Smeaton and Lighthouses / A Popular Biography, with an Historical Introduction and Sequel

LONDON: JOHN W. PARKER, WEST STRAND. M.DCCC.XLIV.
But a detail of the public and private events in the life of a distinguished man do not alone suffice to form a just estimate of his character. The reader requires to be made acquainted with the state of a particular branch of knowledge at the time when the individual appeared whose efforts so greatly extended its boundaries;—without this it is quite impossible to estimate the worth of the man whose life is being perused, or the blessings and advantages conferred upon society by his means.
On the other hand, in tracing the history of any particular branch of knowledge, unless connected with biography, we lose sight of individual efforts;—they are mingled with the labours of others, or are absorbed into the history of the whole, and are consequently no longer individualized:—hence we are likely to fail in recognizing the obligations due to our distinguished countrymen, or to deprive of their just merit those of our foreign brethren whose useful lives have influenced distant lands, as well as their own.

With these views we propose to connect the name of Smeaton with the interesting subject of Lighthouses. In the first place, we propose to present a brief history of Lighthouses, up to the time when Smeaton gave a type for this peculiar class of buildings upon dangerous and difficult points of coast; secondly , a general sketch of the life of Smeaton, so far as his very brief biographers will allow; and thirdly , a history of the improvements in Lighthouses which have been effected since the erection of the Eddystone.
In this compilation, the writer desires to express his obligations to the following works: A Narrative of the Building, and a Description of the Construction of the Eddystone Lighthouse with Stone , by John Smeaton, fol. London, 1791;—Mr. Holmes’s short Memoir of Smeaton;—The Communication of Mrs. Dixon, Smeaton’s daughter, to the Institution of Civil Engineers;— An Account of the Bell-Rock Lighthouse, including the Details of the Erection, and peculiar Structure of that Edifice , by Robert Stevenson, 4to. Edin. 1824;— The Edinburgh Encyclopædia , and the Encyclopædia Britannica ;—An article on Lighthouses , by M. Arago, in the Annuaire ;— The Civil Engineer’s and Architect’s Journal ;— The Nautical Magazine ;—and the Annual Reports of the Trinity House presented to the House of Commons.