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Authorised form of name Smeaton; John (1724 - 1792)
Dates 1724 - 1792
Nationality British
Place of birth Austhorpe, near Leeds, Yorkshire, England
Date of birth 08 June 1724
Place of death Austhorpe, Yorkshire
Date of death 28 October 1792
DatesAndPlaces Burial:
In the chancel of Whitkirk parish church, Yorkshire
Occupation Engineer
Research field Civil engineering
Activity Career:
Employed in the office of his father, an attorney; went to London, gave up law, and entered the service of a scientific instrument maker; later started his own similar business; designed and built the Eddystone Lighthouse (1756-1759) Lord Macclesfield proposed Smeaton for the Royal Society's prestigious Copley Medal for his "Experimental inquiry concerning the powers of water and wind in the moving of Mills" (published in 'Philosophical Transactions' volume 51 1759-1760, pp 100-174) on 22 November 1759. Medal awarded, with 15 page laudatory speech recorded in Journal Book, on 30 November 1759.
After a sound elementary education Smeaton was encouraged to follow a legal career and was employed in the office of his father, an attorney; then was sent to London for further training in the courts. His inclination to mechanical arts prevailed, and with his father's consent he gave up law and entered the service of a scientific instrument maker; then started his own similar business as a maker of scientific instruments, thereby providing scope for both his scientific interests and his mechanical ingenuity. In the 1750's he produced several technical innovations, including a novel pyrometer with which he studied the expansion of various materials. However, the pace of industrial and and commercial progress directed his attention to large scale engineering works. From 1756-1759 Smeaton was occupied with his best known achievement, the rebuilding of the Eddystone lighthouse, which confirmed his reputation as an engineer. He subsequently became a consultant in the more profitable structural engineering and river harbour works, and adopted the term 'civil engineer' to distinguish civilian consultants from the military engineers graduating from the Military Academy at Woolwich. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1753, and in 1759 he published a paper on water wheels and windmills, for which he received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society. He was a member of the Royal Society Club, an occasional guest at meetings of the Lunar Society, and a charter member of the first professional engineering society, the Society of Civil Engineers founded in 1771; after his death it became known as the Smeatonian Society. Its founding reflected the growing sense of professionalism among British civilian engineers during the eighteenth century.
Membership category Fellow
Date of election 15/03/1753
RSActivity Medals and prizes:
Copley Medal 1759
Relationships His daughter, Mary, married the son of Jeremiah Dixon (FRS 1773)
PublishedWorks Paper entitled 'An Experimental Enquiry concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills, and Other Machines, Depending on a Circular Motion' in Philosophical Transaction, Volume 51, 1759-1760, pp100-174
Source Sources:
Bulloch's Roll; DNB; DSB
Journal Book Original Volume XXIV, pp 399-414
References:
R L Hills, 'John Watt's Map of the Clyde' in NR 1998 vol 52 pp 63-71
A P Woolrich, 'The Printing of Smeaton's Reports' in NR 1980 vol 35 pp 131-133
A W Skempton, 'The Publication of Smeaton's Reports' in NR 1971 vol 26 pp 135-155, plate
J R M Setchell, 'The Friendship of John Smeaton, FRS, with Henry Hindley, Instrument and Clockmaker of York and the Development of Equatorial Mounting Telescopes' in NR 1970 vol 25 pp 79-86
J R M Setchell, 'Further Information on the Telescopes of Hindley of York' in NR 1970 vol 25 pp 189-192
T E Allibone, 'The Club of the Royal College of Physicians, the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers and their Relationship to the Royal Society Club' in NR 1967 vol 22 pp 186-192
Douglas McKie, 'Priestley's Laboratory and Library and Other of his Effects' in NR 1956-57 vol 12 pp 114-136
J A D Ackroyd, 'Sir George Cayley, the father of aeronautics. Part 2. Cayley's aeroplanes' in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 333-348
J Corden, 'Web of Science History' project in NR 2002 vol 56 pp 383-388
See; http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/76/Kaiser_Chiefs-10_things.html>http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/76/Kaiser_Chiefs-10_things.html [Ricky Wilson, one of the 'KaiserChiefs' pop group went to Leeds Grammar School and namechecks another ex-pupil in the song "I predict a riot" with the line 'would never have happenede to Smeaton'. John Smeaton (1724-1792) is the father of civil engineering'.]
A N Rollinson 'Engineering and technology of Industrial water Power at Castleford Mills from the seventeenth century to the twentieth century.' N&R Vol 70 Issue 1 March 2016, pp45-63
Code NA6321
Archives associated with this Fellow
RefNo Title Date
IM/004253 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004247 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004256 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004250 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004257 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004252 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004258 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004239 Smeaton, John 2002
IM/005388 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004229 Smeaton, John 2000
IM/004238 Smeaton, John 2002
IM/004235 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004254 Smeaton, John nd
IM/005871 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004228 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004237 Smeaton, John nd
L&P/2/507 Paper, 'Description of a new pyrometer for measuring expansions' by John Smeaton 1754
IM/004249 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004242 Smeaton, John 1992
IM/004243 Smeaton, John 1992
MM/11/10 Letter from C R Weld, Assistant Secretary, Royal Society, to the Council of the Royal Society 31 March 1846
IM/004240 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004226 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004225 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004241 Smeaton, John 1992
IM/004245 Smeaton, John nd
RSL/3/3 Letter from Alex Aubert, Highbury, to Sir Joseph Banks 7 November 1799
IM/005389 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004255 Smeaton, John 2002
CB/1/6/125 Letter from John Smeaton, York to Charles Blagden, King's Road, near Gray's Inn Lane 12 August 1784
IM/004246 Smeaton, John nd
IM/007029 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004233 Smeaton, John nd
IM/005872 Smeaton, John nd
IM/006004 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004227 Smeaton, John nd
NLB/37/558 Copy letter from Robert William Frederick Harrison to Major P [Percy Alexander] MacMahon, Fellow of the Royal Society 6 April 1908
L&P/2/311 Paper, 'A new tackle or combination of pullies' by John Smeaton 1752
L&P/2/286 Letter, 'Improvement in the air pump' from John Smeaton to John Ellicott 16 April 1752
L&P/2/355 Paper, 'Of a new sluice or dam invented by Eide Siade Johans' by John Smeaton 1753
L&P/2/357 Paper, 'Of the quick firing canons of Eide Siade Johans' by John Smeaton 1753
L&P/2/163 Paper, 'Of the structure and use of the azimuth compass' by John Smeaton 1750
L&P/2/164/1 Paper, 'Of improvements in the mariner's compass, to render the card and needle proposed by Dr Knight of general use' by John Smeaton 1750
L&P/2/462 Paper, 'Remarks on Mr Bruckner's machine for finding the way of a ship at sea' by John Smeaton 1753
L&P/2/164 Paper, 'Of improvements in the mariner's compass, to render the card and needle proposed by Dr Knight of general use' by John Smeaton 1750
L&P/2/491 Paper, 'Experiments on a machine for measuring the way of a ship at sea' by John Smeaton 1754
L&P/3/234 Letter, 'Of cements' from John Smeaton to George Parker 3 April 1757
L&P/3/235 Paper, 'About the injury to Lostwithiel church steeple by lightning' by John Smeaton 1757
L&P/3/152 Letter, 'Of the machine to measure the way of a ship at sea' from John Smeaton to Thomas Birch 21 March 1756
L&P/5/36 Paper, 'A new method of observing the heavenly bodies out of the meridan' by John Smeaton 1768
L&P/3/403 Paper, 'Address on presenting the Copley Medal to John Smeaton FRS' by George Parker 30 November 1759
L&P/5/128 Paper, 'Observation of the solar eclipse of 4 June 1769 near Leeds' by John Smeaton 1769
L&P/5/220 Paper, 'Of a new hygrometer' by John Smeaton 1771
L&P/7/11 Paper, 'Of the further use of steam engines and the conversion of reciprocating into circular motion' by John Stewart and John Smeaton 31 January 1778
L&P/7/247/2 Plate, 'Machine of collusion' by John Smeaton 1782
L&P/7/247/1 Letter, 'New fundamental experiments upon the collision of bodies' from John Smeaton to Joseph Banks 10 April 1782
L&P/9/104/2 Plate, 'Cross sections of the instrument' by John Smeaton 1788
L&P/5/35 Paper, 'Of the menstrual parallax' by John Smeaton 17 April 1768
L&P/7/247 Paper, 'New fundamental experiments upon the collision of bodies' by John Smeaton 10 April 1782
IM/004231 Smeaton, John September 2002
IM/004244 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004251 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004230 Smeaton, John September 2002
IM/004232 Smeaton, John September 2002
EC/1752/34 Smeaton, John: certificate of election to the Royal Society
P/0119 Portrait of Smeaton, John
IM/004234 Smeaton, John nd
IM/004248 Smeaton, John nd
P/0120 Portrait of Smeaton, John
JS Working design drawings of civil engineering projects by John Smeaton 1741-1792
MC/1/337 Letter from [William Frederick] Witherington, 29 Hadlow Street, Burton Crescent, to [Prince Augustus Frederick], President of the Royal Society and to the Council 2 November 1831
MC/1 Volume 1 of miscellaneous correspondence regarding business matters, sent to the Royal Society 1800-1831
L&P/3/279 Letter, 'Observations on Dr Huxham's paper on the heat of the air in July 1757' from John Smeaton to the Royal Society 12 January 1758
L&P/9/55/2 Plate, 'Observation of the right ascension and declination of Mercury out of the meridian' by John Smeaton 1787
L&P/9/55/1 Paper, 'Account of an observation of the right ascension and declination of Mercury out of the meridian near his greatest elongation, September 1786, with an equatorial micrometer of his own invention and workmanship; with an investigation of a method of allowing for refraction in such observations' by John Smeaton 1787
L&P/9/104/1 Letter, 'Description of an improvement in the application of the quadrant of altitude to a celestial globe, for the resolution of problems dependent on azimuth and altitude' from John Smeaton to William Wales 19 November 1788
AP/25/17 Unpublished paper, 'Description of an observatory constructed at Ardwick [England]' by John Jerse 1841
L&P/6/173/1 Paper, 'Of the quantity and proportion of mechanical power required to give different degrees of velocity to heavy bodies' by John Smeaton 1776
L&P/6/173 Paper, 'Of the quantity and proportion of mechanical power required to give different degrees of velocity to heavy bodies' by John Smeaton 1776
L&P/8/154 Paper, 'Observations on the graduation of astronomical instruments with an explanation of the method of dividing circles invented by the late Henry Hindley' by John Smeaton 1785
L&P/9/55 Paper, 'Account of an observation of the right ascension and declination of Mercury out of the meridian near his greatest elongation, September 1786, with an equatorial micrometer of his own invention and workmanship; with an investigation of a method of allowing for refraction in such observations' by John Smeaton 1787
L&P/9/104 Paper, 'Description of an improvement in the application of the quadrant of altitude to a celestial globe, for the resolution of problems dependent on azimuth and altitude' by John Smeaton 19 November 1788
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