1803 paper: PENOBSCOT LIGHTHOUSE Maine - Whitehead; building details NAPOLEON for Sale

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1803 paper: PENOBSCOT LIGHTHOUSE Maine - Whitehead; building details NAPOLEON For Sale

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1803 paper: PENOBSCOT LIGHTHOUSE Maine - Whitehead; building details NAPOLEON:
$19.95

Columbian Centinel
and
Massachusetts Federalist
July 27, 1803This is a Boston newspaper which was published over 200 years ago! It measures 13 x 20 inches in size, and is 4 pages long. The paper’s two sheets are separated at the spine, and the issue has some typical age browning; but it was printed on a good quality rag-content paper, and is still in excellent, attractive condition. It will be shipped folded once, in a poly bag to help preserve the paper in the future.The paper’s second page has a lot of foreign news, including five mentions of Napoleon, with one of them saying, “By Bonaparte’s tyrannical edict of the 23d, he attempts, it feems, to juftify himfelf by the law of Nations . . .” (Note that this newspaper uses the spelling rules of the day, in which the letter “s” was replaced by “f” in many places in the text.) * * * * * * * * * *
Of prime interest is a lengthy and detailed official “NOTICE on the front page, soliciting offers for a government project which eventually led to the construction of a lighthouse on the Penobscot River in Maine, in 1807. The location continues to be occupied by a lighthouse more than two centuries later, which is now known as the Whitehead Light.The Notice takes up an entire column, one-fourth of the whole front page. In small print, it goes into great detail in what is desired for this proposed lighthouse. It gives a wonderful description of how these historic structures were built, and would make a great display piece.It says, in part:Notice.
_________________PLAN of a LIGHT-HOUSE, and DWELLING-HOUSE for the Keeper of it, to be erected at White-Head, Diftrict of Maine, near the Mufcle Ridges, at the mouth of the Penobfcot River, in the State of Maffachufetts.The form is to be an Octagon; the foundation to be of ftone. and funk two feet below the furface of the ground, two feet and a half thick . . . The octagon pyramid to be of wood, good oak or white pine timber, to be 19 feet in diameter at the bafe thereof, the pyramid to be 30 feet high from the top of the underpinning to the top of the floor on which the Lantern is to reft. . . . The frame is to be covered with good feafoned white pine boards, 1 inch thick, feather-edged, over which is to be laid a good coat of white pine thingles. . . There are to be five windows in the pyramid . . . with nine fquares in each window, of glafs 6 by 8 . . . There is to be a centre post in the pyramid. . . . Five flights of ftairs are to be erected, to lead up to the lantern; to be built with good planks, with a proper hand railing on each fide. . . .On the top of the wooden work of the pyramid is to be framed a ftrong tier of joift 11 inches deep . . . the whole platform is to be covered and made tight with good sheet copper. The pyramid is to be furnifhed with one fuitable electrical rod or conductor . . . . . . . . A complete and fufficient Iron Lantern of 5 feet diameter and in an octagonal form, is to reft on the platform . . . . The Lantern is to be fecured by eight iron braces . . . .The Lantern is to five feet and a half high from the floor to the bottom of the dome or roof, which is to be two feet and four inches in heighth, covered with good fheet lead, or copper, the rafters of which are to be framed into an iron hoop,or sart tire fize, nine inches diameter, over which is to be a copper funnel, fifteen inches in heighth, through which the fmoak may pafs. This funnel is to be fecured from the rain by a copper covering, nearly in the form of an umbrella. . . .The whole number of fquares between the pofts muft be occupied by fafhes, viz.—Ten of them are to be in each eighth of the Lantern; each fafh is to be glazed with ftrong Bofton made glafs . . . . There is to be an iron railing round the Lantern, fo as to give fafety in paffing round it . . . . The entrance upon the platform, is through a trap door . . .Alfo,
A framed Dwelling-House, one ftory of 7 feet ftud; the houfe is to be placed in the moft convenient fpot, within about 60 or 70 feet of the Light-Houfe. The Houfe is to be fifteen feet wide, and thirty-two long, and fo arranged that the lantern may be feen from the front windows, with a Cellar the width of the houfe, and ten feet the other way in the clear. The Cellar is to be funk fix feet; if the rocks will admit it . . . . There is to be a ftack of chimnies nearly in the centre of the houfe . . . The paffage way into the houfe is to be againft the chimnies, and a door from the entry to the right and left, for paffing into the two rooms . . . two fire places, with iron manteltrees and a fuitable flue oven. . . . brick and lime mortar . . . ceiling is to be lathed and plaftered. The floors . . . to be double . . . nailed through with 20d nails.A Well is to be funk as near the dwelling-houfe as a fufficient quantity of frefh water can be obtained by digging from 20 to 23 feet, with a good plank tub in the bottom . . .The Undertaker is to procure and pay for all the materials, labor, provifions, . . . for a fum propofed . . . and to execute the above defcribed work . . . in a good and workmanlike manner. . . .Thofe who fhall incline to perfomr the ferices above mentioned, will pleafe to fubmit their terms, fealed, into the Collector ov Bofton, on or before the 15th day of Auguft next. . ._gsrx_vers_1651 (GS 9.7.3 (1651))