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Retired lighthouse keeper Harold Taylor continues his memoirs:-
There were Emergency provisions, for prolonged over due. These were not supposed to be broached until 24 hours had elapsed, but when 'Out station' staff were with us, there would be demands for these provisions immediately, and because of these people it was granted
Their main aim was to get at smokes, which were grossly under priced based upon current prices, because the stocks were so old. For instance tins of flour were dated 1926, the year of my birth. Tins of tobacco had small paper wrappings, which I was informed were 1914-18 war vintage economy wrappings.
Shortly after one spell of issue, it was decided that all Emergency provisions were to be sent ashore for renewal. We were unfortunate to be the first station to do so, because, once the stuff got ashore it was offered to all staff at purchase price. We got little back, as there was little un-sold by the time we returned from leave.
When they found what a daunting task it was, all other stations were offered the opportunity to buy what they wanted and only send ashore the rest. Subsequently the stocks were replaced each year and we did have a chance to purchase, but not at the first economic price. Later still when the Helicopter relief was commenced these stocks were reduced to Ships Biscuits and one other commodity, which I think was milk. There was little call for this stuff and it was just dumped.
It had been intended that when the 'Stone' was electrified, there would be a Radio Beacon to supplement the Fog Signal, but it was a long time coming. Eventually the machinery for this was installed, it had laid around the Service room for some time.
That however was not the end of the matter, because there was the question of the aerial. When it did arrive one day, about 18 months later, it was expressed that the difficulty was that there was only one other aerial similar in the country and that was on the Aircraft Carrier Bulwark.
The boat arrived to deliver this 'special aerial', the launch came in with a long wooden case about 6 inches square. It was tied on the winch rope, and we commenced hauling up. One end of the packing case opened and out slipped each section of aerial and into deep water it shot. We had waited so long for this.
Whether of the same design or not, within a few weeks of this another aerial was installed and fitted and we were in business. Pressure had been exerted by International Channels, because many of these beacons were worked in groups especially with France. Many years later when I returned to the station I found that in fact we were only operating at reduced power.
Some time during this period, we had been the recipients of a new Radio Transmitter, known as a Pye Hamble, a much respected machine, and vastly superior to the old TV5, it did not use rotary transformers for a start and was fully transistorised. Gordon Ffyfe came off to fit it.
He again had the same qualification as myself, and I helped him fit the set which was to be in a new position. When it came to testing the set we were greeted by a blinding flash when the power was turned on. This perplexed Gordon as much as me. The set had to be earthed negatively to the earthing band that went right from top to bottom of the building, ending up below water level.
We therefore changed the set over to a positive earth and met the same response. We then went through the building and found that some equipment was earthed positively and some negatively, which made the situation confusing.
We also found that if we left the Charging unit off, the set did not blow fuses. Our sets were always in the position of one bank of batteries on charge and one bank on discharge. Between us we concocted a drawing of the circuit and came to the arrangement that before we switched the set on we had to switch off the charging unit.
Later a new switch mechanism came back from workshops, which when installed, solved the problem.
Another difficulty we encountered was the chimney. Internally it was made of copper and went up through five floors inclusive of the lantern. There was always some section of this that was wearing out and needed renewal.
Sometimes they would send off a Coppersmith to do the job, but at others it was left to any visiting Mechanic or Electrician. In theory, we should only need to refer to a drawing and state a lettered diagram, for us to get the right section to fit in, but it did not work that simple.
From time to time someone had altered the drawing and the station drawing did not match the workshop. Although as far as we were concerned there was no drawing. Therefore keepers would send in there own measurements which could vary between a good fit and a very bad one. We also had two major sections of the chimney which were substantially horizontal. This may be alright as far as smoke goes, but a much greater problem when it comes to deposits of soot.
There would be trap slides in the side of the chimney which in theory again was for the purpose of passing a heavy lead ball attached to a sweeps brush in the shape of a bristly ball.
According to regulations, the chimney was supposed to be swept every month in this fashion, but I never saw it done. One was supposed to go on the roof remove the lid from the 'storm guard' drop down the weight attached to a line which in turn was attached to one side of the sweep brush. The other side was attached to another line which the bloke on the roof kept hold of.
The weight was expected to be passed from trap door to trap door till it reached the stove, then the fellow on the roof would pull it all the way back up again, a distance of about 60 feet.
My method was more simple, and a task I took upon myself. Once a week I would clean the chimney by opening the traps and seeing how much soot there was and shovelling it out into a bucket with tools I had made for the job, and where I could not reach, by means of a rake, push the soot to the next bend and to the floor below, where I could extract it, or to the damper stage of the stove.
One of the big snags in all this chimney was, that the further away from the fire the cooler the chimney, until once in the lantern and out side it was quite cold, in which case the warmth condensed and came back down the chimney as water droplets, which mixing with the soot made a corrosive substance that in turn eroded the copper.
One Mechanic, Bill Malvey, decided he had the solution to this problem and persuaded the Engineer in Chief, that the answer was to build a Klondike Chimney, this being two chimneys in one, the outer one protecting the inner one from the direct cold. It worked to a degree.
This had necessitated making some flanges for the roof to pass the pipes through. The trouble was, that the person who measured the flanges, did not take into consideration that the roof of the lantern was curved. Therefore these two flat sections of brass arrived, with an oval hole through the middle.
At that date, Trinity did not supply their staff with power drills, and all the holes were drilled by hand and the large oval hole through the 3 eighths of an inch copper roof was all laboriously cut by hand. Then the brass ovals had to be filed out to fit the chimney properly.
Having carried out the operation, the roof leaked like a sieve at the first rain, and I cannot recall whether there were still staff there to deal with it, or whether we coped by packing various things to reduce the need for buckets to catch the water below.
Ultimately the leaks were contained and there was never any conclusion that this was a better system or not.
Of course the fundamental cause of the problem was Trinity. Having replaced the old Cornish ranges with more up to date and modern appliances, they had not got the intelligence to supply the right type of fuel. This should have been Anthracite, or at worst coke. The soft coal they supplied was very soot producing and the chimneys would get choked.
A very good way to clear this was a minor explosion, but one had to be careful, and some clever people trying to emulate you could make a God Almighty mess. The method was to get a shovel on which one had put a paraffin soaked rag or cotton waste. This you ignited then put it through the fire door, closing it quickly.
The heat would cause the oil to vaporize and the flame would cause a mild explosion which cleared the flues. If you just put the oily rag in without lighting it, it would vaporize without the means of ignition and you could get a terrific bang that would lift the top off the stove. One had to take care.
These new electric stations it was decided should be serviced by a mechanic and electrician every six months, so we were now assured of frequent visitors, some were welcome and many were not.
We were still having problems with the engine shutting down for no apparent reason. One theory was that they were getting over heated as there was not sufficient ventilation.
I recall that there was a device attached to the engine starting cabinet, with a dial, one could not read much on it other than figures. I was told that it was a temperature control. One set of Out Station men worked on this with the intention to either strengthen or weaken its tensile strength so that it would operate at a different temperature, but their effect caused no appreciable difference.
Many years later when I returned to the station I found that this particular instrument had been discarded. I thought it might be useful to me as a temperature control and took it home, when taking it apart to look at the connections, I noticed something that had not been apparent before. There were some letters, not visible through the panel. I then discovered that this was in fact a cut out for over amperage.
Continued in part 5.
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