CHAPTER III.

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.