John Richardson Wigham
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This article concerns the Irish-based inventor and lighthouse engineer, not his cousin the shipbuilder John Wigham Richardson
John Richardson Wigham (1829 - 1906) was one of the greatest figures in lighthouse engineering. He was born in Newington, Edinburgh, Scotland on 15 January 1829. He died in Dublin 16 November 1906.
His father, Henry, operated a mill for the manufacture of shawls. When he was 15 years old he was apprenticed to his brother-in-law Joshua Edmundson in Capel Street, Dublin, Ireland. Edmundson & Co. had an iron-mongery, brass foundry, tin plate working and japanning (metal paintwork). After John joined, they provided gas generation plants. On 26 January 1848, Joshua unexpectedly died. John was 19 years old. He operated the company and provided for his sister and her children.
Despite his youth and limited education John Wigham proved to be a very successful businessman. He concentrated on the provision of more efficient gas-plants of his own design. Edmundson & Co prospered.
His relatives, in Scotland, were involved in shipbuilding. He had an interest in lighting at sea. Initially buoys only had bells to warn mariners. The difficulty was in designing an oil-lamp which could burn while unattended and not be extinguished by waves and storms. The first successful lighted buoy was patented by John Wigham in 1861. It was installed in the river Clyde[1].
In 1865 the Baily Lighthouse at Howth Head was fitted with a gas lantern, which Wigham designed. It produced 3,000 Candela (candle power), compared with 240 candela produced by the oil lamps used in lighthouses at that time.
In 1870, the light at Wicklow Head was fitted with his patent intermittent flashing mechanism.
He had many inventions, principally in the area of maritime safety. He invented new oil-lamps, gas-lights and electric-lights, fog-signals, buoys, buoy-lights and acetylene lighting equipment. As lighting moved from oil to gas to electricity, he was always ready to innovate. Lights supplied by Edmundson & Co were used in lighthouses all over the globe.
