Chapter I: Preface

The addresses made to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the Institution of Civil Engineers, at the opening meetings of the session--1851, contained obituary notices of Robert Stevenson. The late Alan Stevenson, his eldest son, also wrote a short Memoir of his father, which was printed for private circulation.

But Robert Stevenson’s long practice as a Civil Engineer--the important works he executed--and the valuable contributions he made to Engineering and Scientific literature, seem to me to require a fuller notice of his life than has hitherto been given.

This has been attempted in the following Memoir, which will be found to consist of extracts from Mr. Stevenson’s Professional Reports--of notes from his Diary--and of communications to Scientific Journals and Societies, between the years 1798 and 1843, when he retired from active practice.

These papers embrace a wide field of Engineering, including Lighthouses, Harbours, Rivers, Roads, Railways, Ferries, Bridges, and other cognate subjects.

Some of them describe Engineering practice which is now obsolete, but not on that account, I think, uninteresting to such modern Engineers as have regard for the antiquities of their Profession.

Some of them, I am aware, can only be appreciated by those who are specially interested in the city of Edinburgh.

All of them will, I venture to think, be found worthy of preservation as interesting Engineering records of an era that has passed away. It formed no part of my duty to criticise them, in the light of modern Engineering, and, unaltered in form of expression or statement of opinion, they are now reproduced as they came from my father’s pen.

I offer no apology for presenting these Extracts as the outlines of the life of one who occupied a prominent place among the Civil Engineers who practised during the beginning of the present, and end of the last century, shortly after British Engineering, with Smeaton as its founder, may be said to have had its origin.

D. S.

EDINBURGH, JULY 1878.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY LIFE.
PAGE
Birth--Mr. Smith’s improvements in Lighthouse illumination--
Origin of the Scottish Lighthouse Board--Acts as Assistant
to their Engineer--Student at Andersonian Institution,
Glasgow, and University of Edinburgh--Succeeds Mr. Smith
as Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board--Tour of
inspection of English lights in 1801--Is taken for a
French spy 1

CHAPTER II.

BELL ROCK LIGHTHOUSE.

Resolves to practise as a Civil Engineer--Journals--Reports--
Design for the Bell Rock Lighthouse--Improvements on Smeaton’s
design--Application to Parliament for Act in 1802--Act of
Parliament passed in 1806--Works begun in 1807--Tender breaks
adrift--Life in the floating light--Boating between the
lightship and the rock--Anxiety for workmen--Sunday work--Life
in the Barrack or Beacon--Visits the Eddystone in 1813 and
1818--Sir Walter Scott’s visit to the Bell Rock 12

CHAPTER III.

LIGHTHOUSE ILLUMINATION.

Early modes of illumination--Facet reflectors and lamps--Silvered
copper reflectors and Argand lamps--Isle of May coal light--
Improvements in catoptric lights--Distinctions for lighthouses
invented by Mr. Stevenson, viz., flashing, intermittent, and
double lights--Floating light lantern--Lighting of stage of
Covent Garden Theatre--Dioptric system of lighthouse
illumination 48

CHAPTER IV.

ROADS.

Early roads and road-making--Edgeworth and M’Adam’s systems of
roads--Stevenson’s system of roads--Cast iron and stone tracks 64

CHAPTER V.

IMPROVEMENT OF EDINBURGH.

Design for approaches to Edinburgh from the East by Regent and
London Roads, and opening up access to the Calton Hill--Sites
for the new Jail and Court of Justiciary, and buildings
in Waterloo Place--Regent Bridge--Feuing Plan for Eastern
District of Edinburgh--Improvement of accesses to Edinburgh
from the West and North, and from Granton--Removal of old
“Tolbooth” Prison--Removal of University Buildings 74

CHAPTER VI.

FERRIES.

Ferry Engineering--Extracts from Report on the Tay Ferries--
Reports on various Ferries--Orkney and Shetland Ferry, etc. 101

CHAPTER VII.

RAILWAYS.

Canals and Railways on one level--Haulage on Railways--Railways
in Scotland--Edinburgh and Midlothian, Stockton and
Darlington, and Edinburgh and London Railways--Uniform gauge
proposed--Notes on Railways for the Highland and Agricultural
Society--Letter from George Stephenson 111

CHAPTER VIII.

HARBOURS AND RIVERS 130

CHAPTER IX.

PRESERVATION OF TIMBER 155

CHAPTER X.

BRIDGES.

Marykirk, Annan, Stirling, and Hutcheson stone bridges--
High-level bridge for Newcastle--Timber bridge of built
planks--Winch Chain Bridge--American bridges of suspension--
Runcorn Bridge--Menai Chain Bridge--New form of suspension
bridge 160

CHAPTER XI.

WOLF ROCK LIGHTHOUSE 168

CHAPTER XII.

CARR ROCK BEACON 177

CHAPTER XIII.

CRANES 181

CHAPTER XIV.

FISHERIES 184

CHAPTER XV.

MARINE SURVEYING 196

CHAPTER XVI.

CONTRIBUTIONS ON ENGINEERING AND SCIENTIFIC SUBJECTS.

Contributions to _Encyclopædia Britannica_ and _Edinburgh
Encyclopædia_--The alveus or bed of the German ocean--Sectio
planography--Wasting effects of the sea at the Mersey and
Dee--Density of fresh and salt water--The Hydrophore 203

CHAPTER XVII.

EXTRACTS FROM EARLY REPORTS.

Wide range of subjects on which Mr. Stevenson gave advice--
Reports on ruins of Aberbrothock Abbey--St. Magnus Cathedral,
and Earl’s Palace, Kirkwall--St. Andrews Cathedral--Montrose
Church Spire--Melville Monument, Edinburgh--Lipping of joints
of masonry with cement--Provision for flood waters in bridges
--Hydraulic mortar--Protection of foreshores--Cycloidal sea
wall--Checking drift sand--Night signal lamps--Cause of heavy
seas in Irish Channel--Sea routes across Irish Channel--Build
of Ships--Prospective increase of population--Tidal scour--
Unscrewing of bolts by the waves--Cement Rubble cofferdams--
Buoyage system--Observations on fog signals--Regulations for
steam vessels--Notes on shipwrecks 236

CHAPTER XVIII.

RETROSPECT OF MR. STEVENSON’S LIFE 264