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.
We have seen that Mr. Stevenson’s college education was mainly, if not altogether, due to his own thirst for knowledge, and his education being voluntarily undertaken, could hardly fail to issue in good results. That his early studies were of incalculable value to him no one can doubt; and his own conviction of this may explain the solicitude with which, in after life, he impressed on his sons the extreme importance of being properly grounded in every branch of study, scientific and practical, which a well trained engineer has to call to his aid in the practice of his profession.
Fortified by this valuable training, Mr. Stevenson had also that unselfish love of his profession which alone can move a man to give the results of his experience freely to others, and this he did to the Edinburgh Encyclopædia and the Encyclopædia Britannica, in articles on “Roads,” “Lighthouses,” “Railways,” “Dredging,” “Blasting,” and other engineering subjects.
But he did not confine his literary labours to matters purely professional. His love for nature in all its aspects led him also to make communications to the Scientific Journals of the day on subjects of more general interest. Of these his papers “On the Alveus or Bed of the German Ocean,” in which by an investigation of many evidences he is led to the conclusion that the sea is gradually encroaching on the land, may be quoted as an example.
Mr. Stevenson’s first communication on this subject was published in 1816, in vol. ii. of the Wernerian Transactions, in which he gives examples, from actual observation, of the wasting effects of the sea on various parts of the coasts of the British Isles. His second communication was made to the Wernerian Society in March 1820, and published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal of that year.
In the fifth edition of Baron Cuvier’s “Essay on the Theory of the Earth,” reference is made to Mr. Stevenson’s theory. His papers are several times quoted in Lyell’s Principles of Geology, and the General Committee of the British Association at York in 1834 passed a resolution, “that Mr. Stevenson be requested to report to the next meeting upon the waste and extension of the land on the east coast of Britain, and upon the general question of the permanence of the level of the sea and land, and that individuals who may be able to supply information upon the subject be requested to correspond with him.”
Without discussing in how far Mr. Stevenson’s theory may be sound (for on such questions it is notorious that the views of geologists do not always coincide), it cannot be denied that his mode of dealing with the subject is original and interesting, and as the papers are not now accessible to the general reader, it may be excusable to give one of them in extenso. I also notice another feature which gives interest to the subject. In his illustrations he adopted a mode of representation which was peculiarly suitable for the object in view. It will be seen from [Plate XII.] that the sections are laid down on what is now known by engineers as sectio planography, which it is believed was used for the first time in illustrating this paper.