John Smeaton — the First Civil Engineer

John Smeaton first described himself as a civil engineer in 1768. In doing so, he identified a new profession that was distinct from that of the military engineers who, since ancient times, had undertaken the construction of all public infrastructure. Thus, at the time, civil engineering encompassed all non-military engineering. Although in 1847, after a frenzy of railway construction, mechanical engineering bifurcated from civil engineering as an independent discipline. An innovative and intelligent man, Smeaton remains one of the most revered professionals of engineering and is regarded as the father of the civil engineering profession.

The son of a Yorkshire lawyer, John Smeaton was born in 1724, in Austhorpe, Leeds, UK. Before his 16th birthday, while still at school, his talent for engineering and use of mechanical tools possessed him to assemble a turning-lathe. Smeaton proceeded to become an instrument-maker. His research into windmills, watermills and other sources of power resulted, in 1754, in a systematic set of scientific experiments that made it clear that an overshot waterwheel is more efficient than an undershot wheel.

In 1756 the President of the Royal Society famously charged Smeaton with the construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse, a structure required to warn ships away from the Eddystone rocks, 14 miles southwest of Plymouth. Smeaton's design, which remains a symbol of the profession, was completed in 1759 and lasted until 1881.

Smeaton's industry resulted in two developments that made an important contribution to the success of the Eddystone Lighthouse. First, he used a new kind of interlocking stone construction, and second, he developed a water-resistant (hydraulic) mortar to bind the blocks together by mixing blue lime and pozzolanic material

from Italy. Smeaton's observation that the best hydraulic cements were those made from limestone containing certain proportions of clayey material are regarded as the starting point of the modern engineering use of cement and concrete.

Today Smeaton remains one of civil engineering heavy­weights — the breadth and depth of his influence are phenomenal. In his career, Smeaton designed the first successful Eddystone Lighthouse, greatly improved on Newcomen's steam engine, and designed windmills, watermills, canals and bridges.

John Smeaton died on the 28 October, 1792.

His enduring legacy is more than the engineering works, some of which remain as monuments to the great man himself. Not only is he widely regarded as the founder of the civil engineering profession, but his methods of construction site management and supervision are still in use today. John Smeaton clearly understood that managing people correctly was as important as design and construction.

It was Smeaton's desire that practising professional engineers should dine together — so that they might get to know one another better and thereby avoid potential hostility that might arise in their public dealings — that spawned the formation of the Society of Civil Engineers in 1771.

While the Society remains as a social society today, it is true that the concept of co-operation in competition between engineers led to the founding of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1818.

SECTION 4 LISTENING AND SPEAKING

23. Listen to the Text " The Father of the American Skyscraper" about the American civil engineer and architect William Le Baron Jenney.

Study the following commentary:

the Leiter Building — здание магазина фирмы " Лейтер"