SMEATON, smet6n, John, English civil engineer: b. Austhorpe, near Leeds, Yorkshire, 8 June 1724; d. there, 28 Oct 1792. His father was an attorney, and took him to London in 1742, where he attended the courts in West minster Hall; but after discovering his son's disinclination to the profession he yielded, and in 1751 Smeaton began a course of experiments on a machine of his own invention, to measure a ship's way at sea, and made two voyages with Dr. Knight to try the effect of it, and also for the purpose of making experiments on a com pass of his own construction, which was ren dered magnetic by Dr. Knight's artificial magnet. In 1753 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. In 1755 the Eddystone light house was burned down, and Smeaton was en trusted with the task of rebuilding it. Opera tions were begun in August 1756 and completed in October 1759. It stood until 1882, when it was replaced by a new structure. In the year in which the lighthouse was finished he was awarded the Copley medal of the Royal Society.
After this Smeaton was employed on many works of great public utility. He made the river Calder (in Yorkshire) navigable;planned and executed the Forth and Clyde Canal in Scotland, constituting a waterway for traffic passing between the Atlantic and the German Ocean. He was appointed engineer to Rams gate Harbor, and improved it by various opera tions, of which he published an account in 1791. He built a steam-engine at Austhorpe, and made experiments with it to ascertain the power of Newcomen's engine, which he brought to a greater degree of perfection, both in its construction and powers. During many years of his life he was a frequent attendant upon Parliament, where his opinion on various works begun or projected was continually asked. Smea ton spent much of his leisure in the study of astronomy, for which purpose he fitted up an observatory in his house. Consult his 'Reports' (1797); Smiles, 'Lives of the Engineers' (1861).