Triple-stumper from Friday, 1-28: In Engineering: “John Smeaton is known for the all-masonry one of these he built on Eddystone Reef near Plymouth, England.” No one rang in on this one. I was wondering what is meant by “all-masonry,” as opposed to any other way that lighthouses are made. When I look up “masonry” in my dictionary (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged), it says, “something that is built by a mason : something constructed of the materials (as stone, brick, concrete block, tiles) used by masons.” When I saw that, I wanted to find an image of the lighthouse referred to in the clue:
Lighthouses, it turns out, were usually made of wood.
Smeaton was a civil engineer who lived from 1724-1792. This lighthouse, made of hydraulic lime (concrete that will set under water), was in use from 1759 to 1877. By then, erosion was causing the lighthouse to shake from side to side. The original, then, is no longer there except for the foundation. A memorial lighthouse was built nearby.