Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 52.djvu/404

 (1641) has Abbot's couplet. Fuller depicts him as 'one of a grave aspect and reverend presence.' Cosin describes him (, Examen Historicum, 1658, i. 258) as 'an old man of a most froward, fierce, and unpeaceable spirit.' By his wife Susanna he had a son William, born 1603, matriculated (6 Dec. 1622) at University College, Oxford, B.A. July 16; entered as a student at Gray's Inn 1627; living in 1664. His 'sons' Ogle and Cookson were probably husbands of his daughters.

He published, besides the sermon of 1628, 1, 'The Humble Petition of Peter Smart, a poore Prisoner in the King's Bench,' [1640?], 4to (dated 3 Nov,) 2. 'A Short Treatise of Altars, Altar-furniture,' 4to (no place or date; probably printed 1641, but written 'a little before he was expelled,' i.e. 1628). 3. 'A Catalogue of Superstitious Innovations. . . Violations of the locall Statutes of Durham Cathedrall,' 1642, 4to. 4. 'Septugenarii Senis iterantis Cantus Epithalamicus,' 1643, 4to (dedicated to the Westminster Assembly). Wood mentions 'various poems in Latin and English,' catalogued as 'Old Smart's Verses,' which he had not seen.

 SMEATON, JOHN (1724–1792), civil engineer, son of William Smeaton (d. 1749), an attorney, by his wife Mary Stones, was born at Austhorpe, near Leeds, on 8 June 1724. He was descended from Thomas Smeton [q. v.], a leader of the Scottish reformation. As a boy he showed considerable mechanical ability, constructing several working models of fire-engines, with one of which he is said to have pumped dry a small fish-pond in the garden of his father's house. This is perhaps identical with the ‘steam-engine of one horse-power’ which Smeaton is stated to have made for experimental purposes (, On the Steam Engine, 1826, pp. 166 sq.). He also made for himself a small lathe and many other tools, doing his own casting, forging, and similar work. He was educated at the Leeds grammar school, and in his sixteenth year entered his father's office. In 1742 he proceeded to London to continue his legal studies; but he had a distaste for the profession, and, in spite of his prospects of succeeding to a lucrative business, soon, with his father's reluctant assent, abandoned it. After entering the employment of a philosophical instrument maker, he opened in London a shop of his own in 1750, his private rooms being in Furnival's Inn, and afterwards in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At this time he was a diligent attendant at the meetings of the Royal Society, and he was elected a fellow in March 1753. To the ‘Transactions’ of the society he contributed several papers between 1750 and 1759: in 1750 ‘An Account of Improvements in the Mariner's Compass;’ in 1752 papers on ‘Improvements in Air-pumps,’ ‘A New Tackle or Combination of Pullies,’ and a third entitled ‘An Account of De Moura's Improvements in Savery's Engines;’ in 1754 papers descriptive of ‘Experiments on a Machine to measure the Way of Ships’ and ‘A New Pyrometer.’ In 1759 he was awarded the gold medal for a paper on ‘An Experimental Enquiry concerning the Natural Powers of Wind and Water to Turn Mills,’ an important piece of investigation, which was translated into French in 1810.

About 1752 and afterwards it is evident from his contributions to the Royal Society that his attention was mainly absorbed by problems of engineering. During 1754 he travelled through the Low Countries to study the canal and harbour systems, and obtained information which he subsequently turned to good account. In 1755 the second lighthouse that had stood on the perilous Eddystone reef off Plymouth was burnt down. The first lighthouse, a fantastic wooden structure on a stone base, designed by Henry Winstanley [q. v.], and begun in 1696, was destroyed by the great gale of November 1703. The second lighthouse—another wooden structure, but partly lined internally with stone to render it by its weight more capable of resisting the blows of the waves—had been erected in 1706 from the designs of Rudyerd. On its destruction by fire in 1755, Mr. Weston, the chief proprietor, applied to George Parker, second earl of Macclesfield [q. v.], the president of the Royal Society, for advice in the choice of an engineer to whom the task of rebuilding the lighthouse should be entrusted. 