Robert Stevenson,
FRSE
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
,
FGS,
FRAS,
FSA Scot,
MWS (8 June 1772 – 12 July 1850) was a Scottish
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
, and designer and builder of
lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of physical structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lens (optics), lenses and to serve as a beacon for navigational aid for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways.
Ligh ...
s.
His works include the
Bell Rock Lighthouse.
Early life
Robert Stevenson was born in
Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
.
His father was Alan Stevenson, a partner in a West Indies sugar
trading house in the city. Alan died of an
epidemic
An epidemic (from Greek ἐπί ''epi'' "upon or above" and δῆμος ''demos'' "people") is the rapid spread of disease to a large number of hosts in a given population within a short period of time. For example, in meningococcal infection ...
fever on the island of
St. Christopher in the
West Indies
The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...
on 26 May 1774, a few days before Robert's second birthday. Robert's uncle died of the same disease around the same time. Since this left Alan's widow, Jean Lillie Stevenson, in much-reduced financial circumstances, Robert was educated, as a young child, at a
charity school
Charity schools, sometimes called blue coat schools, or simply the Blue School, were significant in the history of education in England. They were built and maintained in various parishes by the voluntary contributions of the inhabitants to ...
.
Robert's mother intended him to join the
ministry, so when he was a bit older she enrolled him in the school of a locally famous Glasgow
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, a Mr Macintyre. But when Robert was 15, she remarried and the family moved to 1 Blair Street, off the
Royal Mile
The Royal Mile () is the nickname of a series of streets forming the main thoroughfare of the Old Town, Edinburgh, Old Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. The term originated in the early 20th century and has since entered popular usage.
The Royal ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. Robert's new stepfather was
Thomas Smith, a
tinsmith
A tinsmith is a historical term for a skilled craftsperson who makes and repairs things made of tin or other light metals. The profession was also known as a tinner, tinker, tinman, or tinplate worker; whitesmith may also refer to this profe ...
, lamp maker, ingenious
mechanic
A mechanic is a skilled tradesperson who uses tools to build, maintain, or repair machinery, especially engines. Formerly, the term meant any member of the handicraft trades, but by the early 20th century, it had come to mean one who works w ...
, and
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing i ...
, who had been appointed to the newly formed
Northern Lighthouse Board
The Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) is the general lighthouse authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is a non-departmental public body responsible for ocean, marine navigation aids around coastal areas.
History
The NLB was formed by ...
in 1786.
In 1798 or 1799, when Robert was about 26, the family moved to a newly built home, 2 Baxters Place, at the head of
Leith Walk.
In 1815, Robert's stepfather died, and Robert inherited the house, where he continued to live until about 1820.
Professional career
Stevenson served as an apprentice civil engineer to his stepfather, Thomas Smith. He was so successful at it that, at age 19, he was given responsibility for supervising the erection of a lighthouse on
Little Cumbrae island in the
River Clyde
The River Clyde (, ) is a river that flows into the Firth of Clyde, in the west of Scotland. It is the eighth-longest river in the United Kingdom, and the second longest in Scotland after the River Tay. It runs through the city of Glasgow. Th ...
. His next project was overseeing the building of lighthouses on
Orkney
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland, ...
. While working on these projects, he continued his civil engineering studies: He diligently practised
surveying
Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the land, terrestrial Plane (mathematics), two-dimensional or Three-dimensional space#In Euclidean geometry, three-dimensional positions of Point (geom ...
and
architectural drawing
An architectural drawing or architect's drawing is a technical drawing of a building (or building project) that falls within the definition of architecture. Architectural drawings are used by architects and others for a number of purposes: to deve ...
, and attended maths and
physics
Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...
lectures at the
Andersonian Institute in Glasgow.
In the winter, when it was too chilly for construction work, he attended lectures at the
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
in philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, natural history, moral philosophy, logic, and agriculture. He was not granted a degree because he did not have the proficiency in Latin or Greek that was a requirement for a degree in those days.
In 1797, he was appointed engineer to the Lighthouse Board, succeeding to his stepfather's place there. In 1799, he married Smith's eldest daughter Jean, who was also his stepsister, and, in 1800, Smith made him his business partner.
The most important work of Stevenson's life was the
Bell Rock Lighthouse, built between 1807 and 1810 when he was in his mid-30s. The lighthouse still stands today. Its construction was a scheme long in the gestation, and then long (and extremely hazardous) in the construction. Its structure was based upon the design of the
Eddystone Lighthouse
The Eddystone Lighthouse is a lighthouse on the Eddystone Rocks, south of Rame Head in Cornwall, England. The rocks are submerged below the surface of the sea and are composed of Precambrian gneiss. View at 1:50000 scale
The current structu ...
, which had been built by
John Smeaton
John Smeaton (8 June 1724 – 28 October 1792) was an English civil engineer responsible for the design of bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses. He was also a capable mechanical engineer and an eminent scholar, who introduced various ...
— but Stevenson made several improvements to that design.
John Rennie was a consulting engineer on the project. After the project was complete, there was some contention as to who should get more credit—Rennie or Stevenson. That contention grew particularly strong as between the two men's sons when they were older - Robert's son
Alan Stevenson and John Rennie's son,
Sir John Rennie.
Samuel Smiles, a popular engineering author of the time, published an account taken from Rennie, which gave prominence to Rennie's claim. However, the
Northern Lighthouse Board
The Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) is the general lighthouse authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is a non-departmental public body responsible for ocean, marine navigation aids around coastal areas.
History
The NLB was formed by ...
gave full credit to Stevenson, as have historians since then.
Stevenson's work on the Bell Rock and elsewhere provided a fund of anecdotes about the dangers he tended to place himself in and his lucky narrow escapes. For example, in 1794, he was aboard the sloop ''Elizabeth of Stromness'', returning from the
Orkney Islands
Orkney (), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plural name the Orkneys is also sometimes used, but locals now consider it outdated. Part of the Northern Isles along with Shetland ...
, when it became becalmed off
Kinnaird Head. Unlike others aboard the ship, he had the good fortune to be taken off it and rowed ashore. After he left it, a gale arose and drove the ship back to Orkney, where it foundered: All aboard were drowned. Another time, he was with a crew of men on the Bell Rock, which was only above the surface of the water at the lowest tide, when one of the crew boats drifted away. The remaining boats did not have enough room to carry everyone back to the mainland. Once the tide rose, the rock would have been submerged, and anyone not in a boat would have been stranded in the water. Luckily, before the tide rose, the Bell Rock pilot boat happened to arrive on an errand to deliver some mail to Stevenson, and thus saved the situation.
Stevenson served as the engineer to the
Northern Lighthouse Board
The Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) is the general lighthouse authority for Scotland and the Isle of Man. It is a non-departmental public body responsible for ocean, marine navigation aids around coastal areas.
History
The NLB was formed by ...
until 1842 - nearly fifty years.
During that time he designed numerous lighthouses and oversaw their construction and the addition of later improvements to them. His many innovations included his choice of light sources and mountings, his reflector design, his use of
Fresnel lens
A Fresnel lens ( ; ; or ) is a type of composite compact lens (optics), lens which reduces the amount of material required compared to a conventional lens by dividing the lens into a set of concentric annular sections.
The simpler Dioptrics, d ...
es, and his use of rotation and shuttering systems that provided lighthouses with individual signatures (
characteristics) — allowing them to be identified by seafarers. For this latter innovation, he was awarded a gold medal by King
William I of the Netherlands
William I (Willem Frederik; 24 August 1772 – 12 December 1843) was King of the Netherlands and List of monarchs of Luxembourg, Grand Duke of Luxembourg from 1815 until his abdication in 1840.
Born as the son of William V, Prince of Orange, ...
.
Engineering skills were in high demand after the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium), marking the end of the Napoleonic Wars. The French Imperial Army (1804–1815), Frenc ...
, which marked the end of the continental wars, as the focus turned toward improving the country's infrastructure. So Stevenson was kept busy. In addition to his work for the Northern Lighthouse Board, he served as a consulting engineer on many projects, collaborating with other engineers such as
John Rennie,
Alexander Nimmo,
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...
,
William Walker,
Archibald Elliot
Archibald Elliot (August 1761 – 16 June 1823) was a Scottish architecture, architect based in Edinburgh. He had a very distinctive style, typified by square plans, concealed roofs, crenellated walls and square corner towers. All may be said t ...
,
and
William Cubitt
Sir William Cubitt FRS (bapt. 9 October 1785 – 13 October 1861) was an English civil engineer and millwright. Born in Norfolk, England, he was employed in many of the great engineering undertakings of his time. He invented a type of windmil ...
. These projects included the construction of roads, bridges, harbours, canals, railways, and aids to river navigation. He designed and oversaw the construction in Glasgow of the
Hutcheson Bridge, and in Edinburgh of the
Regent Bridge[ and approaches to it from the east. He also produced a number of designs for canals and railways which were not built, and new and improved designs for bridges, some of which were later implemented by his successors. He invented the movable jib and the balance crane as necessary aids to lighthouse construction, and, as ]George Stephenson
George Stephenson (9 June 1781 – 12 August 1848) was an English civil engineer and Mechanical engineering, mechanical engineer during the Industrial Revolution. Renowned as the "Father of Railways", Stephenson was considered by the Victoria ...
noted, he led the trend toward using malleable rather than cast-iron rails in the construction of railways.
In 1815, he was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) is an award granted to individuals that the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland's national academy of science and Literature, letters, judged to be "eminently distinguished in their subject". ...
. His proposers were John Barclay, John Playfair and David Brewster
Sir David Brewster Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, KH President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, PRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA Scot Fellow of the Scottish Society of ...
.
In 1824, he published a paper about the condition of the eastern coastline of the United Kingdom
The coastline of the United Kingdom is formed by a variety of natural features including islands, bays, headlands and peninsulas. It consists of the coastline of the island of Great Britain, the north-east coast of the island of Ireland, as well ...
, entitled ''Account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse''. In it, he presented convincing evidence that the North Sea
The North Sea lies between Great Britain, Denmark, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. A sea on the European continental shelf, it connects to the Atlantic Ocean through the English Channel in the south and the Norwegian Se ...
was eroding that coastline, and in particular that the great sandbanks were disappearing — the spoils taken by the sea. He hypothesized that freshwater and saltwater areas at river mouths exist as separate and distinct streams, and carried out tests of this hypothesis. He contributed articles to the Encyclopædia Britannica
The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...
and the Edinburgh Encyclopædia, and published papers in a number of scientific journals.
He was inducted into the Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame
The Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame honours "those engineers from, or closely associated with, Scotland who have achieved, or deserve to achieve, greatness", as selected by an independent panel representing Scottish engineering institutions, aca ...
in 2016.
Family life
In 1799, Robert married his stepsister, Jean Smith, who was his stepfather Thomas Smith's eldest daughter by his first wife. A number of their children died young, including three who died of childhood diseases early in 1808, during the construction of Bell Rock.
Three of Stevenson's sons became engineers: Alan
Alan may refer to:
People
*Alan (surname), an English and Kurdish surname
* Alan (given name), an English given name
** List of people with given name Alan
''Following are people commonly referred to solely by "Alan" or by a homonymous name.''
* ...
, David
David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament.
The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...
and Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the A ...
. Robert's other surviving child was Jane (1801–1864). Jane became her father's secretary and helped him write and illustrate his account of the Bell Rock Lighthouse construction. He had two grandchildren who became well-known: His son Alan was the father of the author and journalist Katharine de Mattos, and his son Thomas was the father of the author Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
.
Stevenson lived in Baxter's Place at the head of Leith Walk for most of his later years, moving from No. 2 to the far larger No. 1 around 1820.[Edinburgh and Leith Post Office Directories 1815–1850] In 1985, the building was named "Robert Stevenson House" in his honour. It was used as an office from 1985 to 2015. The building was converted into a Marriott Hotel
Marriott Hotels & Resorts is Marriott International's brand of full-service hotels and resorts based in Bethesda, Maryland. As of June 30, 2020, there were 582 hotels and resorts with 205,053 rooms operating under the brand, in addition to 160 h ...
in 2017, at which point the name was removed.
Stevenson died on 12 July 1850, at 1 Baxters Place in Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
. He is buried in the Stevenson family plot in the New Calton Burial Ground.
Memorials to Stevenson
Stevenson College, Edinburgh, named after Robert Stevenson, was founded in 1970. For a good portion of his life, Stevenson lived at 1 Baxter's Place, Edinburgh. In 1985, the building was named “Robert Stevenson House” in his memory. (The name was removed in 2015 because Marriott bought the building to convert it to a hotel.)
Robert and his father, Alan, are memorialized on the gravestone of his grandfather, a Glasgow merchant — also named Robert Stevenson - who died in 1764 and was buried in the churchyard of Glasgow Cathedral
Glasgow Cathedral () is a parish church of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow, Scotland. It was the cathedral church of the Archbishop of Glasgow, and the mother church of the Archdiocese of Glasgow and the province of Glasgow, from the 12th ...
.
Biographies
''The Lighthouse Stevensons'', published in 1999, is an account of the professional accomplishments of Stevenson and his sons, written by Bella Bathurst ( Harper Collins Publishers, 1999, ).
Structures designed by Robert Stevenson
Lighthouses
* Bell Rock (1811)
* Toward Point (1812)
*Isle of May
An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English. However, there is no clear agreement on what makes an island an isle or its difference, so they are considered synonyms.
Isle may refer to:
Geography
* Is ...
(1816)
* Corsewall (1817)
* Point of Ayre (1818)
*Calf of Man
Calf of Man ( ) is a island, off the southwest coast of the Isle of Man. It is separated from the Isle of Man by a narrow stretch of water called the Calf Sound.
Like the nearby rocky islets of Chicken Rock and Kitterland, it is part of th ...
(1818)
* Sumburgh Head (1821)
* Kinnaird Head (Rebuild, 1823)
* Eilean Glas Lighthouse, Scalpay (Rebuild, 1824)
* Rinns of Islay, Orsay, Inner Hebrides (1825)
* Buchan Ness (1827)
* Pentland Skerries Lighthouse, Pentland Firth (Rebuild, 1827)
*Cape Wrath
Cape Wrath (, known as ' in Lewis) is a cape in the Durness parish of the county of Sutherland in the Highlands of Scotland. It is the most north-westerly point in Great Britain.
The cape is separated from the rest of the mainland by the Ky ...
(1828)
* Tarbat Ness (1830)
* Mull of Galloway (1830)
*Dunnet Head
Dunnet Head () is a peninsula on the northern coast of Caithness, Scotland, west of John o' Groats. It terminates at Easter Head, the northernmost point on the island of Great Britain.
Geography
Dunnet Head forms the western limit of the Pen ...
(1831)
* Girdle Ness (1833)
*Barra Head
Barra Head, also known as Berneray (), is the southernmost island of the Outer Hebrides in Scotland. Within the Outer Hebrides, it forms part of the Barra Isles archipelago. Originally, Barra Head only referred to the southernmost headland ...
(1833)
* Lismore (1833)
* Dubh Artach (1872)
Other
* Annan Bridge
* Hutcheson Bridge, Glasgow
Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
* Marykirk Bridge
* Regent Bridge, designed by Archibald Elliot
Archibald Elliot (August 1761 – 16 June 1823) was a Scottish architecture, architect based in Edinburgh. He had a very distinctive style, typified by square plans, concealed roofs, crenellated walls and square corner towers. All may be said t ...
. (Stevenson carried out feasibility study and was in charge of construction)
* The Melville Column, Edinburgh. (Stevenson did not design this, but advised on foundations)
*Stirling
Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...
New Bridge
* Allenton bridge
Family tree
See also
* Richard Henry Brunton
References
Attribution
*This article contains text from a publication now in the public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
''Biographical Sketch of the Late Robert Stevenson: Civil Engineer''
(1851), by Alan Stevenson
Further reading
*Bathurst, Bella. ''The Lighthouse Stevensons: The Extraordinary Story of the Building of the Scottish Lighthouses by the Ancestors of Robert Louis Stevenson'' (HarperCollins, 1999)
External links
Northern Lighthouse Board
''Biographical Sketch of the Late Robert Stevenson: Civil Engineer''
(1851), by Alan Stevenson. From Google Book Search
Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...
''Life of Robert Stevenson: Civil Engineer''
(1878), by David Stevenson. From Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
.
Records of a Family of Engineers''
(1995), by Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...
. From Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital li ...
.
Stevenson's Bell Rock Light-House - by Robert Stevenson
Biography of Robert Stevenson in association with Professor Roland Paxton
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stevenson, Robert
1772 births
1850 deaths
Lighthouse builders
Engineers from Glasgow
Scottish civil engineers
Burials at the New Calton Burial Ground
Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
19th-century Scottish people
Alumni of the University of Strathclyde
Alumni of the University of Edinburgh
Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
Scottish Engineering Hall of Fame inductees
Stevenson family (Scotland)
Fellows_of_the_Geological_Society_of_London