John Smeaton

This article is about the 18th century civil engineer. For the baggage handler involved in the

2007 Glasgow International Airport attack, see John Smeaton (born 1976)

 

John Smeaton

Portrait of John Smeaton, with the Eddystone Lighthouse

in the background

Born8 June 1724

Austhorpe, Leeds, England

 

Died28 October 1792 (aged 68)

Austhorpe, Leeds, England

 

Nationality United Kingdom

 

Occupation Civil engineer

John Smeaton, FRS, (8 June 1724  – 28 October 1792) was an English civil engineer responsiblefor the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical

engineer and an eminent physicist. Smeaton was the first self-proclaimed civil engineer, and

often regarded as the "father of civil engineering".

 

He was associated with the Lunar Society. 

Contents

  1 Law and physics

  2 Civil engineering

  3 Mechanical engineer

  4 Legacy

o  4.1 Smeaton coefficient

  5 See also

  6 References

  7 External links

Law and physics

Smeaton was born in Austhorpe, Leeds, England. After studying at Leeds Grammar School he joined his father's law firm, but left to become a mathematical instrument maker (working with

Henry Hindley), developing, among other instruments, a pyrometer to study material expansion

and a whirling speculum or horizontal top (a maritime navigation aid).

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1753, and in 1759 won the Copley Medal for his

research into the mechanics of waterwheels and windmills. His 1759 paper " An Experimental

 Enquiry Concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills and Other Machines

 Depending on Circular Motion" addressed the relationship between pressure and velocity for

objects moving in air, and his concepts were subsequently developed to devise the 'Smeaton

Coefficient'.[1]

 

Over the period 1759-1782 he performed a series of further experiments and measurements on

waterwheels that led him to support and champion the  vis viva theory of German GottfriedLeibniz, an early formulation of conservation of energy. This led him into conflict with members

of the academic establishment who rejected Leibniz's theory, believing it inconsistent with Sir

Isaac Newton's conservation of momentum. 

Civil engineering

Recommended by the Royal Society, Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse (1755 – 

59). He pioneered the use of  'hydraulic lime' (a form of mortar which will set under water) and

developed a technique involving dovetailed blocks of granite in the building of the lighthouse.

His lighthouse remained in use until 1877 when the rock underlying the structure's foundationshad begun to erode; it was dismantled and partially rebuilt at Plymouth Hoe where it is known as

Smeaton's Tower. He is important in the history, rediscovery of, and development of modern

cement, because he identified the compositional requirements needed to obtain "hydraulicity" inlime; work which led ultimately to the invention of Portland cement. 

 

Deciding that he wanted to focus on the lucrative field of civil engineering, he commenced an

extensive series of commissions, including:

  the Calder and Hebble Navigation (1758 – 70)

  Coldstream Bridge over the River Tweed (1762 – 67)

  Improvements to the River Lee Navigation (1765 – 70)

  Perth Bridge over the River Tay in Perth (1766 – 71)

  Ripon Canal (1766 – 1773)

  Smeaton's Viaduct, which carries the A616 road (part of the original Great North Road)

over the River Trent between Newark and South Muskham in Nottinghamshire (1768 – 

70)[2][3]

 

  the Forth and Clyde Canal from Grangemouth to Glasgow (1768 – 77)

  Banff harbour (1770 – 75)

  Aberdeen bridge (1775 – 80)

  Peterhead harbour (1775)

  Nent Force Level (1776 – 77)

  Harbour works at Ramsgate (retention basin 1776-83; jetty 1788-1792)

  Hexham bridge (1777 – 90)

  the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal (1782 – 89)  St Austell's Charlestown harbour in Cornwall (1792)

Because of his expertise in engineering, Smeaton was called to testify in court for a case related

to the silting-up of the harbour at Wells-next-the-Sea in Norfolk in 1782: he is considered to be

the first expert witness to appear in an English court. He also acted as a consultant on the

disastrous 63-year-long New Harbour at Rye, designed to combat the silting of the port of Winchelsea. The project is now known informally as "Smeaton's Harbour", but despite the name

his involvement was limited and occurred more than 30 years after work on the harbour

commenced.[4]

 

Mechanical engineer

Employing his skills as a mechanical engineer, he devised a water engine for the Royal BotanicGardens at Kew in 1761 and a watermill at Alston, Cumbria in 1767 (he is credited by some for

inventing the cast iron axle shaft for waterwheels). In 1782 he built the Chimney Mill at Spital

Tongues in Newcastle upon Tyne, the first 5-sailed smock mill in Britain. He also improvedThomas Newcomen's atmospheric steam engine, erecting one at Chasewater mine in Cornwall in

1775.

In 1789 Smeaton applied an idea by Denis Papin, by using a force pump to maintain the pressureand fresh air inside a diving bell.

[5][6] This bell, built for the Hexham bridge project, was not

intended for underwater work, but in 1790 the design was updated to enable it to be used

underwater on the breakwater at Ramsgate Harbour .[6]

 

Legacy

 

To help understand the significance of Smeaton's work in the context of the history of 

thermodynamics, see timeline of thermodynamics. 

Highly regarded by other engineers, he contributed to the Lunar Society and founded the Society

of Civil Engineers in 1771. He coined the term civil engineers to distinguish them from militaryengineers graduating from the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich. After his death, the

Society was renamed the Smeatonian Society, and was a forerunner of the Institution of Civil

Engineers, established in 1818.

His pupils included canal engineer William Jessop and architect and engineer Benjamin Latrobe. 

He died after suffering a stroke while walking in the garden of his family home at Austhorpe,

and was buried in the parish church at Whitkirk, West Yorkshire.

John Smeaton Community College, a secondary school in the suburbs of Leeds adjacent to the

Pendas Fields estate near Austhorpe, is named after Smeaton. He is also commemorated at the

University of Plymouth, where the Mathematics and Technology Department is housed in abuilding named after him. A viaduct in the final stage of the Leeds Inner Ring Road, opened in

2008, was named after him.

He is mentioned in the song "I Predict a Riot" (as a symbol of a more dignified and peaceful

epoch in Leeds history; and in reference to a Junior School House at Leeds Grammar School,

which lead singer Ricky Wilson attended) by the indie rock band Kaiser Chiefs, who are nativesof Leeds.

Smeaton coefficient

The lift equation used by the Wright brothers was due to John Smeaton. It has the form:[7]

 

where:

 L is the lift

k is the Smeaton coefficient- 0.005 (the drag of a 1-square-foot (0.093 m2) plate at 1

mph) was the value as determined by Smeaton, later corrected to 0.0033 by the Wrightbrothers

C l is the lift coefficient (the lift relative to the drag of a plate of the same area)

 A is the area in square feet

The Wright brothers determined with wind tunnels that the Smeaton coefficient was incorrectand should have been 0.0033.

[8] In modern analysis, the Lift coefficient is normalized by the

dynamic pressure instead of the Smeaton coefficient.