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Hard cover, elephant folio (14 1/2 x 20 3/4 inches), pp [4] xiv 198 + 23 full-page plates [4]. Bound in the original boards of diced full calf, with the spine rebacked. This has six raised double-bands with titles and the date in gilt to spine. Boards are triple-ruled and rolled with gilt flowers and banners. All edges gilt. Gilt rules also appear on board edges and end caps. Inside, the turn-ins feature a slightly different gilt rope & flower rolled decoration. Blue and white marbled endpapers. No bookbinder's signature. Engraved bookplate to front pastedown with the Duke of Leeds coat of arms.** Condition: Overall, Very Good Plus. Some marks, scuffs & other small losses to boards. Browning affects a few prelims, plus one page (p. 73) of the text. (No plates are affected.) The rebacked spine has with one small scuff to the rear surface, and loss of gilt at head to endcap. Hinges are professionally reinforced, and holding firmly. Crease to front prelim blank page. Mostly, this is a clean, tight and bright item with wonderful patina. ** John Smeaton (1724-1792) was a pioneering civil engineer who developed the equations of lift used by the Wright brothers in their quest for flight, supported Leibniz's principle of the conservation of energy, and rediscovered the composition of cement as used by the Romans. His lasting monument, however, is the construction of a lighthouse in the open ocean on the "Eddystone Rocks", a few miles SSW of Plymouth, England. As the rocks are barely above the sea level, it was vital to shipping safety to have a lighthouse marking this danger so close to one of the major south coast ports of England. Smeaton's was the third lighthouse to be built on the site - the first had collapsed, and the second destroyed by fire. Smeaton's lighthouse lasted for over 100 years before being dismantled owing to the foundation rock under the lighthouse showing signs of erosion. The upper part of Smeaton's lighthouse is now situated on land at Plymouth Hoe, as a monument to Smeaton's genius. ** The title page has a plate "The Morning after A Storm at S.W." (1789) engraved by Andrew Birrel from a drawing by M. Dixon. This shows an enormous wave engulfing and overtopping the Eddystone Lighthouse, and shows dramatically the unforgiving environment the lighthouse builders had to overcome. ** The book begins with a dedication to King George III, and explaining the delay in writing the book, "as it has given me time to mature my thoughts, and has afforded proof of the stability of the structure." (look, it's still standing!) ** There follows a preface, in which Smeaton confesses that "I have found much more difficulty in writing, than I did in building." - in truth, he spent seven years writing the book and the lighthouse itself "were dispatched in half that time". ** The next section is "Contents. Of the Several Sections; being an Epitome of the Work." As befits this tome, the contents pages are on a grand scale, and reading the titles of the chapters and the summary of the numbered paragraphs is a great "trailer" for the work itself. Here, the reader is shown the scope of the work, from the lighthouse at Pharos (one of the Seven Wonders of the World), through the first and second lighthouses at Eddystone, and then to the planning and construction of Smeaton's lighthouse. With such teasers as (in describing the building of the first lighthouse) "The fourth Year, finding that in the Winter the Sea had buried the Lantern at times, though above 60 Feet high; he encompassed the Building with a new work, took down the upper part, and raised it to 120 Feet high; and yet in time of Storms the Sea appeared to fly 100 Feet higher than the Vane." ** Smeaton details the difficulties he had in constructing the lighthouse, including accidents, bad weather, and the difficulty of his sailors being "impressed" (conscripted into the Navy) while at work. ** The appendix contains a description of the lighthouse built at Spurn Point, on the Ea.
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