HOW JOHN SMEATON ROSE IN LIFE.
John Smeaton, one of the most distinguished of British engineers, was
born at Austhorpe Lodge, near Leeds, on the 8th of June 1724.
[Sidenote: Smeaton's early years.]
His father was a respectable attorney, who came of an old Yorkshire
family; his mother, a quick-witted, firm, gentle-mannered woman, was
not unworthy of such a son. He was taught at home during his earlier
years, and a happy home it was. Leeds, in those days, had not
attained to its present immense proportions, and Austhorpe was
completely in the country, sheltered by the noble park and
overhanging woods of Temple-Newsham. There was ample scope for the
healthy, active boy, to indulge himself in his favourite pursuits,
which had all of them a mechanical character. He was never so happy,
says one of his biographers, as when put in possession of any cutting
tool, by which he could make his little imitations of houses, pumps,
and wind-mills. Even while still in petticoats, he was continually
dividing circles and squares; and the only playthings in which he
took a genuine pleasure were his working models. If any carpenters
or masons chanced to be employed in the neighbourhood of Austhorpe,
the boy was sure to find his way amongst them; and there he would
spend hour after hour, watching the men at work, and observing how
they handled their tools. Holmes tells us that, having one day taken
due note of the operations of some mill-wrights, shortly afterwards,
to the terror of his family, he was seen fixing a rude likeness of a
wind-mill on the top of his father's barn.
Another time, when watching the procedure of a party of men engaged
in refixing the village pump, he was fortunate enough to obtain from
them a piece of bored pipe, which he succeeded in fashioning into a
working-pump that actually raised water.
[Sidenote: The young mechanic.]
At a proper age, the boy was sent to the Leeds grammar-school, where
he received, it is supposed, the largest part of his school
instruction. In geometry and arithmetic he made very rapid progress;
but, as is the case with most clever and industrious boys, he learned
more at home than at school. Every leisure moment was occupied by
his tools and machines. He acquired, in time, a mechanical dexterity
and ingenuity which were really surprising, and availed him in the
performance of some amusing surprises. Thus, it happened that some
mechanics came into the neighbourhood to erect a "fire-engine," as
the steam-engine was then called, for the purpose of pumping water
from the Garforth coal-mines, and day after day Smeaton visited the
spot for the purpose of watching their operations.
Carefully examining their methods, he made use of the knowledge so
acquired to construct a miniature engine at home, appropriately
equipped with pumps and other apparatus; and he even succeeded in
setting it in motion before the colliery engine was completed. He
first tried its powers upon one of the fish-ponds in front of the
house at Austhorpe, which he quickly contrived to pump dry, and so
killed all the fish in it, greatly to the surprise as well as the
annoyance of his father.
Working on in this way, with assiduous application, young Smeaton, by
the time he had arrived at his fifteenth year, had made a
turning-lathe, on which he turned wood and ivory; and it was his
delight to make presents of little boxes and other articles of his
own manufacture to his friends. He also learned to work in metals,
which he fused and forged without any assistance; and by the age of
eighteen he handled his tools as dexterously as any regular smith or
joiner.
[Sidenote: Always at work.]
"In the year 1742," says Mr. Holmes, his biographer and friend, "I
spent a month at his father's house; and being intended myself for a
mechanical employment, and a few years younger than he was, I could
not but view his works with astonishment. He forged his iron and
steel, and melted his metal. He had tools of every sort for working
in wood, ivory, and metals. He had made a lathe, by which he cut a
perpetual screw in brass--a thing little known at that day, and
which, I believe, was the invention of Mr. Henry Hindley of York,
with whom I served my apprenticeship. Mr. Smeaton soon became
acquainted with him, and spent many a night at Mr. Hindley's house
till daylight, conversing on these subjects."
[Sidenote: Removal to London.]
In his sixteenth year, our hero--for every biographer must have a
hero--was removed from school to his father's office, where he was
engaged in the uncongenial task of copying dreary legal folios, and
acquiring as much knowledge of law as might fit him for an attorney's
profession. As Mr. Smeaton had a good connection in Leeds, he not
unnaturally wished his son to profit by it; but the future engineer
revolted from "Blackstone's Commentaries" and "Coke upon Littleton;"
and though, like a good son, he attended assiduously to his office
duties, every day he found the burden of a detested occupation
heavier to bear. Towards the end of 1742, partly with the view of
furthering his professional duties, and partly for the sake of taking
him away from his all-engrossing mechanical pursuits, Mr. Smeaton
sent him to London. Here he made a vigorous attempt to subdue his
tastes to his father's wishes; but utterly failing, he wrote to him
an earnest appeal for permission to follow what was clearly an
unconquerable bias.
With equal kindness and wisdom, his father consented, and young
Smeaton immediately entered the service of a philosophical
instrument-maker. He applied himself to his new vocation with such
admirable energy, and it was so entirely fitted to the measure of his
talents, that in a very short time he was able to relieve his father
from all expenses connected with his maintenance.
[Sidenote: Rising in life.]
It is not to be supposed that a young man with so much strength of
purpose and clearness of intellect would devote himself only to the
mechanical part of his profession. He read industriously and
methodically, so as to obtain a knowledge of the principles of
theoretical science; he sought the society of educated men; he
regularly attended the meetings and lectures of the Royal Society.
He started in business on his own account in 1750, when he was only
twenty-six; and in the same year he read a paper before the Royal
Society on certain improvements effected by himself and Dr. Knight in
the mariner's compass. In 1751 he invented a machine to measure a
ship's way at sea, and experimented with it in a voyage down the
Thames, and in a short cruise on board the _Fortune_ sloop-of-war.
[Sidenote: Work and method.]
The activity and fertility of his mind are abundantly demonstrated by
the nature of the work which occupied him in the following year. In
April we read of a paper from his pen detailing certain improvements
which he had contrived in the air-pump; in June he describes an
ingenious modification in ship-tackle by means of pulleys, so
arranged that one man might easily raise a ton weight; in November he
describes certain experiments which had been made with Captain
Savary's steam-engine, the precursor of James Watt's. Meantime he
was engaged in researches into "the Natural Powers of Water and Wind
to Turn Mills and other Machines depending on a Circular Motion;"
which afterwards gained him the Royal Society's gold medal--almost
the highest honour a man of science can receive in England. Now, it
is obvious that to accomplish so much honest and valuable work, and
at the same time to carry on his business, required great
application, great energy, great method. And it must be conceded
that throughout life Smeaton was an unwearied seeker after knowledge;
that his two main objects were, self-improvement and the public
welfare; self-improvement being necessary that he might render the
gifts he possessed of the highest possible usefulness to society.
"One of his maxims," says Smiles, "was, that 'the abilities of the
individual are a debt due to the common stock of public happiness;'
and the steadfastness with which he devoted himself to useful work,
in which he at the same time found his own true happiness, shows that
the maxim was no mere lip-utterance on his part, but formed the very
mainspring of his life. From an early period he carefully laid out
his time with a view to getting the most good out of it: so much for
study, so much for practical experiments, so much for business, and
so much for rest and relaxation."
[Sidenote: The value of order.]
Let the young reader take note of this, and in like manner find for
everything its fitting and sufficient time. There is much wisdom in
the adage, "A place for everything, and everything in its place;" but
it is equally necessary that there should be "an hour for everything,
and everything in its hour." The best talents, the best
opportunities, will be wholly wasted, unless their possessor can
recognize the value of method. The man who does not systematize his
time, who does not economize it so as to accomplish in each day the
largest possible amount of work, without haste or unhealthy pressure,
will make but an indifferent use of his gifts, and will assuredly
lose many precious hours. He will be always too late; always
endeavouring to overtake the lost moments, and never succeeding in
doing so; until at length such a weight will accumulate upon him of
work undone and opportunities neglected, that, in his exhaustion and
discontent, he will lose all hope, and sink into the idleness of
apathy. Method is the secret of success: the methodical student will
get out of the twenty-four hours all that it is possible to get out
of them; while the irregular and disorderly will lose a more or less
considerable portion of them, according to the degree of his want of
system.
[Sidenote: Smeaton abroad.]
Smeaton devoted a portion of his time to the study of French, in
order that he might be able to read the valuable scientific treatises
contained in that language, and also that he might be able to take a
journey which he contemplated into the Low Countries, for the purpose
of inspecting the great canal works of the Dutch engineers.
[Sidenote: Smeaton in Holland.]
He carried out his intention in 1754, when he traversed Holland and
Belgium--mostly on foot, or in the _truckschuyts_ or canal boats,
which form the national conveyance of those countries--and carefully
inspected the most remarkable achievements of mechanical science in
the districts through which he passed.
It was with no little interest he found himself in a land which has
been literally rescued from the sea by the efforts of human skill and
industry; a great portion of which, even in comparatively modern
times, was buried deep beneath the waters of ocean; a land to which
nature has been so unkindly, and for which man has done so much. In
a certain sense, Holland is the creation, as well as the trophy, of
the engineer; and wherever Smeaton went, he found himself in the
engineer's track. From Rotterdam he travelled by Delft, famous for
its pottery, and the Hague, to the great commercial emporium of
Amsterdam, and thence, as far north as Holder, examining with
critical attention the huge dikes and embankments raised by the
labour of man to prevent the sea from recovering its own.
At Amsterdam he saw with delight and surprise its admirable harbour
and spacious docks. In Smeaton's time, London had no accommodation
of this description, and the numerous fleets which flocked to the
British metropolis dropped anchor in the Thames, and loaded and
unloaded at the river quays.
Passing round the country by Utrecht, he proceeded to inspect the
great sea-sluices at Brill and Helvoetsluys, through which the inland
waters found a channel of egress, while the billows of ocean were
prevented from forcing an entrance. During this journey he made
copious notes of all he saw, and the information thus acquired was of
great use to him in his after-labours as a canal and harbour engineer.
[Sidenote: The Eddystone lighthouse.]
He returned to England in 1755; and shortly afterwards the
opportunity came to him which, we believe, comes to every man of
industrious habits and steadfast purpose--the opportunity, by a
prudent employment of which, we may place ourselves in a position to
turn our gifts to good account, and do something for the advantage of
our fellows. The lighthouse erected by Rudyerd on the Eddystone
Rock, of which we have already given a description, was swept away by
a destructive fire on the 2nd of December, and it became necessary to
replace it by a new one. The proprietors applied to the President of
the Royal Society to recommend to them an engineer who might be
safely intrusted with a work so important. The then President, the
Earl of Macclesfield, replied "that there was one of their own body
whom he could venture to recommend for the work; yet that the most
material part of what he knew of him was his having, within the
compass of the last seven years, recommended himself to the Society
by the communication of several mechanical contrivances and
improvements; and though he had at first made it his business to
execute things in the instrument way (without ever having been bred
to the trade), yet, on account of the merit of his performances, he
had been chosen a member of the Society; and that, for about three
years past, having found the business of a philosophical
instrument-maker not likely to afford an adequate recompense, he had
wholly applied himself to various branches of mechanics."
Upon this recommendation the proprietors acted, and Smeaton was
engaged to erect the Eddystone lighthouse.
[Sidenote: Preparing for the work.]
The subject was wholly new to him, and therefore, as was his custom,
he began to investigate it in all its bearings before he took any
decisive step. One of the earliest conclusions at which he arrived
was, that the new lighthouse ought to be built of stone, as the most
durable and the safest material. He came to this decision from a
careful examination of the plans and models of the two former
lighthouses, which showed him that their leading defect was want of
weight; of weight sufficient not only to resist the sea, but to
compel the sea to yield to the building, so that it might neither
rock in the winds nor tremble before the waves.
[Sidenote: A visit to the rock.]
As soon as he had made up his mind as to the principles on which the
lighthouse should be constructed, he paid a visit to its intended
site. He arrived at Plymouth about the end of March, but it was the
2nd of April before he could embark for the Eddystone, owing to the
violence of the wind and the heavy sea that was running in the
Channel. On reaching the rock, the billows beat upon it with so much
fury that it was impossible to land. All that Smeaton could do was
to view the rocky cone--"the mere crest of the mountain whose base
was laid so far down in the sea-deeps beneath--over which the waves
were lashing, and to form a more adequate idea of the very narrow as
well as turbulent site on which he was expected to erect his
building."
Three days later, however, he ventured on a second trip, when he
succeeded in landing on the rock, and thoroughly examining it. The
only traces he could find of the lighthouses erected by his
predecessors were the iron branches fixed by Rudyerd, and remains of
those fixed by Winstanley.
On a third voyage to the rock, Smeaton was baffled by the wind, which
compelled him to return to harbour without even obtaining a sight of
it. After five more days, during which the engineer was employed in
looking out a proper site for a work-yard, and examining the granite
in the neighbourhood for the purposes of the building, he made a
fourth voyage, and although the vessel reached the rock, the wind
blew so freshly and the breakers dashed so furiously that it was
again found impossible to land. He could only direct the boat to lie
off and on, while he watched the breaking of the sea and its action
on the reef. A fifth trial, after the lapse of a week, proved
equally unsuccessful. After rowing about all day with the wind
ahead, the party found themselves at night about four miles from the
Eddystone, near which they anchored until morning; but a storm of
wind and rain arising, they were compelled to return to Plymouth
without succeeding in their object.
[Sidenote: Try, try, and try again.]
The sixth attempt--we record these minute particulars because they
give such a vivid illustration of Smeaton's persevering energy--was
successful, and on the 22nd of April, after the lapse of seventeen
days, Mr. Smeaton landed a second time.
After a careful inspection, the party retired to their sloop, which
lay off until the tide had fallen, when Smeaton again landed, and the
night being very calm, he continued on the rock until nine in the
evening.
On the 23rd he again landed, and pursued his operations; but this
time he was interrupted by the ground-swell, which dashed the waves
upon the reef, and, the wind rising, the sloop was forced to put back
to Plymouth. During this visit, however, our engineer had secured
some fifteen hours' occupation on the rock, and taken the dimensions
of all its parts, to enable him to construct an accurate model of the
foundation of the proposed structure. To correct the drawing,
however, and to insure the utmost exactness, he determined upon
attempting an eighth and final voyage of inspection on the 28th of
April.
[Sidenote: The eighth attempt.]
Again the violence of the sea foiled him in his design.
Another fortnight passed, a fortnight of unfavourable weather; but
the time was not wasted. The engineer elaborated his design, and
made all the preliminary arrangements to proceed with the work. He
also drew up a careful code of regulations for the instruction and
government of the artificers and others who were to be employed upon
it. And this being done, he arranged for a journey to London, but
not until he had paid three more visits to the rock for the purpose
of correcting his measurements.
In August 1756, as we have already related, the erection of the
lighthouse was begun, and operations were continued until the end of
November, in spite of the obstacles offered by a violent sea and
unfavourable winds.
The return of the workmen to port, in their store-vessel the
_Neptune_, was safely accomplished, though the voyage was not
unattended with danger.
[Sidenote: A storm at sea.]
Unable, in consequence of the violence of the gale, to make Plymouth
harbour, the _Neptune_ was steered for Fowey, on the coast of
Cornwall. Higher and higher rose the wind, until it blew quite a
storm; and in the night Mr. Smeaton, hearing a sudden alarm and
outcry amongst the crew overhead, ran upon deck half-dressed to learn
the cause. It was raining heavily, and the hurricane lashed the
waters into a whirlpool of spray and foam. "It being very dark,"
says Smeaton, "the first thing I saw was the horrible appearance of
breakers almost surrounding us; John Bowden, one of the seamen,
crying out, 'For God's sake, heave hard at that rope, if you mean to
save your lives!' I immediately laid hold of the rope, at which he
himself was hauling as well as the other seamen, though he was also
managing the helm. I not only hauled with all my strength, but
called to and encouraged the workmen to do the same thing." The sea
was dashing with terrible fury, and with a roar which drowned all
other sounds, upon the rocks. The _Neptune's_ jib-sail was all at
once rent into a thousand shreds; and to save the main-sail, it was
lowered, when, happily, the vessel obeyed her helm, swung round, and
put out to sea. At daybreak her crew found themselves out of sight
of land, and driving towards the Bay of Biscay. But as the gale had
abated, they soon got the vessel's head round again, and stood for
the coast. Before night they sighted the Land's End, but could not
then make the shore. For another night and day they were tossed to
and fro, almost helplessly. A vessel coming in sight, they exhibited
signals of distress; she bore down, and directed them how to steer
for the Scilly Islands. The wind veering round, however, they bore
up again for the Land's End, passed the Lizard and Rame Head, and,
finally, after being blown about at sea for four days, dropped anchor
in Plymouth Sound, much to their own contentment and to the
satisfaction of their friends, who were despairing of their
reappearance.
[Sidenote: Smeaton's activity.]
Having fully described the gradual erection of the Eddystone
lighthouse in a previous chapter, we will not weary the reader with a
repetition of details with which he is already acquainted. But
reference may appropriately be made to the energy and restless
activity with which Smeaton watched the progress of the enterprise.
If there was any position of danger his men hesitated to occupy, he
immediately stepped forward and took the foremost place. One
morning, in the summer of 1757, when heaving up the moorings of the
store-ship, preparatory to starting for the rock, the links of the
buoy chain were exposed to a considerable strain upon the davit-roll,
which was of cast-iron, and began to bend upon its convex surface.
To remedy this, Smeaton ordered the carpenter to cut some trenails
into small pieces, and split each length into two, with the view of
applying them between the chain and the roll at the flexure of each
link, so as to relieve the strain. One of the men remarked that if
the chain should break anywhere between the roll and the tackle, the
person engaged in inserting the wooden wedges might be cut in two by
the chain, or carried overboard along with it. Smeaton, who never
required others to undertake what he would not do himself,
immediately put aside his men, took the "post of honour," as he
called it, and superintended the getting in of the chain, link by
link, until it was all on board.
We borrow the following interesting sketch from Mr Smiles:--
While living at Plymouth, he says, the restless, enthusiastic
engineer was accustomed every morning to take his post on the grassy
summit of the Hoe, and with his telescope to survey the famous rock.
[Sidenote: The Plymouth Hoe.]
The Hoe is an elevated promenade, occupying a high ridge of land
between Mill Bay and the entrance to the harbour, with the citadel at
its eastern extremity. It forms the seaport of Plymouth, and
commands the beautiful and varied scenery of the Sound. In front of
it lies St. Nicholas's Island, bristling with fortifications; beyond,
rising in verdurous slopes and terraces from the water's edge, is
Mount Edgcumbe Park, with its masses of luxuriant foliage backed by
green hills. The land juts out on either side the bay in rocky
points, which are crowned with forts and batteries; while in the
distance now, though not in Smeaton's time, extends the nobly massive
rampart of the breakwater, midway between the bluffs of Redding and
Staddon Points, so as to arrest the long roll of the Atlantic waves,
and protect the placid expanse of the great harbour. It was from the
Hoe that our ancestors first descried the immense array of the
Spanish Armada advancing threateningly toward the English coast. It
was the favourite watch-tower, so to speak, of Sir Francis Drake in
those times of difficulty and peril, as it was now of Smeaton in less
critical circumstances: and it may be added, that these two men, each
so illustrious in his special vocation, possessed many characteristic
qualities in common; perseverance, patience, heroic endurance,
indomitable resolution; the qualities, in fact, by which great deeds
are accomplished.
[Sidenote: A famous hill.]
Smeaton, when he ascended the Hoe after a stormy night at sea, had
neither eye nor thought for the picturesque beauties or historical
associations of the scene before him. All he could think of was his
lighthouse on the rock. He knew that he had brought the fullest
resources of skill, and care, and prevision to bear upon its
erection, yet he could not avoid a feeling of anxiety as to the
security of the foundation. Many there were who still went about
asserting that no fabric of stone could possibly stand upon the
wave-worn, wind-beaten rock; and again and again the engineer, in the
first dim light of morning, came to see if their ill-omened
predictions had been fulfilled. Sometimes he had to wait long, until
he could see a tall white column of spray rise aloft into the morning
air. _Then_ he breathed freely, and shut up his telescope, and
thanked God that his labour had not been undone. And as the morning
advanced, and the light grew fuller and stronger, he was able to
discern his shapely light-tower, standing, erect and firm, above the
whirl of waters.
[Sidenote: The Eddystone lighthouse.]
The Eddystone lighthouse, as Mr. Smiles remarks, has now withstood
the storms of a century, and at the moment we write it still occupies
its advanced position, in front of the dangerous south-western coast,
a remarkable monument to the genius and perseverance of its
architect. At times, when the swell of the Atlantic rushes up the
Channel with more than ordinary violence, impelled by a south-west
wind, its tall pillar is shrouded in thick wreaths of spray, and its
keen light-star for a moment is obscured. But the cloud passes, and
again the welcome radiance streams across the waters, at once a guide
and a warning to the homeward-bound. Occasionally a strong wave will
strike full upon it, and its central portion, swiftly gliding up the
perpendicular shaft, leaps, with one tremendous bound, over the
lantern. At other times, a billow will break against it with a fury
which seems to menace the security of its foundation. To those
within, the report is like that of heavy artillery, and the windows
rattle, and the whole building quivers from top to base. But the
shudder which then runs throughout the lighthouse, instead of being a
sign of weakness, is the "strongest proof of the unity and close
connection of the fabric in all its parts."
[Sidenote: "The Eddystone in sight!"]
"Many a heart has leapt with gladness at the cry of 'The Eddystone in
sight!' sung out from the main-top. Homeward-bound ships, from
far-off ports, no longer avoid the dreaded rock, but eagerly run for
its light as the harbinger of safety. It might even seem as if
Providence had placed the reef so far out at sea as the foundation
for a beacon such as this, leaving it to man's skill and labour to
finish His work. On entering the English Channel from the west and
south, the cautious navigator feels his way by careful soundings on
the great bank which extends from the Channel into the Atlantic; and
these are repeated at fixed intervals until land is in sight. Every
fathom nearer shore increases a ship's risks, especially in nights
when, to use the seaman's phrase, it is 'as dark as a pocket.' The
men are on the lookout, peering anxiously into the dark, straining
the eye to catch the glimmer of a light; and when it is known that
'the Eddystone is in sight,' a thrill runs through the ship, which
can only be appreciated by those who have felt or witnessed it after
long months of weary voyaging. Its gleam across the waters has thus
been a source of joy, and given a sense of relief to thousands; for
the beaming of a clear light from one known and fixed spot is
infallible in its truthfulness, and a safer guide for the seaman than
the bearings of many hazy and ill-defined headlands."
[Sidenote: Usefulness of the lighthouse.]
We find little record of Smeaton's engagements between 1759, when he
completed his great undertaking, and 1764, when he applied for and
obtained the appointment of receiver for the Derwentwater Estates.*
It may be, as one of his biographers remarks, that, as yet, there was
little demand in England for the constructive skill of so bold and
able an engineer. Not but that there was work enough: for the
highways were in a deplorable condition; in many districts
intercommunication was rendered difficult by the want of sufficient
bridges; in the commercial ports of the country dock accommodation
was almost unknown; but England was then too poor, or her energies
were too exclusively concentrated upon maritime enterprise and
colonial extension, for her to undertake to supply these deficiencies
on any extensive scale.
* These estates were confiscated by the Crown, on the death of the
last Earl of Derwentwater,--executed for high treason,--and conferred
by Parliament on Greenwich Hospital.
[Sidenote: His engineering works.]
His reputation, however, was gradually extending throughout the
kingdom, and in 1760 we find him consulted by the magistrates of
Dumfries respecting the improvement of the Nith. He was similarly
consulted as to the lockage of the river Wear, the opening up of the
navigation of the Chelmer to Chelmsford, of the Don above Doncaster,
of the Devon in Clackmannanshire, of the Tetney Haven navigation near
Louth, and the improvement of the river Lea; but the improvements he
recommended do not seem to have been carried out, through want of
funds. In truth, his first great engineering enterprise was
undertaken in his own county, where he was employed in extensive
repairs of the dams and locks on the river Calder; and he effected
many important improvements in that navigation, which confirmed the
general belief in his skill and judgment. At the same time he
carried out extensive works on the river Aire from Leeds to its
junction with the Ouse.
To Smeaton also is mainly due the recovery of the inundated lands in
the Lincoln Fens, and in the low levels between Doncaster and Hull.
The river Witham, between Lincoln and Boston, was still, it is said,
a source of constant grief and loss to the farmers along its banks.
It had become choked up by neglect, so that "not only had the
navigation of the river become almost lost, but a large extent of
otherwise valuable land was constantly laid under water."
At a still later period he undertook to improve the drainage of the
North Level of the Fens, and the outfall of the Nene at Wisbeach.
For this purpose he recommended the construction of a powerful
outfall-sluice at the mouth of the Nene.
Other works in which he was consulted, and in which his engineering
ability was signally manifested, may here be mentioned: the drainage
of the lands adjacent to the river Went, in Yorkshire; of the Earl of
Kinnoul's lands lying along the Almond and the Tay, in Perthshire;
the Adling Fleet Level, at the junction of the Ouse and the Trent;
Hotham Carrs, near Market-Weighton; the Lewes Laughton Level, in
Sussex; the Potterick Carr Fen, near Doncaster; the Torksey Bridge
Fen, near Gainsborough; and the Holderness Level, near Hull.
[Sidenote: Old London Bridge.]
In 1763, he was called upon by the Corporation of London to advise
them as to the best means of improving, widening, and enlarging Old
London Bridge. In order to accommodate the increased traffic on the
river, two arches of the bridge had been thrown into one, but with
the effect of so augmenting the rush of the water as to loosen the
adjoining piers, by washing away the bed of the river under their
foundations. The alarm was so great that few persons would pass
either over or under the bridge; and the Corporation hastily summoned
Smeaton, who was then in Yorkshire, to their assistance. On his
arrival, he proceeded immediately to examine the bridge, and to sound
about the foundations of the piers as minutely as possible. He then
advised the Corporation to repurchase the stones of the city gates,
which had recently been taken down and their material sold, and cast
them into the river outside the startings, or buttresses of the
piers, to protect them from the action of the tide. His advice was
adopted; and simple as were the means suggested, they proved entirely
efficacious.
[Sidenote: Works on the Calder.]
This method of checking the impetuous ravages of water, says Holmes,
he had practised before with success on the river Calder. "On my
calling on him in the neighbourhood of Wakefield, he showed me the
effects of a great flood, which had made a considerable passage over
the land; this he stopped at the bank of the river, by throwing in a
quantity of large, rough stones, which, with the sand and other
materials washed down by the river, filling up their interstices, had
become a barrier to keep the river in its usual course."
Smeaton next appears in the character of a bridge-builder. The
handsome bridges at Perth, Coldstream, and Banff were erected by him.
With reference to the first of these, it should be explained that the
Tay being subject to frequent inundations, it was requisite that
great care should be taken with the foundations, which were laid down
by means of coffer-dams. That is, a row of piles was driven into the
river-bed, and round about and between them was thrown a quantity of
gravel and earth mixed together, so as to render the enclosed space
impervious to water. Pumping power was then applied, and the bed of
the river within the coffer-dam was laid completely dry; after which
the soil was excavated to a proper depth, and a firm foundation
obtained for the piles. Piles were driven into the earth underneath
the intended foundation-frame, and then the building was carried
upwards in the usual way.
[Sidenote: The Perth bridge.]
The Perth bridge is a handsome structure, consisting of seven
principal arches, and measures about nine hundred feet in length. It
was completed and opened for traffic in 1772.
His success in this notable undertaking secured him a very
considerable amount of engineering business in the North. At
Edinburgh he found employment in improving the water-supply for that
city; at Glasgow, in strengthening and securing the old bridge. Far
more important were the works he executed in designing and
constructing the Forth and Clyde Canal, which links together the east
and west coasts of Scotland, the North Sea and the Irish Sea.
[Sidenote: The Forth and Clyde Canal.]
After a careful examination of the various lines which had been
proposed for the canal, Smeaton strongly recommended the adoption of
the most direct route possible, and suggested that the depth of the
canal should be sufficient to accommodate vessels of large burden.
Lord Dundas, the principal promoter of the scheme, adopted Smeaton's
ideas, and took the necessary steps for obtaining an Act to authorize
the construction of the Forth and Clyde Canal, which was accordingly
commenced in 1768.
This canal runs nearly parallel with the famous wall of Antoninus,
erected by the Romans to protect the southern Lowlands from the
predatory attacks of the wild tribes of Caledonia. It begins at a
point near Grangemouth, on the Forth, and ends at Bowling, on the
Clyde, a few miles below Glasgow. Its length is about 38 miles, and
it includes 39 locks, with an elevation of 156 feet from the sea to
the summit-level.
It was one of the most difficult works, we are told, which, up to
that time, had been constructed in Great Britain. The engineer's
resources were severely tested by the occurrence of rocks and
quicksands: in some places the canal was carried over deep rivers, in
others along embankments exceeding twenty feet in height. It
traverses numerous roads and scores of rivulets; besides the streams
of the Luggie (celebrated by the peasant-poet David Gray), and the
Kelvin (immortalized by Burns). The bridge over the latter is 275
feet long and 68 feet high. The depth of the canal averages 8 feet.
The total cost of the undertaking did not amount to £200,000.
[Sidenote: The bridge at Coldstream.]
Smeaton's next engagement was to construct a bridge across the Tweed
at Coldstream. It consists of five principal arches, of which the
central has a span of 60 feet 8 inches; the two lateral, of 60 feet 5
inches each; and the two land or side arches, 58 feet. It was
completed at a total cost of about £6000; and opened in October 1766,
having been upwards of three years in building. It will serve to
show the great advance that has been made in engineering science
since the days of Smeaton, when we state that a similar bridge could
now be erected in nine months; though, owing to the rise in wages and
in the price of materials, at a much greater cost.
Smeaton also furnished the design for the bridge over the river
Deveron, near Banff, in Scotland. It consists of seven arches,
segments of circles, and measures 410 feet in length, and 20 feet in
width. It resembles, in its leading features, the bridge at Perth;
and its simple yet graceful aspect, added to the exceeding beauty of
its position, renders it a much-admired object, and one of great
pictorial interest.
[Sidenote: The bridge at Hexham.]
Smeaton built only one bridge in England, and, strange to say, it was
his only failure. He was requested, in 1777, to furnish a design for
a bridge to be erected across the Tyne at Hexham; and a very handsome
structure, of nine arches, it proved to be. But it had scarcely been
finished before a subsidence took place in the foundation of one of
the piers; and an attempt was made to remedy the defect by
"sheet-piling," and by filling up the cavities in the river's bed
with rough rubble-stones.
[Sidenote: A great misfortune.]
In the spring of 1782, however, a violent spate swept down the river,
and in the course of a few hours the beautiful Hexham Bridge lay in
ruin at the bottom of the Tyne. Writing to his engineer, he
said:--"All our honours are now in the dust! It cannot now be said
that in the course of thirty years' practice, and [after being]
engaged in some of the most difficult enterprises, not one of
Smeaton's works has failed! Hexham Bridge is a melancholy instance
to the contrary...... The news came to me like a thunderbolt, as it
was a stroke I least expected, and even yet can scarcely form a
practical belief as to its reality. There is, however, one
consolation that attends this great misfortune; and that is, that I
cannot see that anybody is really to blame, or that anybody is
blamed, as we all did our best, according to what appeared; and all
the experience I have gained is, not to attempt to build a bridge
upon a gravel bottom in a river subject to such violent rapidity."
[Sidenote: Harbour-building.]
Among his various engineering enterprises, Smeaton was employed in
the improvement and construction of various harbours.
His first work of this kind was at St. Ives, in Cornwall. Here he
received much help from nature, which had provided a well-sheltered
bay enclosed between two elevated headlands, known as the Island and
Penower Point, respectively. Thus it was protected from the winds of
the north, west, and south, and from the prevalent storms from the
south-west, which beat with so much violence on the iron-bound
Cornish coast. All that Smeaton, therefore, had to do, was to afford
security for shipping from gales rising in the east and north-east;
and this he effected by constructing a pier running nearly south from
the southern angle of the Island. The port thus formed has proved of
great advantage to the town, which is now one of the principal seats
of the pilchard fishery, and the emporium of a busy mining district.
Smeaton's skill was also called into requisition for many other
harbours: Whitehaven, Workington, and Bristol, on the west coast; ye,
Christchurch, and Dover, on the south; and Yarmouth, Lynn,
Scarborough, and Sunderland, on the east.
[Sidenote: A harbour of refuge.]
His principal work in harbour-construction, however, was that which
he accomplished at Ramsgate.
"The proximity of this harbour to the Downs," says Mr. Smiles, "and
to the mouth of the Thames, rendered it of considerable importance;
and its improvement for purposes of trade, as well as for the shelter
of distressed vessels in stormy weather, was long regarded as a
matter of almost national importance. The neighbourhood of Sandwich
was first proposed for a harbour of refuge as early as the reign of
Queen Elizabeth, and the subject was revived in succeeding reigns.
In 1737, Labelye, the architect of [old] Westminster Bridge, was
called upon to investigate the subject; and ten years later, a
committee of the House of Commons, after taking full evidence and
obtaining every information, reported that 'a safe and commodious
harbour may be made into the Downs near Sandown Castle, fit for the
reception and security of large merchantmen and ships of war, which
would also be of great advantage to the naval power of Great
Britain.' The estimated cost of the proposed harbour was, however,
considered too formidable, although it was under half a million; and
the project lay dormant until a violent storm occurred in the Downs
in 1748, by which a great number of ships were forced from their
anchors and driven on shore. Several vessels, however, found safety
in the little haven at Ramsgate, which was then only used by
fishermen, the whole extent of its harbour accommodation consisting
merely of a rough rubble-pier."
It would seem that this circumstance once more directed the attention
of the public to Ramsgate as a suitable site for a harbour of refuge
for vessels caught in a gale in the Downs.
[Sidenote: Proceedings at Ramsgate.]
Petitions on the subject were addressed to the House of Commons, and
the Government taking it up, an Act was passed in 1749 authorizing
the construction of a harbour at Ramsgate.
The trustees invited plans from various individuals, and from these
selected a curious combination; adopting the west pier of one of the
amateur engineers, and the east pier of another, the former to be of
stone, and the latter of timber. The east pier was designed by a
trustee; the west, by a ship-captain resident at Margate.
While the works, thus strangely designed, were in progress, the
Harbour Trustees proposed to reduce their area, and consequently the
accommodation to be afforded to shipping. As soon as their intention
became known, the shipping interest memorialized Parliament against
it. In 1755 an inspection of the works was ordered, and led to their
suspension, nor were they again resumed for a period of fully six
years, during which the Government officials and the Harbour Trustees
carried on a war of words. When they were once more set on foot,
they proved eminently unsatisfactory, so far as their object was
concerned, the protection of shipping; large quantities of sand and
silt rapidly collecting in the harbour, and threatening to choke it
up altogether.
[Sidenote: Smeaton's proposal.]
This awkward circumstance induced the Harbour Board, in 1770, to call
Mr. Smeaton to their councils. After a careful examination, he
ascertained that no fewer than 268,700 cubic yards of sand and mud
had already silted up, every tide bringing in a fresh quantity and
depositing it in the tranquil water of the harbour, which possessed
no natural scour to carry it away. In order to create such a scour,
Smeaton proposed the construction of an adequate number of sluices,
fed by an artificial backwater. He showed that Ramsgate harbour,
having a sound bottom of chalk, was excellently adapted to insure the
success of such a scheme; and pointed out that if the silt could thus
be set in motion, the tide, running diagonally upon the harbour
mouth, would easily carry it away.
The proposition of our engineer, in detail, was as follows:--
To enclose two spaces of four acres each, provided with nine
draw-gates: namely, four upon the westernmost, and five upon the
easternmost basin, the whole pointing in three different directions;
two towards the curve of the west pier, four towards the harbour
mouth, and three towards the curve in the east pier.
To give the sluices all possible effect, he recommended the
construction of a caisson, shaped somewhat like the pier of a bridge,
which, being floated to its place, and then sunk, might serve to
direct the current right or left, according to circumstances.
After some discussion, the trustees resolved to adopt Smeaton's plan;
but as it was not carried out in strict accordance with his
intentions, another failure occurred, necessitating a recourse for
the second time to his advice.
Among the improvements which he now recommended was the construction
of a new dock, the first stone of which was laid in July 1784.
In the course of the excavations numerous springs were tapped, and
these breaking through the pavement with which the dock had been
laid, Portland stone was substituted, in blocks of considerable size.
These, too, proved of no avail, and Smeaton was again sent for, with
the result that the execution of all further works connected with the
harbour was put into his hands. The dock was rebuilt; a timber floor
was laid throughout in the most complete manner possible; an
additional thickness was given to the walls; the east pier was
rebuilt of stone, and carried out into deep water to a further extent
of 350 feet. In constructing this extension, Smeaton first employed
the diving-bell in building the foundations, employing a square iron
chest, weighing about half a ton. It measured four feet six inches
in height and length, and three feet in width. Two men could work
together in its interior, and these were supplied with a constant
current of fresh air by means of a forcing-pump placed in a boat
which floated above them.
[Sidenote: Works at Ramsgate.]
The works, when finished, proved successful, and Ramsgate harbour
still remains the best upon the south-east coast, affording a refuge
in stormy weather to vessels of considerable draught of water. It
includes an area of forty-two acres, the piers extending 310 feet
into the sea, with an opening between the pier-heads of 200 feet in
width. The inner basin serves the purpose of a wet dock, and there
is also a dry dock in which ships can be repaired. A lighthouse has
been erected on the east pier. In the season, when Ramsgate is
crowded with visitors, the two piers afford ample opportunities for
promenading, and present a scene of much liveliness and interest,
which is enhanced by the numerous vessels at anchor in the basin, and
by a picturesque background of chalky cliffs and grassy hills and
shining sands.
[Sidenote: Smeaton in the North.]
In addition to his numerous works on the English coast, Smeaton was
largely employed in Scotland, in inspecting the harbours there, and
devising schemes for increasing their security and amount of
accommodation.
[Sidenote: Eyemouth Harbour.]
We learn from Mr. Smiles that in 1770 the harbour at Aberdeen was
altered in accordance with his suggestions; and a great depth of
water was obtained over the bar at its mouth, as well as in the
channel of the river Dee, by the erection of a north pier, and other
additions. Improvements were also carried out at Dundee and Dunbar
under his superintendence. He constructed the small harbours at
Portpatrick on the west, and Eyemouth on the east coast. "Both of
these," says our authority, "were in a great measure formed by
nature, and the improvement of them demanded comparatively small
skill on the part of the engineer. He had merely to follow the
direction of the rocks, which provided a natural foundation for his
piers at both places. Of his little harbour at Eyemouth he was
somewhat proud, as it was one of the first he constructed, and very
effectually answered its purpose at a comparatively small outlay of
money. It lies at the corner of a bay, opposite St. Abb's Head, on
the coast of Berwickshire, and is almost landlocked, excepting from
the north. Smeaton accordingly carried his north pier into deep
water, for the purpose of protecting the harbour's mouth from that
quarter, as well as enlarging the accommodation of the haven. The
harbour was thus rendered perfectly safe in all winds, and proved of
great convenience and safety to the fishing-craft by which it is
chiefly frequented."
It is to be observed that Smeaton, unlike some of our modern
engineers, was very solicitous to do his work economically, and that
he always contented himself with recommending such improvements or
modifications as would answer the desired purpose, without seeking to
gain a brilliant reputation by ambitious and costly schemes.
[Sidenote: Smeaton's activity.]
These details, of bridges and harbours, and piers and sluice-gates,
may not be interesting to the reader, but they are valuable as
illustrations of the credit which Smeaton enjoyed as a successful and
capable engineer, and of his restless industry and indefatigable
perseverance. He crowded an extraordinary amount of good and useful
achievement into his active life, and whatever he did was done so
carefully and conscientiously as never to require patching or
re-doing. In the course of his engineering labours he traversed
Great Britain from north to south, and east to west; and there was
scarcely a bridge or a canal in the kingdom which he did not restore,
enlarge, or in some way improve. As might be expected, he remained,
throughout his life, the great authority on all questions connected
with lighthouses. He erected those which on Spurn Head still guard
the mouth of the Humber, and at other parts of the coast his services
were called into requisition to secure their improved lightage. He
was also consulted by Government respecting the national dockyards at
Portsmouth and Plymouth. When a new water company was started to
supply some hitherto unprovided town or district, or when an old
company found it necessary to afford increased accommodation,
recourse was had to the inexhaustible skill and ingenuity of Smeaton,
who for a considerable period was really consulting engineer to the
nation. He was called upon to advise the landowner who wished to
drain his estates, and the coal-owner who desired to work his mines
more safely and efficiently. There seems to have been no department
of engineering science in which he was not largely and successfully
employed.
[Sidenote: A water-pumping engine.]
It is said of him, and without exaggeration, that he was ready to
supply a design of any new machine, from a fire-bucket or a ship's
pump to a turning-lathe or a steam-engine. His genius was equally at
home with small things as with great. Whatever he designed was
remarkable for the finish and neatness of its execution. "The
water-pumping engine which he erected for Lord Irwin, at
Temple-Newsham, near his own house at Austhorpe, to pump the water
for the supply of the mansion, is an admirable piece of workmanship,
and continues at this day in good working condition. His advice was
especially sought on subjects connected with mill-work,
water-pumping, and engineering of every description,--flour-mills and
powder-mills, wind-mills and water-mills, fulling-mills and
flint-mills, blade-mills and forge-hammer mills. From a list left by
him in his own handwriting, it appears that he designed and erected
forty-three water-mills of various kinds, besides numerous
wind-mills. [Sidenote: Smeaton and the steam-engine.] Water-power
was then used for nearly all purposes for which steam is now applied,
such as grinding flour, sawing wood, boring and hammering iron,
fulling cloth, rolling copper, and driving all kinds of machinery."
Smeaton also bestowed much attention on the development of the
wonderful powers of the steam-engine, then only in its infancy. In
order to experimentalize upon it, he erected a model engine, on
Newcomen's principle, near his house at Austhorpe; and his fertile
genius soon devised a variety of improvements which added to its
utility. His Chacewater engine of 150 horsepower was looked upon as
the finest and most powerful of its kind which had until then been
erected. In this field of invention, however, it must be owned that
he was completely surpassed by James Watt, the superior merit of
whose condensing engine--notwithstanding the time and labour Smeaton
had bestowed on the development of Newcomen's--he frankly
acknowledged. After inspecting Watt's engine, he said at once: "That
the old engine, even when made to do its best, was now driven from
every place where fuel could be considered of any value."
[Sidenote: A lesson for the reader.]
During many years the opinion of Smeaton was considered of so much
authority, that no engineering works of any importance were
undertaken throughout the kingdom except on his advice, or under his
superintendence. He was constantly consulted in Parliament, and was
regarded as an arbiter or ultimate referee on all difficult questions
connected with his profession.
And it should be added, for the benefit of the young reader, that he
was never in a hurry to give his opinion; and that he never gave it
until he had made himself thoroughly acquainted with the subject on
which it was sought. He was above all petty artifices, and never
laid claim to the possession of universal knowledge. He did not
pretend to be able to decide off-hand on a question he had not
considered, but studied it thoroughly and patiently before he
ventured on offering an opinion. Hence it was always received with
the utmost deference, and the most implicit confidence was placed in
his proved integrity.
[Sidenote: Always "thorough."]
Smeaton possessed the gift of fluent and clear description. He could
make difficult points of engineering science intelligible even to
non-professional readers or hearers; and in the courts of law he was
frequently complimented by Lord Mansfield and the other judges for
the light he so ingeniously threw upon abstruse and very difficult
subjects. His secret was, his thorough knowledge of what he wrote or
spoke about. He was always _thorough_, and hence he always spoke
with the decision and confidence of a master. It is only imperfect
knowledge which ever blunders into obscurity.