, and which position will thus still be nearly a mile inside the extreme point of danger...[This lighthouse] will contribute, in a most important degree, to the safety of the navigation into and out of the harbour of Bombay'. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.