Transcriber’s Note
Cover created by Transcriber and placed in the Public Domain.
LIFE OF ROBERT STEVENSON.
Edinburgh University Press:
THOMAS AND ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE, PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY.
J. SYME DELINEAVIT.
J. HORSBURGH SCULPSIT.
ROBERT STEVENSON F.R.S.E.
CIVIL ENGINEER.
From a bust by Joseph, placed in the Library of the Bell Rock Lighthouse by the Commissioners of the Northern Lighthouses
LIFE
OF
ROBERT STEVENSON
CIVIL ENGINEER
FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH; FELLOW OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON;
FELLOW OF THE ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON; MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY
OF SCOTTISH ANTIQUARIES, OF THE WERNERIAN NATURAL HISTORY
SOCIETY, AND OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS.
ENGINEER TO THE COMMISSIONERS OF NORTHERN LIGHTHOUSES AND TO
THE CONVENTION OF ROYAL BURGHS OF SCOTLAND, ETC.
BY
DAVID STEVENSON
CIVIL ENGINEER
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH;
MEMBER OF COUNCIL OF THE INSTITUTION OF CIVIL ENGINEERS, ETC.
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK, EDINBURGH
E. AND F. N. SPON, LONDON AND NEW YORK
1878.
v
The addresses made to the Royal Society of Edinburgh,and the Institution of Civil Engineers, at the openingmeetings of the session—1851, contained obituary noticesof Robert Stevenson. The late Alan Stevenson, hiseldest son, also wrote a short Memoir of his father,which was printed for private circulation.
But Robert Stevenson’s long practice as a CivilEngineer—the important works he executed—and thevaluable contributions he made to Engineering andScientific literature, seem to me to require a fuller noticeof 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 hisDiary—and of communications to Scientific Journals andSocieties, between the years 1798 and 1843, when heretired from active practice.
viThese 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 isnow obsolete, but not on that account, I think, uninterestingto such modern Engineers as have regard for theantiquities of their Profession.
Some of them, I am aware, can only be appreciatedby those who are specially interested in the city ofEdinburgh.
All of them will, I venture to think, be foundworthy of preservation as interesting Engineering recordsof an era that has passed away. It formed no part of myduty to criticise them, in the light of modern Engineering,a