Talk:Screw-pile lighthouse

Division

I removed a section of this article and recreated it as "pile lighthouse". I've read a fair amount about lighthouses over the years, and the Florida structures are always classed as a separate style of lighthouse from the screw-pile ones. --AlbertHerring 23:24, 18 August 2006 (UTC)

I reverted the removal of the paragraph about Florida reef lighthouses. While some of the Florida reef lighthouses were built on piles driven into the bottom, the American Shoal Light, Carysfort Reef Light, Fowey Rocks Light and Sand Key Light were built on screw-pile foundations, per the U.S. Coast Guard Historic Light Station Information for Florida. All but the Sand Key Light are still operational. -- Donald Albury^(Talk) 10:49, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

OK, thanks for the clarification. I misunderstood it as saying that all of the reef lights were screwpiles, which I'd never heard. Although come to think of it, I've never seen the distinction drawn...just goes to show how woefully inadequate the print media on the subject is. --AlbertHerring 17:49, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

One of the sources I used, Love Dean's Reef Lights, has quite a bit of detail, including, for example, the original drawing for the Sand Key Light showing the screws on the ends of the pilings, the manufacturer of the tower (John F. Riley Ironworks of Charleston, South Carolina), and a detailed description of the seventeen screw piles used (wrought iron, eight inches in diameter, thirteen feet long, with a cast iron screw with a flange two feet in diameter). Unfortunately, the book only covers six lighthouses. I wish I could find such detailed coverage of other lighthouses. -- Donald Albury^(Talk) 21:34, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

So do I. Especially since the most in-depth source about Chesapeake lighthouses, which includes a fair amount of information on the screw-piles (De Gast's Lighthouses of the Chesapeake) is riddled with errors. --AlbertHerring 17:06, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

On Submarine Foundations

Google Books reports the existence of On Submarine Foundations, Particularly the Screw-pile and Moorings by Alexander Mitchell in published by Mitchell's Screw-pile and mooring, 1848.^[1] At present the article does not have a bibliography and so I did not add this. Worldcat reports there's a number of editions.^[2] Snippets are available on line that look fascinating as it appears the screw-piles were also used to anchor ship moorings.^[3][4]

There's also Iron: An Illustrated Weekly Journal for Iron and Steel Manufacturers, Metallurgists, Mine Proprietors, Engineers, Shipbuilders, Scientists, Capitalists ..., Volume 46 by Sholto Percy; Knight and Lacey, 1847 which mentions that the screw-piles were useful as waves went through them meaning little vibration was transmitted to the structure.^[5]

I don't know if we want to add this to the article but while the initial patent was in 1933 it appears that in 1847 Alexander Mitchell and his son, John Mitchell, applied to have the patent extended by another 14 years as they initially had not been able to take advantage of the patent. They were successful.^{(page 115 to 122)} That document also mentions a benefit of screw piles over more solid foundations in that the waves went through the piles and there was very little spray up onto the lighthouse. --Marc Kupper|talk 04:32, 12 March 2016 (UTC)