page_title: John Smeaton
section_title: Civil engineering
hierarchical_section_title: John Smeaton / Civil engineering
caption_attribution_description: Engraving of Smeaton's Lighthouse. Captions, from top to bottom, are: EDDYSTONE on the Coast of England Light Room Bed Room Kitchen Store [storage] Store High Water—Spring Tide Low Water
context_page_description: John Smeaton FRS was an English civil engineer responsible for 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 is often regarded as the "father of civil engineering". He pioneered the use of hydraulic lime in concrete, using pebbles and powdered brick as aggregate. Smeaton was associated with the Lunar Society.
context_section_description: Smeaton is important in the history, rediscovery of, and development of modern cement, identifying the compositional requirements needed to obtain "hydraulicity" in lime; work which led ultimately to the invention of Portland cement. Portland cement led to the re-emergence of concrete as a modern building material, largely due to Smeaton's influence.
  Recommended by the Royal Society, Smeaton designed the third Eddystone Lighthouse (1755–59). He pioneered the use of 'hydraulic lime' (a form of mortar that 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 foundations had begun to erode; it was dismantled and partially rebuilt at Plymouth Hoe where it is known as Smeaton's Tower.
  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 (1763–66)
  Improvements to the River Lee Navigation (1765–70)
  Smeaton's Pier in St Ives, Cornwall (1767–70)
  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)
  the Forth and Clyde Canal from Grangemouth to Glasgow (1768–77)
  Langley on Tyne smelt mill, with Nicholas Walton, acting as receivers to the Greenwich Hospital, London (1768)
  Banff harbour (1770–75)
  Aberdeen bridge (1775–80)
  Peterhead harbour (1775–1881)
  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)
  Smeaton is considered to be the first expert witness to appear in an English court. Because of his expertise in engineering, he 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 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. It closed in 1839.
caption: Smeaton's Lighthouse
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