Mew Island 1888 - My most boring post ever (and that's saying something!)

Beautiful mid-twentieth century watercolour by Ursula Spry of Lighthouse Island and Mew Island. Not sure if this was painted from the large Copeland Island or the mainland

For a bit of light reading recently, I picked up a book called Proceedings 1888 by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Weighing in at nearly 600 pages, it is basically the story of what the IME did during that year and appears to be an annual publication. Chapters have titles like "Irrigating Machinery on the Pacific Coast," "Experiments on the Friction of a Collar Bearing" and "Riveted Joints Series XIV," the last of which seems particularly riveting.

But, in amongst these nuggets, the IME seem to have held their July meeting in Dublin and William Douglass, who gave us so many fin-de-siecle lighthouses, including the Fastnet, contributes a piece on "Mew Island Lighthouse," four short years since it was first established. Now, although I love lighthouses, I'm not too hot on the scientific stuff but I copy out the chapter now, in the hope that somebody can understand it.