John Smeaton

John Smeaton (June 8th 1724 - October 28th 1792) is a British Engineer , often called the father of the British Civil engineering in the Anglo-Saxon literature, responsible for the construction of Pont S, channels, ports and of Phare S. He is also engineer in Mécanique and physicist. Its name is associated with the Lunar Society.

It is born with Austhorpe close to Leeds. After having studied with the Leeds Grammar School he works in the law firm of his father.

The physicist

He ceases working with his father to launch out in the manufacture of scientific instruments. He works with Henry Hindley and develops a Pyromètre amongst other things, to study the expansion of materials, as well as a artificial Horizon. Navigation aid has). -->

He is elected member of the Royal Society in 1753 which decrees the to him Médaille Copley in 1759 for its work on the windmills and the Noria S. Its papers clarify the relation between the Pression and the Speed of the objects moving in the atmosphere.

The engineer

Recommended by Royal Society, Smeaton builds the third Phare of Eddystone (1755 - 1759) and develops a kind of mortar using Calcaire calcined containing impurities. This headlight remains in service until in 1877 date on which it is dismantled and partially rebuilt with Plymouth Hoe.

Smeaton decides to be devoted to engineering civilian, more lucrative, and works on a series of work of art including:

the headlight of Eddystone;
the channel of Calder and Hebber uniting Wakefield and Halifax (1758-1770);
the bridge of Coldstream to the top of the river Tweed (1762-1767);
improvement of the channel of the river Lee (1765-1770);
the bridge of Perth on the river Tray (1766-1770);
the channel Ripon (1766-1773);
the Viaduct of the Newark-one-Trent on the river the Trent in the Nottinghamshire (1768-1770)
the channel connecting the Forth rivers and Clyde of Grangemouth to Glasgow (1768-1777);
the port of Banff (1770-1775);
the bridge of Aberdeen (1775-1780);
the port of Peterhead (1775);
of the harbor installations with Ramsgate (retaining tank 1776-1783; jeté 1788-1792);
the bridge of Hexham (1777-1790);
the channel of Birmingham to Fazeley (1782-1789);
the port of Sintt Austell with Charlestown in Cornouailles (1792).

Its experiment of engineering is worth to him to be quoted to testify in a lawsuit on the stranding to the port to Wells-next-tea-Sea to Norfolk in 1782. It is regarded as the first expert to be called to testify at the time of a lawsuit in courts of justice English.

The mechanic

He develops a system of irrigation using a Archimedes' screw for the royal Botanical gardens of Kew in 1761 and a water mill with Aslton in Cumbrie. He improves the Steam engine of Thomas Newcomen and one in a mine of Cornouailles in 1775 installs of them.

Its legacies

It is very estimated by the other engineers. It contributes actively to the Lunar Society, a kind of club of discussion bringing together engineers, scientists and industrialists. He invents the term of civil engineering -- Civil engineering, to distinguish it from military engineering and the large body of the state. It founds off the Society Civil Engineers in 1771 which is famous Smeaton Society after its death, learned society ancestor of the Institution off Civil Engineers in 1818.

Its pupils include the manufacturers of channels James Brindley and William Jessop and the Architecte and engineer Benjamin Latrobe.

He dies after having had an attack while he goes in the family gardens in Austhorpe and is buried in the parish of Whitkirk.

Kaiser Chiefs " song, " I Predict has Riot" , ace has symbol off has more dignified and peaceful epoch in Leeds history.

John Smeaton also lends his name to has off high school in the suburbs Leeds, adjacent to the Pendas Fields estate near Austhorpe. The school has however recently fallen upon hardware times and has been cited numerous times in the list off least improved schools in the country. -->

Sources

John Smeaton, FRS , HAVE W Skempton, 1981, ISBN 072770088X
brief biography
works of art of Smeaton

Random links: