Smeaton
Full Name: John Smeaton
Achievements: Helped establish civil engineering as a profession, and built the Eddystone lighthouse
Born: June 8, 1724; Austhorpe, near Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Died: October 28, 1792; Austhorpe, Yorkshire, England (Aged 78)
Field & Discipline: Civil Engineering
Language: English
Father: Father: William Smeaton
Mother: Mary Stones
Siblings: 1 sister survived infancy
Spouse: Anne Jenkinson
Children: 2 daughters
Education: Leeds Grammar School
Major Work:
Eddystone Lighthouse
Life & Times:
After working in his father’s legal office, Smeaton went to London, where he took a job with a maker of mathematical instruments and had some success with an improved vacuum pump and a mariner’s compass. He attended the meetings of the [member of] Royal Society*, was elected a fellow in 1750 and contributed several papers to its journal.
Smeaton now turned to engineering and began to undertake experiments on water and wind. He developed a new form of pulley tackle and built a couple of watermills. He also wrote a paper on improved air pumps. Diving bells, such as that invented by the astronomer improved [diving-bell of] Halley*, were increasingly used in underwater construction and Smeaton added an air pump to the diving bell.
In 1754 he visited Belgium Holland and France to look at continental engineering. He travelled around by boat and inspected sluices, harbours and canal systems. In Leyden, he called on the Dutch scientist [visited] Petrus van Musschenbroek*.
In 1755 the wooden Eddystone lighthouse burned down and Smeaton was recommended by the president of the Royal Society to rebuild it. He paid his first visit to the site in 1756 and over the next three years virtually lived on the job. He used blocks of stone, dovetailed together, and this construction became standard for exposed buildings. Smeaton discovered that the best mortar for underwater construction was limestone with a high proportion of clay, a mixture which is now commonly used and known as hydraulic lime.
The first stone was put in place in June 1757 and the work completed in 1759. Light was delivered by twenty-four candles in a chandelier, oil lamps having been found to deposit too much smoke on the lantern glass. The lighthouse lasted for over a hundred years and was only replaced because the reef deteriorated.
The project made Smeaton’s name and he developed a large consultancy practice. His name as a scientist within the Royal Society was also established in 1759 with the presentation on his most famous paper, “An Experimental Enquiry concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind…” based on experiments he had made in 1752-3. Smeaton was the first to make an accurate measurement of head loss in the flow of water through pipes.
He set up his consultancy practice at his home in Yorkshire and spent three or four months in London each year, attending meetings of the Royal Society and giving advice to parliamentary committees in parliament on projects such as the extension of the Duke of [adviser to] Bridgewater’s* canal from Manchester to Liverpool. His first major commission, in 1760, was to open up the river Calder for navigation; by 1764, eighteen miles of waterways were in place, with seventeen locks.
In Scotland, industrialists were keen to extend their waterways and in 1764 [assisted] Watt* had been asked to survey a ditch canal in Perthshire. Watt’s expertise in this area was limited, Smeaton was called in, and in 1768 he began work on the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland. It provided a water route between the Atlantic and the North Sea and, thirty-eight miles long with thirty-nine locks, was the largest canal project undertaken in Britain to that date.
In 1771, together with colleagues, he founded the Society of Civil Engineers, a dining club which was a forerunner of the Institute of Civil Engineers founded in the next century by engineers such as [anticipated] Donkin*.
Smeaton’s most important completed jobs included masonry bridges at Coldstream, Banff and Perth in Scotland and the completion of Ramsgate harbor.
Every major industrialist was looking for improved efficiency in power and during the 1770’s Smeaton acted as consultant to the Carron ironworks, owned by the industrialist and chemist [consultant to] Roebuck*.
Although the advances Smeaton made in improving the Newcomen steam engine were later overtaken by the engine produced by [corresponded with] Boulton* and James Watt, with whom he corresponded on the subject.
In 1776 he published a paper on an investigation into the relation between work and kinetic energy, and in 1782 on investigations into the loss of energy in non-elastic impact. These papers were milestones in the development of mechanics; they were reprinted many times and translated into French.
Smeaton was a keen astronomer who built his own telescope, and published a number of papers on astronomy. [painted by] Gainsborough* was commissioned by the brewer [his portrait commissioned by] Whitbread* to paint Smeaton’s portrait in 1783.
Smeaton remained active through his last years, producing designs for watermills, advising on lighthouse sites and reporting to parliamentary committees.
Extra Connections: Met [met] Jefferson*
He worked with [worked with] William Chambers*
[pal of ] Hindley*
Assessment: Smeaton was the foremost engineer of his time and he established the idea of civil engineering as a profession. He is best remembered for building the Eddystone lighthouse.
Oneliner: John Smeaton, engineer of Eddystone Lighthouse
Bibliography:
- Skempton, Professor A W, ed., John Smeaton, FRS, Thomas Telford Ltd., London, 1981.
- Smiles, Samuel, Lives of the Engineers, John Murray, London, 1874.
J. R. M. Setchell The friendship of John Smeaton, F. R. S., with Henry Hindley, instrument and clockmaker of York and the development of Equatorial mounting telescopes. Published:01 June 1970 https://doi.org/10.1098/rsnr.1970.0006
Multimedia:
Engines of Our Ingenuity 2194: John Smeaton
an engineer for all seasons. Today, the engineer who did everything. DR. JOHN LIENHARD | POSTED ON MARCH 7, 2022.