'Plan and Description of the Work Yard at Mill Bay and its Utensils', c 1756.
© Science Museum / Science & Society Picture Library
Engraving by J Record made in 1789 showing a plan of the work-yard at Mill Bay and some of the equipment which was used to prepare the stone for the third Eddystone Lighthouse. Designed by the English civil engineer John Smeaton (1724-1792) and completed in 1759, this was the third lighthouse to be built on Eddystone Rocks, 14 miles off the coast of Plymouth in Devon. The first two lighthouses, of 1696 and 1709, were destroyed by storm and fire respectively. Smeaton's lighthouse, being the first to be built entirely of stone, revolutionised lighthouse design and set a precedent for later lighthouse engineers.