1815: The Passing of an Engineer Whose Innovations Brightened the Lives of Many Both on Shore and at Sea

June 21, 1815

Thomas Smith, an engineer who made notable contributions to the illumination of street lights as well as far-flung lighthouses, died at his home at 2 Baxter’s Place in the Scottish city of Edinburgh. He was 62.

Smith was born on December 6, 1752, in Broughty Ferry, a suburb of the Scottish city of Dundee. Smith ultimately settled in Edinburgh, where he established the Greenside Company’s Works for the production of lamps and oils. This business became so successful that Smith was awarded a contract to develop and install improved street lights for the ever-growing section of Edinburgh known as the New Town.

Smith’s oil lamps for this project contained parabolic reflectors (reflective surfaces) made from burnished copper. That copper considerably enhanced the brightness of the lamps, giving them four times the incandescence of the traditional oil-lit lamps of the era.   

These innovations in street lighting further boosted Smith’s reputation and eventually resulted in his appointment as the first chief engineer of the newly created Commissioners of Northern Light Houses (the present-day Northern Lighthouse Board) in 1787. In this role, Smith designed and built a total of 10 lighthouses in various coastal areas within Scotland. He managed to do so despite the often formidable logistical challenges that were a consequence of the remote locations of those lighthouses.

Smith also brought to these projects the same willingness to try new ideas and approaches that had defined his work on street lights in Edinburgh. He set the standard for lighthouse illumination at that time, for example, by readily adopting the Argand lamp. This relatively new type of oil lamp, which had been invented by Genevan chemist and physicist Amié Argand, burnt brighter than other lamps then in existence. Smith augmented the luminous advantage of Argand lamps by combining them with his brand of parabolic reflectors.

Smith served as chief engineer of the Commissioners of Northern Light Houses until 1808. He was succeeded by his stepson Robert Stevenson, who would likewise achieve renown as a designer and builder of lighthouses.

Smith lived for another seven years. Following his death, he was buried at Old Calton Burial Ground in Edinburgh. The accompanying photo of the grave of both him and his wife Jean Lillie Stevenson was taken in 2017.

Photo Credit: Stephen Dickson (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)

For more information on Thomas Smith, please check out  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Smith_(engineer)