He is also well known for his successful daring in the building of
structures for trigonometrical purposes. Since 1840 he has
superintended the erection for these objects of at least fifty
scaffoldings with stages, on the summits of towers or spires of
churches, and in other prominent positions, in various parts of the
British isles. Some of these structures have exhibited great skill,
and the ingenious arrangement of the timbers, cordage, and
fastenings, made the scaffolds with their platforms, objects alike
of curiosity and architectural merit. The celebrated stages at
Calaiswold near Bishopwilton, and Arbury Hill near Daventry, were
massive and imposing structures. The former was 78 feet high, and
300 trees from the estate of Sir Tatton Sykes were used in its
construction: the latter was 80 feet high, and the timber employed
in it took a waggon and four horses for six days to collect it on
the site. The scaffolds and stages on the steeples of Thaxted and
Danbury churches in Essex were cleverly executed. The Thaxted one
was a particularly difficult service, and accomplished at imminent
personal risk. It was nevertheless a very artistic and beautiful
work, and of sufficient interest to receive delineation in a London
journal. It was built in April, 1844. The scaffold and stage were
more than 102 feet in height, and rose from the crown of the tower,
which had an elevation of 100 feet from the ground. His most
distinguished work was superintending, in 1848, the erection of the
scaffolding and stage around and above the ball and cross of St.
Paul’s Cathedral, and which earned the reputation of being a
“wonderful specimen of skill”[227] and workmanship. The design for
it was made by sergeant James Steel; but sergeant Beaton effected
some important improvements in its details, which gave solidity and
stability to the delicate fabric. His coolness, scrupulous care, and
unflinching zeal in carrying on the work were astonishing, and
during its progress he was visited by many architects, engineers,
and professional men, who treated him with great courtesy, and
eulogised his talent and courage. In the metropolitan sanitary
survey sergeant Beaton took the trigonometrical observations at nine
points of the district, the chief stations being on the cupola of
the Colosseum, St. Luke’s, Chelsea, the Pagoda Tower at Kew Gardens,
and the Wimbledon and Highgate churches. The stage at the Pagoda was
very difficult of erection. The tower is 140 feet high, and the pole
from its apex rises to an elevation of 20 feet. Above this pole in a
very skilful manner was the stage constructed, which rested upon
four 30-feet spars based upon the cupola. While the work was in
progress frost set in, and the roof, smooth as a sheet of glass,
rendered the movements of the workmen very perilous; but the
sergeant, equal to the occasion, by means of a circle of sheeting
secured at the foot of the uprights, and the strewing of gravel on
the planks, effected the service with his accustomed success. At
Wimbledon spire the scaffolding from the base to the top was 85
feet, and from its neatness had so beautiful an appearance, that a
drawing of it was transferred to the pages of the ‘Illustrated
London News.’ It was built during the prevalence of a strong gale,
and to insure security against an increased pressure of wind on the
superstructure, 700 yards of chain and 500 yards of rope were fixed
to the base of the main posts, and passed fourfold through the
belfry windows, and made taut to the eight-bell frame by powerful
tackling. The strength of the fabric was afterwards severely tested,
for a violent storm came on, and whilst large trees were thrown down
and others were snapped off above ground, the stage on the fragile
spire of the church weathered the hurricane. At Highgate church he
built a similar stage above a spire of 60 feet, rising from a tower
of 70 feet: this spire was architecturally embellished with turrets,
pinnacles, &c., and eight flying buttresses. A storm set in here
also, which shook the houses in the vicinity of the church. At
midnight the sergeant was awakened by the wind, and dressing himself
hastened to the top of the steeple. Nothing daunted by the
oscillations of the stage he secured the instrument, and reefing a
part of the canvas of the observatory saved it from destruction.
This incident is given to show the sergeant’s spirit and devotion to
the service. At Gloucester Cathedral he erected on the tower a neat
scaffolding and double stage, to receive his observatory, which was
made to peer over the delicate pinnacles of the edifice. The
pinnacles rose 52 feet above the roof, while the height of the
building from the ground to the top of the spires measured 226 feet.
This service was carried out with his usual ability and care, and
the damage done to the cathedral in the fixing, and afterwards in
the removal of the heavy timbers and stores, cost to repair it only
the small sum of 1_s._ 4_d._ Similar scaffolds and double stages
were constructed by him on the towers of Tewkesbury Abbey and
Worcester Cathedral. From 1850 to 1855 he conducted the
trigonometrical observations with the 2-feet theodolite from the top
of Nelson’s Monument on Calton Hill, from the turret over the
crown-room at Edinburgh Castle, and from many mountain stations in
Scotland. At one period of his service he was employed in the
triangulation of Lewis, and underwent incredible hardships in its
prosecution. Indeed, throughout his survey career of more than
twenty-three years, his adventures and vicissitudes on mountain
duty, in observing, in scaffold building, in travels by land and
sea, exposed in camp to frost and snow, to violent winds, storms,
and deluging tempests, belong almost to the romance of science. This
is true not only with respect to the arduous and trying services of
sergeant Beaton, but to many others who, like him, have been
allotted to the laborious duty of the great triangulation.
_Colour-sergeant James Donelan_ was discharged in April, 1853, and,
subsequently, for his excellent services received a silver medal and
an annuity of ten pounds a year. From the year 1839 he was employed
in charge of parties on mountains and at other stations, in making
observations of angles and bearings, for the secondary and minor
triangulation of Ireland. From December, 1841, to April, 1842, and
from January, 1843, to late in 1852, he had the sole charge of
Ramsden’s three-feet theodolite, and made observations for primary
triangles, some of whose sides were more than 100 miles in length.
This class of observations previously had been performed by officers
and mathematical assistants of great experience only, but the
observations made by sergeant Donelan proved on calculation to be
equal in accuracy to those of his predecessors. To his credit it
must be recorded, that he was the first non-commissioned officer of
the corps intrusted with the charge of a three-feet instrument. For
more than twelve years he was encamped on remote mountain heights,
or moving from one wild spot to another as the requirements of the
service demanded. In this way he visited upwards of fifty
trigonometrical stations in the British isles, many of which have
become famous by the labours of General Roy, General Mudge, Captain
Kater, and General Colby. Robust and physically adapted for
laborious employment, he sustained with cheerfulness and evenness of
temper and purpose, the arduous toils and difficulties of his duty,
and the privations, discomforts, and atmospherical vicissitudes of a
trying situation. His was necessarily a rugged life, but in all he
acted like a true soldier, and was faithful and efficient alike as a
sapper and an observer. Here it may be proper to mention that at
Leith Hill, in Surrey, he received a visit from an eminent stranger,
of whose position in society he was at the time unconscious. With
the strict injunction that he was not to touch the instruments, or
to interfere or speak while the observations were being conducted,
the gentleman was admitted into the observatory. Sergeant Donelan
having closed the series of the arc to the Whitehorse-hill
heliostat, entered into conversation with the stranger, and after an
unrestrained reciprocation of thought and opinion on professional
matters, he was embarrassed to learn that the visitor was no other
than Professor Airy, the Astronomer-Royal. The visit was a
beneficial one to the sergeant, for the professor, in a half-hour’s
stay, imparted to him much valuable information, and complimented
him in a letter to Southampton for his care, industry, and ability.
Among his later military services he was engaged for some months in
the irksome operation of refinding the trigonometrical stations in
Ireland. The duty was one of no common difficulty, but with his
accustomed perseverance and precision, he succeeded in effecting it
to the perfect satisfaction of his officers. He not only found the
various sites, some of them almost hopelessly lost, but to render
them easily accessible to future observers, described their
characteristics and the physical features and bearings of the most
remarkable objects in their vicinity. He is now employed as a
civilian, observing with a 12-inch theodolite for the second and
minor triangulation at a salary of 7_s._ 3_d._ a-day, in addition to
his pension of 2_s._ 0½_d._
_Sergeant Joseph Longland_ served about seventeen years in the
corps, was proficient in the field duties of the survey, and bore
the character of being a fine draughtsman. Coupled with his charge
of the drawing and tracing at Mountjoy, he superintended the
revision of the engravings for Ireland. For several years he took
the meteorological observations, directed the reduction of them for
publication, and not only proved himself to be an excellent and
careful observer, but introduced improvements in the meteorological
registry. At Southampton, under the executive, he superintended,
with singular efficiency and correctness, the staff of draughtsmen,
civil and military, employed at the Ordnance map office. The vast
range of his information, his habit of close reflection and studious
application, rendered him a trustworthy and successful assistant.
Thrice he has appeared before the public as a poet. His works bear
the titles of ‘Othello Doomed,’ ‘Bernard Alvers,’ and ‘Trephely.’
The two first are richly imaginative, displaying a versatility of
style, an originality and wildness of idea and incident, a
gracefulness and sublimity of diction, that bid fair, as he expands
in experience and familiarizes himself with the compass of his
powers, to give him a high stand among the poets. His last
production, however, does not come up to the expectations of his
admirers. It is too vague, eccentric, and improbable to meet with
favour. Undoubted evidence it bears of spirit, thought, care, and
ambition, but it lacks the charm—the merit of his earlier works. In
1855 he received a commission as Quartermaster in one of the foreign
legions, but the labours to which he was subjected in the
organization of a new corps with whose language he was utterly
unacquainted, not suiting the bias of his mind for close sedentary
occupation, induced him to resign. The step was accompanied with
pecuniary inconveniences. Fairly thrown on the world, with good
talents and proper ambition to start with, there is little doubt but
that his energy of character will introduce him to employment which
will make up for the honourable position he felt it expedient to
sacrifice.
_Sergeant Donald Geddes_ possessed varied ability both as a surveyor
and a mechanic. He was also a clear-headed and suggestive clerk of
works, and not without pretensions as an architectural draughtsman.
When discharged in the summer of 1853, he was in subordinate charge
of the electrotype apparatus and copper-plate printers at the
Ordnance map office at Southampton, under Captain W. D. Gosset,
R.E., in which, through his assiduity and intelligence, the process
of producing the copper for engraving was carried out very
successfully. In attending to this duty his attention had been much
engaged in scientific investigations and chemical experiments, and
his diligent application made him intimately acquainted with the
sciences of galvanism and electricity. Frequently on these subjects
he lectured at the Polytechnic Institution at Southampton to large
audiences, and his addresses were invariably reported in their
entire length in the local papers. In January, 1852, he was honoured
by a request to _open_ the _session_ of the institution with a
lecture. This sergeant Geddes complied with. His subject was “The
Advantages of Scientific Knowledge,” and it was received by a
crowded assembly with enthusiasm. “The eloquence, ease of
illustration, and fine talent of the lecturer, were surprising, and
professors with a stream of initial titles to their names could not
more have instructed and delighted their audiences at the royal and
other metropolitan institutions than did sergeant Geddes.”[228] An
incident occurred on this occasion which, from its remarkable
character and effects, should not be omitted. The lecturer in
alluding to the electric-telegraph, drew attention to the fact that
friendly salutes had, by its agency, been fired between the coasts
of England and France. “Let us only imagine,” he continued, “that
this wire were carried across the channel and attached to the
cannons of Paris or Madrid; let us wish to salute them on some great
occasion, and by the simple touch of our wires it is done!” Here the
lecturer united his wires, and lo! three pieces of artillery were
fired in the adjacent grounds, to the great astonishment of the
audience; but though the experiment was successful, it was attended
by one of those striking accidents which, instead of damping the
interest of the assembly, assisted to increase its zest and to
prolong its hearty applause. The distance that the guns were likely
to be out of the road of doing harm was not accurately ascertained,
and when the explosion took place the crash that ensued embraced the
destruction of more than 100 panes of glass in the Polytechnic
building! At the invitation of Mr. Andrews, the Mayor of
Southampton, he afterwards delivered a lecture at St. John’s House,
Winchester, on voltaic and magnetic electricity. “The lecture, so
interesting and yet so practical in its illustrations, accompanied
by experiments so brilliant and successful, was listened to with the
most earnest and intelligent attention.”[229] Mr. Andrews and Miss
Smith—the heroine of the ‘Amazon’—were present; and sergeant Geddes,
during his sojourn at Winchester, was the honoured guest of the
mayor, and favoured with the amiable and intelligent company of the
accomplished lady. In March, 1855, he delivered perhaps his best
lecture at Southampton in the Polytechnic Institution, on the
“Monumental Remains of Egypt, Assyria, and Greece.” It was
illustrated by drawings and photographs of striking subjects—gleaned
chiefly from Layard’s remarkable discoveries. There was also a view
of Attica, nine feet long, sketched by Mrs. Bracebridge, celebrated
for her heroic devotion and gentleness to our sick troops in the
hospitals on the Bosphorus. The hall was filled to inconvenience,
and he was encouraged by the presence of many of the notabilities of
the city. A respectable local paper spoke of the lecture as being
comprehensive and “greatly enhanced in effect by his not having to
refer to a single note throughout.” The journal further observed,
that “the lecture was altogether one pleasing flow of words,
strictly appropriate, forcible in a scientific point of view, and
convincing, as in all other respects, to the inquisitive mind of an
audience excited to the highest pitch of attention.”[230] On several
occasions sergeant Geddes has contributed to the columns of the
‘Hampshire Advertiser’ original and popularly written articles on
art and science. In the erection of the new gaol at Southampton, he
held the office of clerk of the works; and he now fills, by the
patronage of Colonel James, the superintendent of the survey, a
similar appointment in connection with the building of fire-proof
offices and stores at the Ordnance map office, for which a sum of
8,000_l._ has been voted by Parliament.