John Smeaton was one of the first great British civil engineers, the first to use the title "Civil Engineer" (seeing himself as a professional ranking alongside doctors and lawyers), and the first to achieve distinction as an engineering scientist.

Smeaton was born on June, 8, 1724 at Austhorpe Lodge, near Leeds. He was the son of a successful Leeds lawyer, and from an early age Smeaton developed an interest in mechanics (which his father indulged by providing a workshop), building a working model of a steam engine being erected at a nearby colliery (coal mine). It was the desire of Smeaton's father that his son should succeed him, and at the age of sixteen Smeaton was employed in his father's office. In an attempt to wean him from his mechanical pursuits and partly to give him a good legal education, Smeaton was sent to London. In...