Editing Longships Lighthouse (section)

===The first lighthouse===
[[File:William Charles May - Long Ships Lighthouse off the Land^s End, Cornwall - B2018.3.5 - Yale Center for British Art.jpg|thumb|left|The original Longships Lighthouse, photographed in the 1860s.]]
Smith's lighthouse was first lit on 29 September 1795. Built to Wyatt's design, it was a round tower, three storeys high and built of [[granite]], on top of which was a glazed lantern storey with a copper-covered dome. Within the tower itself, the lower level contained a water tank and coal store, the middle floor housed the oil tanks and a kitchen, while the top floor served as a bedroom. The lantern contained a fixed array of eighteen [[Argand lamp]]s with [[Parabolic reflector|reflectors]], arranged in two tiers and shining out to sea,<ref name="WoodmanWilson">{{cite book |last1=Woodman |first1=Richard |last2=Wilson |first2=Jane |title=The Lighthouses of Trinity House |date=2002 |publisher=Thomas Reed |location=Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts. |pages=96–97}}</ref> probably the first time Argand lamps and reflectors had been installed in an offshore lighthouse.<ref name="Nancollas2018">{{cite book |last1=Nancollas |first1=Tom |title=Seashaken Houses: A Lighthouse History from Eddystone to Fastnet |date=2018 |publisher=Particular Books |page=111}}</ref> The tower was only just over {{convert|38|ft}} high, but was built on top of a rock pinnacle meaning that the lantern was {{convert|24|m|disp=flip}} above [[Mean high water spring|sea level]]; nevertheless very high seas obscured its light.<ref>[http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/interactive/gallery/longships.html Trinity House website; Longships lighthouse] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917174100/http://www.trinityhouse.co.uk/interactive/gallery/longships.html |date=17 September 2008 }}; retrieved April 2010</ref> In the early 19th century it was manned by two teams of two keepers, each team being on station for a month at a time.<ref name="Nicholson" />

{{stack|[[File:Cottages at Mayon - geograph.org.uk - 1468949.jpg|thumb|right|The keepers' cottages on the mainland remained in use until 1988.]]}}
In 1836, Trinity House bought out the lease of the Longships (and other remaining privately owned lighthouses). The Corporation built a set of keepers' dwellings onshore, near [[Sennen Cove]], in 1855, facing the lighthouse out to sea; keepers' families lived there, as did the keepers themselves when not on station.<ref name="Boyle1997" /> By this time there were still four keepers, but three now manned the lighthouse while one (by monthly rotation) was ashore.<ref name="RC1861">{{cite web | title = Lighthouse management : the report of the Royal Commissioners on Lights, Buoys, and Beacons, 1861, examined and refuted Vol. 2 | year = 1861 | page = 89 | url = https://archive.org/stream/lighthousemanage02blak#page/89/mode/1up }}</ref>