[BITList] Shining light

[John Feltham]

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Smeaton,  John  (1724-1792), civil engineer, was born on 28 May 1724 at Austhorpe Lodge in Whitkirk, near Leeds, the eldest child of William Smeaton (1684-1749), attorney, and his wife, Mary, nee Stones, (d. 1759). Smeaton attended Leeds grammar school from the age of ten, leaving at sixteen to become a pupil in his father's office in Leeds and moving to London in 1742 to continue his studies. However, while at home he devoted himself largely to mechanical pursuits, with a well-equipped workshop, and when only seventeen formed a friendship which lasted for thirty years, with Henry Hindley of York (1701-1771), a clock- and instrument-maker of genius. Finally recognizing that the legal profession was not for him, in 1744 Smeaton returned to Austhorpe and settled down to teach himself the skills required to become a maker of philosophical instruments. By 1748 he felt able to set up in London, first at Great Turnstile, off Holborn, and subsequently at Furnival's Inn Court where he employed three craftsmen and soon acquired a reputation in scientific circles as a young man of exceptional intelligence. There in 1752 he began his classic investigations on the power of water and wind. The paper describing the apparatus and results, presented in 1759, gained the Royal Society's Copley medal for original research; by then he had already published six papers in the Philosophical Transactions and been elected FRS in March 1753. He married Ann Jenkinson (1725-1784) of York on 7 June 1756 at St George's, Hanover Square, London. Two daughters, Ann (b. 1759) and Mary (b. 1761), survived into adulthood.

Consulting engineer

There is evidence going back to 1748 of Smeaton's interest in engineering. His first commission in that line was for a watermill at Halton in Lancashire in 1753. During the next year another mill, at Wakefield, was built to his design; he prepared plans for a projected bridge over the Thames at Blackfriars, which were used as the basis for the enabling act of 1756, and he reported on a scheme for draining a large tract of peat land known as Lochar moss near Dumfries. His career as a consulting engineer had now been launched. In 1755 he spent five weeks in the Low Countries studying hydraulic works. On his return he reported on improvements of the Clyde navigation downstream of Glasgow and early in 1756 he was in Northumberland designing a bridge over the Tyne. Meanwhile in December 1755 the second Eddystone lighthouse, a timber structure, had been destroyed by fire. Advice was sought from the president of the Royal Society as to the best person to take charge of its rebuilding and on his recommendation Smeaton was appointed in February 1756. This demanding task he completed in a masterly and innovative manner, creating the prototype of all subsequent masonry lighthouses built in the open sea. It was erected on a rock in the channel 14 miles south of Plymouth, and the light, 80 ft above mean sea level, was permanently exhibited from 16 October 1759. When, after more than 120 years and due to progressive weakening of the rock, the lighthouse had to be replaced by a new one nearby Smeaton's structure was re-erected on Plymouth hoe in its creator's memory.

Building work out at sea was necessarily restricted to the summer months; preparation of the masonry went on in the winter. One of the early decisions to be made related to the choice of mortar, and it is characteristic of Smeaton that during the winter of 1756-7 he devoted many evenings to research on the nature of hydraulic limes (limes that can set under water), thereby taking the first steps in the chemistry of cements. The following winter he was free to undertake some other work, including a project for making the upper Calder navigable from Wakefield to Sowerby Bridge. He presented his report in November, accompanied by a large engraved plan, and in March 1758 gave evidence in parliament on the bill. A month later he was in Scotland reporting on Dysart harbour before returning to Plymouth. In the following winter he reported again on the Clyde and in April 1759 gave parliamentary evidence on this scheme and also on a proposed extension of the River Wear navigation up to Durham. Shortly after completing the lighthouse he submitted revised designs for Blackfriars Bridge in an open competition eventually won by the young Robert Mylne, and towards the end of November returned to the Calder to direct the work due to start early next year.

Major construction works

With a reputation firmly established by the Eddystone, Smeaton now embarked on a career of extraordinary distinction and breadth, producing a series of designs and plans unrivalled in clarity and logic and works ranging from mills (water and wind) and steam engines to bridges, harbours, river navigations, canals, and fen drainage, in addition to further contributions to engineering science. With regard to his professional practice, in 1760 he moved back to Austhorpe where he built his office and private workshop, and this remained his base. But he spent a few months in London every year: at Furnival's Inn to 1764, then with his relative by marriage the clockmaker John Holmes (1727-1797) in the Strand and, after various lodgings, in permanent chambers at Gray's Inn from 1783. He employed a clerk to make fair copies of reports for his clients and to enter copies of reports and of letters, sent and received, into report-books (seven of them dating from August 1760 to August 1787) and letter-books. From late 1759 William Jessop (1745-1814), whose father had been 'general assistant' on the Eddystone, was a pupil in residence. Jessop qualified as assistant engineer in 1767 and left in 1772, later to become, like his master, the foremost civil engineer in Britain. He was followed by Henry Eastburn (1753-1821) who stayed on until 1788, latterly perhaps in a part-time capacity.

Writing to a friend Smeaton said he regarded 'my profession as perfectly personal as that of a Phisician or councillor at Law'  (Smeaton to Galton, 15 Jan 1783, letter-books, 1781-92). In that spirit all his drawings were in his own hands, to be copied by himself or an assistant when necessary. An almost complete collection of the drawings (about a thousand in number) is in the Royal Society library. Six of the letter-books survive, along with four diaries and original letters and reports (printed and manuscript) in many libraries and record offices. None of the report-books still exist but their entire contents plus seven post-1787 reports were published in 1812, and John Farey (1791-1851) made extensive use of now lost manuscripts on steam engines, mills, and hydraulics in articles in Rees's Cyclopaedia and elsewhere. As for fees, in the early 1760s Smeaton modestly charged 1 guinea a day plus expenses, the usual rate for consulting engineers at that time. It was not until 1767 that he raised his fees to 2 guineas when away from home; next year to be increased to 2 guineas and 5 guineas while actually on site. This reflected the improved standing of the profession as well as Smeaton's personal status.

Construction of Smeaton's next big work after the Eddystone, the Calder navigation, was largely completed by the end of 1764. The river had an exceptionally steep gradient requiring 26 locks in a length of 24 miles, 12 new weirs, 5 miles of new cuts, floodgates on the cuts, and some new bridges. Smeaton made the working drawings and brought up from London Joseph Nickalls, a millwright skilled in sluice work, as assistant or 'resident engineer' to use the term introduced by Smeaton in 1768. Nickalls left in 1762 to be replaced by Matthias Scott and John Gwyn as superintendents under Smeaton's direction. Both were to continue as site engineers on his works until the end of their careers in 1783 and 1789 respectively.

Drainage projects

The Calder required a great deal of Smeaton's attention. Nevertheless he found time to be involved on several other projects. In 1760 he first met and formed a lasting friendship with John Grundy of Spalding, a consulting engineer already established in Lincolnshire and east Yorkshire. Together with Langley Edwards they submitted a report in 1761 on improvements of the River Witham and drainage of adjacent low grounds. In 1762 Smeaton reported on Christchurch harbour, on the drainage of Potteric Carr near Doncaster and, with James Brindley, he made the first accurate calibration of a gauge to measure the flow of water in a stream, the results of which, along with later observations by the French engineer Du Buat, were still being quoted as the most reliable data available in the early nineteenth century. In February 1763 he responded to urgent calls for advice on securing the foundations of London Bridge, advice immediately acted upon. Also in 1763 a water-wheel and pumping engine at Stratford in east London were built by Nickalls to Smeaton's designs, and arising from a visit to Scotland came plans for his first two great bridges at Coldstream and Perth. Again in Scotland, Smeaton reported on the proposed Forth and Clyde Canal in March 1764; earlier he had reported jointly with John Grundy on the Holderness land drainage scheme, and later that year he produced reports on the drainage of Hatfield Chase and Adlingfleet Level.

All this planning proved fruitful. The Witham project was carried out 1763-7 with Langley Edwards as engineer in charge. Coldstream Bridge, a handsome five-arch structure over the River Tweed, was built in exactly the same period with Robert Reid as overseer. Smeaton made four site visits during construction. Work on Holderness drainage began 1765 under Grundy's direction, Smeaton having collaborated with him on design of the outfall sluice. Still in 1765 six large water-wheels and the associated blowing engines and hammers at Kilnhurst forge were built to his designs, and work started on draining the 4200 acres of low ground comprising Potteric Carr after a further report in May. Here Thomas Tofield acted as engineer in charge, with Matthias Scott as surveyor until 1772. This pattern of organization was followed in the drainage of Adlingfleet Level, an area of 5000 acres adjacent to the lower reaches of the Trent. Smeaton prepared the scheme, taking the levels himself, but John Grundy directed the work with David Buffery as surveyor (1767-72). Meanwhile, construction of Perth Bridge had started in 1766. Smeaton's drawings for this seven-arch structure over the Tay include details of the foundations, the parallel-wall hollow spandrels, and centering for the arches. The bridge was completed in 1770 with Gwyn as resident engineer.

Canals and harbours

Of Smeaton's reports and works after 1765 only the principal ones can be mentioned; the others are too numerous to notice individually. In 1766 three sets of plans emerged: for a new pier 360 ft long forming St Ives harbour, built 1767-70 by Thomas Richardson who had been foreman mason on the Eddystone; for major improvements of the River Lea navigation, carried out 1767-71 by Thomas Yeoman; and for the River Ure navigation, linked by a short canal to Ripon (1767-72). On the latter scheme John Smith was resident engineer under Smeaton's direction, though Jessop may have acted at times as his deputy. Then in 1768 the pumping machinery and 32 ft diameter water-wheel for London Bridge waterworks were built to Smeaton's designs by Nickalls.

It was also in 1768 that work began on the Forth and Clyde Canal, Smeaton having provided two further planning reports and attended the bill in parliament. His largest single work, the canal was built to accommodate vessels of 20 ft beam. It had a water depth of 7 ft and a length of 28 miles from Grangemouth to Glasgow, with twenty locks, two sizeable aqueducts, and a 25 ft high earth dam impounding water to supply the summit level. Robert Mackell was resident engineer, with an assistant, working under Smeaton's direction for five years to 1773, after which Mackell took charge until completion in 1777 with Smeaton keeping in touch. Some measure of his involvement is given by 770 pages of letters sent and received, including progress reports, and fifty drawings from his hands. Close to the east end of the canal were the famous ironworks of the Carron Company, to whom Smeaton acted as consultant on several occasions, notably in 1769-70 when he designed a blowing engine for no. 2 furnace and a boring mill, both powered by water-wheels. Here, as elsewhere, he pioneered the use of cast iron in millwork.

The years 1755-70 saw a significant increase in the amount of civil engineering in Britain. This spirit of 'improvement' gave rise to what amounted practically to a new class of professional men in place of the somewhat isolated and relatively few practitioners of the early eighteenth century, and nothing signals more clearly the change taking place than the formation of the Society of Civil Engineers in 1771. The club, for such it was, has been known since 1830 as the Smeatonian Society in honour of its great founder member. Other members from the beginning included Thomas Yeoman (the first president), John Grundy, John Golborne, Robert Mylne, and Brindley's associates Hugh Henshall and Robert Whitworth, all first-class engineers. Almost every civil engineer of eminence up to the present time followed them in becoming a member.

After 1771, with work on the Forth and Clyde well under way, two other projects in Scotland were carried out to Smeaton's plans. First came a large masonry pier forming the harbour at Portpatrick on the west coast, built 1771-4 by John Gwyn, and then the bridge at Banff, a sturdy seven-arch structure replacing a bridge destroyed by floods in 1768. It was built 1772-9 by James Kyle and, like the bridges at Coldstream and Perth, remains little changed today. Meanwhile, in December 1771, Smeaton reported on improvements of the Aire and Calder navigation. The scheme was put into effect during 1775-9 with Jessop as engineer and John Gott as resident. Also in 1775 work began on the creation of Aberdeen harbour, one of Smeaton's finest achievements, the main component of which was the north pier, 1200 ft in length and projecting far beyond the mouth of the Dee. Gwyn again acted as resident engineer, and the pier was completed in 1780.

The measurement of energy

Back in 1767 Smeaton had been asked to design a steam pumping engine for the New River Company at Islington, Middlesex. When tested in 1769 this proved to be a disappointment but with typical determination he set about finding why. To this end he made or caused to be made quantitative observations on the performance of fifteen of the best (Newcomen type) engines then in operation and, in the grounds at Austhorpe, he built an experimental engine with which all the variables could be studied systematically. The tests, over a hundred in number, lasted on and off for two years, and it was soon after drawing up his conclusions that he received a commission to design a new engine for Long Benton colliery in Northumberland. When put to work in 1774 the engine proved to have an efficiency 25 per cent greater than any previously built. His next engine, erected in 1775 at Chacewater mine in Cornwall, had the same high efficiency and at 72 hp was the most powerful then in existence. Nine more were built to his designs before 1783, though by that time the even more efficient engines of Boulton and Watt, incorporating the separate condenser, were beginning to dominate the scene.

The 'horsepower' of the Chacewater engine mentioned above is given in terms of Watt's definition, purposely set at a peak value of 33,000 foot-pounds per minute However, the concept of horsepower, and indeed its practical measure as the work done by a horse in an eight-hour day (22,000 foot-pounds per minute), had been introduced by Smeaton eighteen years earlier in 1765. But he went further, publishing in 1776 a paper on experiments to investigate the relationships between power, work done, momentum, and kinetic energy. Like his earlier paper of 1759, for which he had been awarded the Copley medal, this, together with a paper of 1782 in which he describes experiments to measure the loss of energy in non-elastic impact, became a classic in its field. The three papers were reprinted in book form no fewer than four times and twice in French translation. Nor were they Smeaton's only later contributions to engineering science. Responding to a query raised jointly by Tofield and Grundy in 1770 he stated clearly that for a given cross-sectional area and gradient the flow in an open channel increases with the ratio of area to wetted perimeter (the hydraulic radius), a concept which became generally recognized in the work of Du Buat (1786). He also made the first accurate measurements of the flow of water in pipes, before 1780, and expressed the relations between head and velocity in a form identical with that published in 1804 by Riche de Prony. Moreover it is evident from a report of 1776 that Smeaton had a practical formula of the correct form for estimating the flow of water through a sluice.

Hydraulic projects

This 1776 report, the second of Smeaton's on improving the drainage of Hatfield Chase, related chiefly to the provision of a better channel for the River Torne where it passes through this large area of low ground and a bigger sluice at its outfall into the Trent. Smeaton himself took the levels. Further improvements were proposed by Matthias Scott, who had been surveyor of the works at Hatfield Chase since leaving Potteric Carr. These were put into effect and extended after his retirement in 1783 by Samuel Foster, and the whole scheme when finished in 1789 may be considered the most important work of fen drainage in the eighteenth century, embodying the principle of complete separation of the living waters of the river from the land drains. Again in 1776 work began on a large sluicing basin at Ramsgate harbour. The idea of scouring a harbour by releasing at low tide water stored at high tide was not new but Ramsgate provides a particularly fine example, with six sluices in the cross wall forming the basin. These were designed by Smeaton with his customary attention to detail and he accepted a revised general layout suggested by the resident engineer Thomas Preston. When completed in 1781 the scheme proved very successful; the harbour as Smeaton said 'began to put off its forlorn appearance of a Repository of Mud' and after two years operation ships of 400 tons burden could be accommodated with ease.

Smeaton's next major work, however, ended in disaster. The bridge at Hexham had been destroyed by a flood of the River Tyne in 1771. After investigating the gravel river bed Smeaton selected what he judged to be a better site and designed a noble nine-arch structure, work on which started in 1777. Much difficulty was experienced with the foundations (at times a diving bell was used), but by 1779 they were finished and the piers surrounded by sheet piling with massive rubble masonry mounds as a protection against scour. Apart from site visits, Smeaton received and replied to frequent letters from the resident engineer Jonathan Pickernall, but despite all their care six of the eight piers were undermined by a violent flood in March 1782, two years after completion of the bridge. From the observed difference in water level upstream and downstream just before the collapse Smeaton calculated that the average velocity of flow between the piers reached the frightening figure of 17 ft per sec. 'All our Honours are now in the dust', he wrote to Pickernell. 'It cannot now be said, that in the course of thirty years practice and engaged in some of the most Difficult Enterprises, not one of Smeaton's works has failed. Hexham Bridge is a Melancholy witness to the contrary'  (Smeaton to Pickernell, 6 June 1782, letter-books, 1781-92). The bridge was rebuilt by other hands to the same design but with the river bed between the piers and for some distance up and down stream covered, at great expense, by stone paving held down by timber piling.

Closing years

Work had to go on, of course. Construction of Cromarty harbour was already under way, with Gwyn as resident engineer (1781-4); designs were needed for a new entrance gate and a dry dock at Ramsgate; evidence had to be prepared and given for a bill for the Birmingham Canal; the report on the Hexham Bridge failure took several weeks to write; and much time was spent on designs and site supervision of a steam engine and winding machinery at Walker colliery near Newcastle. Among this activity were few new commissions, Smeaton himself suffered a period of ill health in 1783, and his wife had become seriously ill. She died on 17 January 1784 aged fifty-nine.

Smeaton then retired from active work for almost three years. He began the lengthy task of writing his Narrative of the Building ... of the Edystone Lighthouse and produced in 1785 an interesting paper on the history of precise circular graduation from the time of Tycho Brahe, but little else. Towards the end of 1786 he responded to a request for advice on lowering the Birmingham Canal summit level and in 1787 he resumed his consulting practice; further work at Aberdeen harbour, for instance, and at Ramsgate, where to reduce wave action within the outer harbour he proposed extending the east pier more than 300 ft into water 27 ft deep at high water springs. This, his last work, was carried out successfully under his direction from January 1788 and completed in 1792. It was also the last work of John Gwyn, who died in June 1789; 'a real loss to the public', Smeaton said, 'as well as lamented by his family and friends'  (Reports, 3.121). He certainly counted himself among the latter.

During his career twenty-two of Smeaton's reports were printed, together with eighteen scientific papers. The Eddystone book, a magnificent folio volume, was published in January 1791 (2nd edn, 1793; repr. 1813) and his long historical account of Ramsgate harbour appeared later that year. In June he gave evidence in parliament on the proposed Worcester and Birmingham Canal and formally took leave of the profession in October. In London for the first six months of 1792 he was probably working on a treatise on hydraulic machinery before returning to Austhorpe. There, while walking in the garden, he suffered a stroke and died six weeks later on 28 October 1792. He was buried on 1 November at Whitkirk parish church where his daughters erected a tablet to him and their mother. Two hundred years later a memorial stone was placed in the floor of the nave of Westminster Abbey inscribed 'John Smeaton, Civil Engineer, 1724-1792'.

A. W. Skempton 

Sources  A. W. Skempton, ed., John Smeaton, FRS (1981) [incl. complete work list, references to primary sources and locations of MS material] + H. W. Dickinson and A. A. Gomme, eds., A catalogue of the civil and mechanical engineering designs of John Smeaton (1950) + Reports of the late John Smeaton, FRS, ed. M. Dixon (1812) + A. P. Woolrich, 'John Farey and the Smeaton manuscripts', History of Technology, 10 (1985), 181-216 + A. W. Skempton, British civil engineering, 1640-1840: a bibliography of contemporary printed reports, plans, and books (1987) + J. Smeaton, letter-books, 1764, 1781-92, Inst. CE + parish register (marriages), London, St George's, Hanover Square, 7 June 1756 + parish register (burials), Yorkshire, Whitkirk parish church, 1 Nov 1792
Archives California State Library, letter-book + Inst. CE, letters and reports + Inst. CE, letter-books + Inst. CE, report relating to Tyne Bridge + Mitchell L., Glas., Glasgow City Archives, contract with Glasgow for construction of lock and dam + NRA, diary + Ramsgate Public Library, reports and letters on Ramsgate Harbour + RIBA BAL, memorandum relating to wall and landing-steps at Greenwich + Trinity House, London, diaries + W. Yorks. AS, Halifax, corresp. relating to Aire and Calder Navigation | Library of Birmingham, letters to James Watt + BL, letters to Benjamin Wilson, Add. MS 30094 + NL Scot., reports and letters on Ramsgate Harbour
Likenesses  attrib. J. Richardson, oils, c.1765, RS · G. Romney, oils, c.1770, Inst. CE · Rhodes, oils, c.1775, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow · G. Romney, oils, c.1779 (after Rhodes), NPG [see illus.] · T. Gainsborough, oils, 1783 (after Rhodes), priv. coll. · M. Brown, oils, c.1788, RS · T. R. Wildman, oils, 1834 (after T. Gainsborough), Inst. CE · H. C. Fahr, marble bust, c.1900 (after F. Chantrey), Inst. CE · W. Bromley, engraving (after M. Brown), repro. in M. Dixon, ed., Reports, frontispiece · W. Hull, engraving (after M. Brown), repro. in S. Smiles, Lives of the engineers (1861) · J. Richardson, oils, RS · engravings (after M. Brown) · lithograph (after T. Gainsborough), NPG



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