John Smeaton was the founder of the British engineering profession, conferring upon a hitherto disparate group of practitioners an identity and a status which has lasted to this day.

His career covered an extraordinarily wide range of projects, greater than any of his contemporaries, and included lighthouses, canals and river training, docks and harbours, fen drainage and bridge building. In all these fields he advanced the understanding of technical issues, moving towards improved manufacturing skills, well thought-out project management and economy of materials. These remain necessary attributes for engineers today.

Uniquely, Smeaton was also an engineering scientist of great distinction and his work had a practical application, leading to considerable improvements in the efficiency of machines.

This lecture considers the reasons for his pre-eminence and highlights some of his achievements.

About the speaker

Julia Elton has spent a lifetime immersed in the literature of engineering and the images of the industrial revolution first as an antiquarian bookdealer and later as an independent engineering historian writing and lecturing widely on all aspects of this endlessly fascinating subject. She contributed a number of entries on gas and lighthouse engineers to the Institution of Civil Engineer’s Biographical Dictionary.

Julia recently gained a PhD in the history of lighthouse illumination. She is a Past President of the Newcomen Society.

An in-person only event. No need to sign up, just come along – all are welcome.