John Richardson Wigham
Encyclopedia
John Richardson Wigham was a prominent lighthouse
engineer of the 19th century.
Wigham was born to a Quaker family in Newington, Edinburgh
, Scotland
. His father, Henry, operated a mill for the manufacture of shawl
s. When he was 15 years old he was apprenticed
to his brother-in-law Joshua Edmundson in Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland. Edmundson & Co. dealt in iron
-mongery, ran a brass
foundry
, and carried out tin plate working
and japanning
(metal paintwork). After John joined, they also provided gas generation plants
. On 26 January 1848, Joshua unexpectedly died. Though John was only 19 years old, he took over operation of the company and provided for his sister and her children.
Despite his relative youth and limited education John Wigham proved to be a very successful businessman. He concentrated on the provision of more efficient gas-plants of his own design, and Edmundson & Co prospered.
Wigham's relatives, in Scotland, were involved in shipbuilding
, and he developed an interest in lighting used as a navigational aid
at sea. Initially, buoy
s only had bells to warn mariners at night: the difficulty lay in designing an oil-lamp
which could burn while unattended and not be extinguished by waves and storms. The first successful lighted buoy was patented by John Wigham in 1861. It was installed in the river Clyde
.
illumination of lighthouses. In 1865 the Baily Lighthouse
at Howth Head
was fitted with Wigham's new gas 'crocus' burnerThe 'crocus' burner was important in that it established the superiority of gas over oil, however Wigham replaced the 'crocus' design with his 'composite' burner this design was , which was 4 times more powerful than equivalent oil lights. An improved 'composite' design, installed in the Baily light in 1868, was 13 times more powerful than the most brilliant light then known, according to the scientist John Tyndall
, an advisor to the United Kingdom
's lighthouse authority, Trinity House
.
In 1870, the light at Wicklow Head
was fitted with Wigham's patent
intermittent flashing mechanism, which timed the gas supply by means of clockwork
. When this mechanism was combined with a revolving lens
in Rockabill
Lighthouse, the world's first lighthouse with a group-flashing characteristic was produced.
Wigham had a long-standing rivalry with the Engineer-in-Chief of Trinity House, James Nicholas Douglass
, which erupted over trials of rival gas, oil and electric illumination systems conducted at South Foreland Lighthouse
, Dover
, in 1884-5. Tyndall, still acting as a scientific consultant, accused Douglass of using his position to influence the trials' outcome and ensure the adoption of his own patents over those of Wigham. Wigham also stated that Douglass had used elements of one of his rejected designs. As a result of the dispute, Tyndall resigned, while Wigham was eventually paid £2500 by the Board of Trade
for patent infringement.
-fuelled buoy lights and acetylene lighting
equipment. He was working on new electric illumination systems at the time of his death in 1906. Lights supplied by Edmundson & Co were used in lighthouses all over the globe; the firm still exists today as F. Barrett & Co, of Dublin.
Wigham was also director and vice-chairman of the Dublin United Tramways Company, and latterly president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce
. An advocate of temperance
, he twice turned down a knighthood due to his religious beliefs.
He is buried in the Quaker cemetery at Blackrock, Dublin.
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
engineer of the 19th century.
Early life
Newington, Edinburgh
Newington is an area of Edinburgh, Scotland, about 15 to 20 minutes walk south of the city centre, the Royal Mile and Princes Street.It is the easternmost district of the area formerly covered by the Burgh Muir, gifted to the City by David I in the 12th Century...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. His father, Henry, operated a mill for the manufacture of shawl
Shawl
A shawl is a simple item of clothing, loosely worn over the shoulders, upper body and arms, and sometimes also over the head. It is usually a rectangular or square piece of cloth, that is often folded to make a triangle but can also be triangular in shape...
s. When he was 15 years old he was apprenticed
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
to his brother-in-law Joshua Edmundson in Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland. Edmundson & Co. dealt in iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
-mongery, ran a brass
Brass
Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions of zinc and copper can be varied to create a range of brasses with varying properties.In comparison, bronze is principally an alloy of copper and tin...
foundry
Foundry
A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal in a mold, and removing the mold material or casting after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals processed are aluminum and cast iron...
, and carried out tin plate working
Tinning
Tinning is the process of thinly coating sheets of wrought iron or steel with tin, and the resulting product is known as tinplate. It is most often used to prevent rust....
and japanning
Japanning
Japanning describes the European imitation of Asian lacquerwork, originally used on furniture. The word originated in the 17th century.- Japanned :Japanned is most often a heavy black lacquer, almost like enamel paint...
(metal paintwork). After John joined, they also provided gas generation plants
Gas generator
A gas generator usually refers to a device, often similar to a solid rocket or a liquid rocket that burns to produce large volumes of relatively cool gas, instead of maximizing the temperature and specific impulse. The low temperature allows the gas to be put to use more easily in many...
. On 26 January 1848, Joshua unexpectedly died. Though John was only 19 years old, he took over operation of the company and provided for his sister and her children.
Despite his relative youth and limited education John Wigham proved to be a very successful businessman. He concentrated on the provision of more efficient gas-plants of his own design, and Edmundson & Co prospered.
Wigham's relatives, in Scotland, were involved in shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
, and he developed an interest in lighting used as a navigational aid
Navigational aid
A navigational aid is any sort of marker which aids the traveler in navigation; the term is most commonly used to refer to nautical or aviation travel...
at sea. Initially, buoy
Buoy
A buoy is a floating device that can have many different purposes. It can be anchored or allowed to drift. The word, of Old French or Middle Dutch origin, is now most commonly in UK English, although some orthoepists have traditionally prescribed the pronunciation...
s only had bells to warn mariners at night: the difficulty lay in designing an oil-lamp
Oil lamp
An oil lamp is an object used to produce light continuously for a period of time using an oil-based fuel source. The use of oil lamps began thousands of years ago and is continued to this day....
which could burn while unattended and not be extinguished by waves and storms. The first successful lighted buoy was patented by John Wigham in 1861. It was installed in the river Clyde
River Clyde
The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....
.
Work on lighthouse illumination
In 1863 Wigham was given a grant by the Dublin Ballast Board to develop a system for gasCoal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...
illumination of lighthouses. In 1865 the Baily Lighthouse
Baily Lighthouse
The Baily Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the southeastern part of Howth Head in Dublin, Ireland. It is maintained by the Commissioners of Irish Lights.-Early history:...
at Howth Head
Howth Head
Howth Head is a headland north east of Dublin City in Ireland. Howth falls under the local governance of fingal county council. Entry to the headland is at Sutton while village of Howth and the harbour are on the northern shore. Baily Lighthouse is on the southeastern part of Howth Head...
was fitted with Wigham's new gas 'crocus' burnerThe 'crocus' burner was important in that it established the superiority of gas over oil, however Wigham replaced the 'crocus' design with his 'composite' burner this design was , which was 4 times more powerful than equivalent oil lights. An improved 'composite' design, installed in the Baily light in 1868, was 13 times more powerful than the most brilliant light then known, according to the scientist John Tyndall
John Tyndall
John Tyndall FRS was a prominent Irish 19th century physicist. His initial scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he studied thermal radiation, and produced a number of discoveries about processes in the atmosphere...
, an advisor to the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's lighthouse authority, Trinity House
Trinity House
The Corporation of Trinity House of Deptford Strond is the official General Lighthouse Authority for England, Wales and other British territorial waters...
.
In 1870, the light at Wicklow Head
Wicklow Head
Wicklow Head is a headland near the southeast edge of the town of Wicklow in County Wicklow, approximately 3 km from the centre of the town.Geographically, it is the easternmost point on the mainland of the Republic of Ireland.-See also:...
was fitted with Wigham's patent
Patent
A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....
intermittent flashing mechanism, which timed the gas supply by means of clockwork
Clockwork
A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....
. When this mechanism was combined with a revolving lens
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens is a type of lens originally developed by French physicist Augustin-Jean Fresnel for lighthouses.The design allows the construction of lenses of large aperture and short focal length without the mass and volume of material that would be required by a lens of conventional design...
in Rockabill
Rockabill
Rockabill is a group of two islands, "The Rock" and "The Bill", lying in the western Irish Sea about 6 kilometres east-north-east of Skerries, County Dublin, Ireland. An alternative Irish name, Carraig Dhá Bheola, meaning Two Lips Rock, is probably just a corruption of Carraig Dábhiolla.The...
Lighthouse, the world's first lighthouse with a group-flashing characteristic was produced.
Wigham had a long-standing rivalry with the Engineer-in-Chief of Trinity House, James Nicholas Douglass
James Nicholas Douglass
Sir James Nicholas Douglass, FRS, , was an English civil engineer, a prolific lighthouse builder and designer, most famous for the design and construction of the fourth Eddystone Lighthouse, for which he was knighted....
, which erupted over trials of rival gas, oil and electric illumination systems conducted at South Foreland Lighthouse
South Foreland Lighthouse
South Foreland Lighthouse is a Victorian lighthouse on the South Foreland in St. Margaret's Bay, Dover, Kent, England, used to warn ships approaching the nearby Goodwin Sands. It went out of service in 1988 and is currently owned by the National Trust...
, Dover
Dover
Dover is a town and major ferry port in the home county of Kent, in South East England. It faces France across the narrowest part of the English Channel, and lies south-east of Canterbury; east of Kent's administrative capital Maidstone; and north-east along the coastline from Dungeness and Hastings...
, in 1884-5. Tyndall, still acting as a scientific consultant, accused Douglass of using his position to influence the trials' outcome and ensure the adoption of his own patents over those of Wigham. Wigham also stated that Douglass had used elements of one of his rejected designs. As a result of the dispute, Tyndall resigned, while Wigham was eventually paid £2500 by the Board of Trade
Board of Trade
The Board of Trade is a committee of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom, originating as a committee of inquiry in the 17th century and evolving gradually into a government department with a diverse range of functions...
for patent infringement.
Other inventions; later life
Wigham made many other inventions, largely in the area of maritime safety. He invented new oil-lamps, gas-lights and electric-lights, gas-powered fog signals, buoys, petroleumPetroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
-fuelled buoy lights and acetylene lighting
Acetylene Lamp
For the lighting device, see Acetylene lamp, also known as Drake, is a fictional character created by Osamu Tezuka who recurrently appears in his works, usually in a villainous role.-Description:...
equipment. He was working on new electric illumination systems at the time of his death in 1906. Lights supplied by Edmundson & Co were used in lighthouses all over the globe; the firm still exists today as F. Barrett & Co, of Dublin.
Wigham was also director and vice-chairman of the Dublin United Tramways Company, and latterly president of the Dublin Chamber of Commerce
Dublin Chamber of Commerce
Dublin Chamber of Commerce is one of the oldest such organisations in Europe and traces its origins back to the Autumn of 1695 when the Dublin shipping company of Ferris, Twiggs and Cash sent their vessel Ouzel Galley on an important trading journey to the near-Eastern Seas. With provisions, a crew...
. An advocate of temperance
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
, he twice turned down a knighthood due to his religious beliefs.
He is buried in the Quaker cemetery at Blackrock, Dublin.