User:Constaunton2001/sandbox

Business life and the screw pile system

Alexander Mitchell was involved in various different projects and business ventures throughout his lifetime. One business in particular that was quite successful was his brick making business. In his fathers will Mitchell was to receive 500 pounds when he reached the age of 23. He then used this money to set up his brick making business and through the success of this business he was able to provide for his family and buy multiple houses. A part from business he was also an inventor. He created various machines to be used in his brick making factories and he also created musical instruments, wooden clocks and windmills. Mitchell's most famous invention is the screw pile system which revolutionised the building of lighthouses. Mitchell believed that many lives could be saved if lighthouses could be built on shoals or sand banks. His invention of the screw pile is said to have heavily been influenced by the cork screw. In order to test out his invention he rented a boat with his son and rowed out to a sandbank in Belfast lough and screwed his screw pile in and left the top of it showing. The next day he came back to find it in the exact same position and still holding firm. He carried out more trials in order to make sure it was safe. In order to get his invention patented he went to London but he encountered great difficulty getting it adopted. In 1838 he was invited by the corporation at Trinity house to lay the foundations of the Maplin sands lighthouse in the Thames estuary. Not all of his lighthouse builds were a success, he attempted to erect a light house on the Kish Bank in Dublin bay and during strong winds the lighthouse collapsed due to the screw piles not being fully secured.