J. Edmondson & Co, Ironmongers, Nos. 33-36 Capel Street, Dublin, 1879 (Archiseek - Irish Architecture)
MP/1/2/332
Wigham was also a member of the Council of the Royal Dublin Society and President Chamber of Commerce, Dublin. One of his papers, “Gas Lights, Oil Lights, Electric Lights, as Lighthouse Illuminants, with a few observations on light-ships, light buoys and sound-signals” contains detailed descriptions and scientific explanations on his experiments such as Catoptric and Dioptric Lights; Gas Light; Oil Light; Electric Light etc. In this paper it is mentioned that the first application of gas for lighthouses purposes was at the Baily Lighthouse, Co Dublin, when the Commissioners of Irish Lights requested Wigham to make experiments with the view of introducing gas.
As a result, the world’s first successful high candle-power light, designed and built by Wigham, was installed at the Baily Lighthouse, in 1865. The light was provided by a multi-jet burner in which coal-gas, manufactured in a gas making plant at the lighthouse, was burnt. The gas was at first made from oil, then shale, and finally rich cannel coal, in a gas works at the station. This resulted in the use of coal-gas lights at major lighthouses all around the Irish coast, both onshore and offshore, and elsewhere throughout the world.
Sir Rober Stawell Ball, appointed Scientific Advisor to the Commissioners of Irish Lights in 1882, made his report in 1895 at the request of the Commissioners of Irish Lights to Wigham’s apparatus for producing a rapidly revolving Lighthouse Light.
Wighams 31-Day Light (National Maritime Museum of Ireland)
What is the importance of his invention? Wigham’s contribution was to multiply many times the strength of lighthouse flashes by using gas instead of oil. He proposed a replacement of oil by gas fuel, in marine lighthouse illumination, introducing his own gas illumination.This system was 13 times more powerful than the most brilliant light then known, and it has also received the support of the Professor John Tyndall, scientist advisor to the United Kingdom's lighthouse authority, Trinity House (19th-century Irish physicist).He won contracts with the Ballast Board and then with Commissioners of Irish Lights. The purpose of his work was not only illuminating but also supplying the necessary lanterns and mechanical apparatus.
In the course of time, coal gas was discontinued because of the excessive cost and labour intensiveness of producing the gas. It was replaced by paraffin, vaporised under pressure, and burnt in a mantle. Over thirty years later, he invented a petroleum version with a long-burning wick giving three months unattended service. One of his challenges was based on the improving of the unattended service. The difficulty was in designing an oil-lamp which could burn while unattended and not be extinguished by waves and storms. A buoy at sea marked rocks and other dangers with a bell; and it really needed a constant light. That was impossible with oil lamps until Wigham’s 31-day light oil lamp was invented. The first successful lighted buoy was patented by John Wigham in 1861.
MP/1/2/332
Based on Wigham’s system, other inventions came into use and started to be adopted by Harbour Authorities, such as continuous petroleum lights for buoys and beacons. The lights required no attendance for one month or more.
Since their introduction in January 1897, these lamps have been in practical use either on buoys or beacons in Belfast Lough, Carlingford Lough, Cork Harbour (Queenstown), Dundee Harbour, Barrow-in-Furness, Hull, Bristol, and Dublin. It is extremely relevant to point the significant impact they had and their international circulation up to Finland in the North, India and China in the East, Canada in the West, and Australia in the South at that time.
An interesting testimony related to the performance of these lamps in stormy weather in Dublin is enclosed below: “Two Wigham Buoy Lamps are in use in this Harbour, the outermost is exposed to heavy seas, and during the exceptionally severe gale of 3rd November last, which did much damage on sea and land, the light on these Buoys never failed for a moment (MP/1/2/107, 28 April 1900)”.
On the 15th of July 1902 John Richardson Wigham sent a letter to George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India, to bring his attention to the new system of lighting rivers, harbour, and estuaries at night by the application of petroleum to the illumination of buoys and beacons; and in the correspondence with the Board of Trade, Commissioners of Irish Lights were asked to recognise the utility of this system, already in use.
That is a story of a brilliant engineer who had the merit to have created some of the most interesting lighthouse equipment.
Lighthouses and other aids to navigation go back a long way in Ireland, more than 200 years ago, and with no doubt John Richardson Wigham had been representing a key figure in terms of innovation, technology, and safety at sea over the past two centuries in Irish Lights.
“We cannot place iron furnaces everywhere on our sea coasts, and, even if we could, we would still require lights for accurately defining the positions of harbours, headlands, rocks, shoals etc., but the observations I propose to make respecting gas lights, oil lights, and electric lights will, I think, point to this, that the more these lights can be brought not only to shine on the sea, from the base of lighthouse to the horizon, but to illuminate the clouds or haze which may be present in the upper atmosphere and the fogs which my surround the lighthouse, the better and safe for navigation, and further, that some lights, which are dazzling bright in clear weather, are, in thick weather, absolutely invisible and worthless”.
(Extracted from Wigham, John R., Gas Lights, Oil Lights, Electric Lights, as Lighthouse Illuminants, with a few observations on Light-ships, Light-buoys and sound signals, 1895).
References:
Irish Lights Archive, Minutes Papers Collection (1868-1954):
MP/1/2/107 (1900)
MP/1/2/271 (1900-1901)
MP/1/2/332 (1894-1902)
MP/1/2/507 (1902)
Wigham, John R. Gas Lights, Oil Lights, Electric Lights, as Lighthouse Illuminants, with a few observations on Light-Ships, Light Buoys and sound signals, 1895.
(Paper read before members on the 15th March, 1895 at the London Chamber of Commerce).
Wigham, John R. Petroleum as an Illuminant for Beacons and Buoys and New Scintillating Lighthouse Light, 1901. (Paper read at the British Association, Glasgow, September, 1901)
Websites:
Wigham, John Richardson | Dictionary of Irish Biography (dib.ie)John Richardson Wigham - National Maritime Museum of Ireland (mariner.ie)
