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BELL

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 710 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BELL or INCHCAPE See also:

ROCK, a See also:sandstone See also:reef in the See also:North See also:Sea, it in. S.E. of See also:Arbroath, belonging to See also:Forfarshire, See also:Scotland. It See also:measures 2000 ft. in length, is under See also:water at high See also:tide, but at See also:low tide is exposed for a few feet, the sea for a distance of r0o yds. around being then only three fathoms deep. Lying in the See also:fair-way of vessels making or leaving the See also:Tay and Forth, besides ports farther north, it was a See also:constant menace to See also:navigation. In the See also:great See also:gale of 1799 seventy See also:sail, including the " See also:York," 74 guns, were wrecked off the reef, and this disaster compelled the authorities to take steps to protect See also:shipping. Next See also:year See also:Robert See also:Stevenson modelled a See also:tower and reported that its erection was feasible, but it was only in i8o6 that See also:parliamentary See also:powers were obtained, and operations began in See also:August 1807. Though See also:John See also:Rennie had meanwhile been associated with Stevenson as consulting engineer, the structure in See also:design and details is wholly Stevenson's See also:work. The tower is 100 ft. high; its See also:diameter at the See also:base is 42 ft., decreasing to 15 ft. at the See also:top. It is solid for 3o ft. at which height the See also:doorway is placed. The interior is divided into six storeys. After five years the See also:building was finished at a cost of £61,3oo. Since the See also:lighting no wrecks have occurred on the reef.

A bust of Stevenson by See also:

Samuel See also:Joseph (d. 185o) was placed in the tower. According to tradition an See also:abbot of Aberbrothock (Arbroath) had ordered a bell—whence the name of the rock—to be fastened to the reef in such a way that it should See also:respond to the movements of the waves, and thus always See also:ring out a warning to mariners. This See also:signal was wantonly destroyed by a pirate, whose See also:ship was afterwards wrecked at this very spot, the rover and his menbeing drowned.

End of Article: BELL

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BELL, ALEXANDER MELVILLE (1819—1905)

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