Madras’s Doric Column lighthouse

by Dr A. Raman

But thou, whose spendour dims each beam,
Whose firm, unmoved position might declare
Thy throne a monarch’s – like the north-star’s gleam,
Reveals each snare.

– Ode to the lighthouse

at Malta
El Duque de Rivas (1791-1865)

Historically, three lighthouses have functioned in Madras city. The present lighthouse, built in 1977, is the fourth and is credited with a few ‘special’ features not found in others in the rest of India.
A lighthouse was proposed in 1795 to enable vessels to enter the open-anchorage area at any time of the day. Initially, the steeple of St Mary’s Church in Fort St. George was identified as the site for the light, but this was opposed to by the Church Chaplain. Therefore, the terrace of The Exchange (the Fort Museum today) was identified as the next best site and the first lighthouse of Madras came up here in 1796. A ‘large’ lantern consisting of 12 oil-wick lamps, fixed at 99’ (c. 30 m) height, and fed by coconut oil functioned. Locally-made mirrors were used as reflectors. The beam from the lamp swept the sea as far as 25 miles, it is claimed. This lighthouse operated until 1841.

The Doriccolumn sans the light compartment (left] in the High Court complex of Madras.

A petition made by Vice-Admiral John Gore in 1834 reiterated the need of a technologically advanced facility in Madras. Consequently, the Court of Directors of the East India Company directed Captain John Thomas Smith, Madras Army Corps of Engineers, who, at that point of time, was on furlough in the UK, to develop a proposal. The Company felt that the new lighthouse should be located further north of the Exchange. The Esplanade – site of the Madras High Court today – was identified as the location for the new lighthouse. He designed and constructed what is popularly known today as the Doric column lighthouse.

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John Smith was born at Foëlallt (Cardiganshire [Ceredigion], Wales). After studying mathematics, he won a commission in the Royal Engineers and left for India in 1825. He was appointed as the Executive Engineer in the Northern Districts of Madras Presidency (Ganjam, Rajamundhry, and Vizagapatam). He was an enthusiastic practical chemist and an experimenter and passionately explored the use of lime and country mortars as building material. He translated Louis-Joseph Vicat’s Résumé des Connaissances Positives Actuelles sur les Qualités, le Choix et la Convenance Réciproque des Matériaux Propres à la Fabrication des Mortiers et Ciments Calcaires (1828, l’Imprimérie de Firmin Didot, Paris, 149 pages) into English. This translation included notes of several of his own trials. As the second book of its kind in the English-speaking world, this edition received a grand response. Smith was passionate about Vicat and French civil engineering theory and practice.

Smith served on a committee delegated to report on the possibility of developing the Red Hills railroad and canal in the neighbourhood of Madras city. The Red Hills Rail road was the earliest railroad to transport goods in India. He surveyed the Ennore and Pulicat Lakes to ascertain the practicality and cost of keeping open the sandbar of the Kuam (read as Cooum) River by artificially closing that of the Ennore River. Thus, the waters collected in the Pulicat Lake would be directed to the Kuam, a measure, which, he considered, would afford use to residents of the then existing suburb ‘Black Town’, besides improving the water communication between Madras and Sulurpet.

He was elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society in 1836. Earlier, he was elected President of the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. He established and, for the first few years, edited the Reports (Correspondence and Original Papers) on Various Professional Subjects Connected with the Duties of the Corps of Engineers, Madras Presidency printed at the Vepery Mission Press, Madras. He wrote articles on varied engineering themes in this journal. After several years of stay as the Madras Mint Master, he was appointed the Calcutta Mint Master, from where he retired in the route of Colonel. An innovation Smith introduced, while at the Madras Mint, was adjusting weights of coins using diameters of coin pieces, instead of their thicknesses, which resulted in the design of a novel machine. This machine was capable of weighing 20 or 100 blanks to the accuracy of half ‘grain’. This Smith machine won an award at the London International Exhibition, 1851.

On returning to England, Smith was employed as a consulting engineer by a few Indian irrigation companies. He later became a Director, and, eventually, the Chairperson of the Madras Railway Company – a post which he held until his death in 1882. Smith also wrote on aspects of metallurgy and on political economy.

While serving the Madras Army as Captain, in 1839, Smith published An investigation of the nature and optical efficiency of the combination of mirrors used to augment the illuminating power of the Madras light. In the preamble, he indicates that the text published in 1839 was actually written in 1833. He emphasises the need to illuminate the Coromandel Coast using correct scientific theory. In 1839, he published a 55-page long paper in the Reports on Various Professional Subjects Connected with the Duties of the Corps of Engineers, Madras Presidency, which were reproduced in Papers on Subjects Connected with the Duties of Corps of Royal Engineers Contributed by the Officers of Royal Engineers published from Woolwich, England. In this paper, consisting of four parts, he describes the physical details of the Doric Column lighthouse.

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Work on the Doric Column lighthouse commenced in 1838. The Government of Madras announced on 13 December 1843:

‘The light is of the flashing description and the duration of the flashes to that of the eclipses or dark periods is in the ratio of 2 to 3 – but as the nature of the motion is reciprocating instead of rotator, the above ratio merely ­expresses the average proportion of the light and dark intervals, which are themselves variable, according to the position of the spectator. The rapidity of movement is adjusted, that the duration of the flashes will vary from 0 sec. to 48 sec., and that of the eclipses from 0 sec. to 72 sec., the sums of the duration of light and darkness bearing, however, in every position, the constant ratio of 2 to 3.”

The column for the lighthouse was 125’ [38 m] tall. Popularly referred to as the Doric Column, this structure matches with the Grecian pillars in bearing a fluted exterior and slightly wider base than the top with no carving or ornamentation. Many 19th Century buildings featured Doric columns, as part of the then popular neo-classical architecture. Charnockite (= Pallavaram gneiss) used to build the Madras column was extracted from Pallavaram. Work was completed at a cost of Rs. 60,000 (£ 7500) in 1840. The corners of the pedestal were covered by four supporting structures, which enabled inclusion of tightly compressed staff quarters within the pedestal.

Smith superintended the lighthouse until a trained team (one superintendent, one assistant superintendent, one headman, and six assistants) took over its day-to-day management from October 1845.

The light apparatus to sit atop the column was designed and built by Smith using local materials. Since its delivery was delayed, the oil-wick lantern of the first lighthouse was temporarily shifted. With the new lantern ready in 1843, this lighthouse became fully operational from January 1, 1844. The lighthouse, endowed with a first class, fixed flashing light, serviced vessels sailing in the Bay of Bengal up to a distance of 15 miles (24.14 km) until 1894.

(To be Concluded)

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