In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

• F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

Eddystone is probably the most famous of all the UK’s lighthouses and was the first in many ways.

• The first lighthouse to be built on a small rock in the open sea.

• The first to use the highly successful Seaton design.

• It was the first Trinity House rock lighthouse to be converted to automatic operation.

Eddystone Lighthouse is on the treacherous Eddystone Rocks, 9 statute miles (14 kilometres) south west of Rame Head, 13 miles southwest of Plymouth. While Rame Head is in Cornwall, the rocks are in Devon and composed of Precambrian Gneiss.

The current structure is the fourth lighthouse to be built on the site. The first and second were destroyed. The third, also known as Smeaton’s Tower,is the best known because of its influence on lighthouse design and its importance in the development of concrete for building. Its upper portions have been re-erected in Plymouth as a monument, and is open to the public. The fourth and largest of the Eddystone lighthouses was completed in May 1882 amidst a blaze of publicity and, as we see, still survives today. It was founded on the actual body of the Eddystone reef some 40 yards to the south-east of Smeaton’s site and was completed in three and a half years. It was designed and built by James Douglass, Engineer-in-Chief of Trinity House and stands at 40 metres high.

Over the last 60 to 70 years a number of changes have been introduced to the tower. Electric power was introduced in 1959 and a helicopter landing pad was built on the top in 1980 to enable maintenance personnel to land and carry out inspections. In 1982 the lighthouse became fully automatic, bringing an end to 284 years of Keepers of the Eddystone Light. It is now controlled from Penlee Point Signal Station, near Cawsand, Cornwall. Most recently, in August 1999, the electric light in the lantern began to be generated by solar panels. Today, the beam can be seen up to 17 miles away.