ROBERT, an eminent civil engineer, was born at Glasgow in 1772, and died at Edinburgh in 1850. The death of his father, a West India merchant, left him while yet an infant in very disadvantageous circumstances; but, by the energy and self-denial of his mother, who had designed her only child for the church, he obtained a good education, and acquired some tincture of classical learning. The bent of his mind, however, was decidedly towards the physical sciences; and having early imbibed an enthusiastic admiration of Smeaton, which he retained through life, he resolved to follow the profession of a civil engineer. In spite of many discouragements, which he bore with hopefulness and patience, he succeeded in prosecuting his studies, first in the Andersonian Institution, then recently opened at Glasgow, and afterwards at the University of Edinburgh, under Robison, Dugald Stewart, and Playfair. In 1797 he became engineer to the Board of Northern Lighthouses, an office which he Stevenson, held for nearly half a century; and during his incumbency, he erected no fewer than twenty-three lighthouses, including that of the Bell Rock, which alone is sufficient to stamp his reputation as an engineer. Some description of this remarkable rock will be found under the head Lighthouses, and it is not needful, in this place, to do more than say that Mr Stevenson displayed, in its design and execution, great mechanical skill and practical sagacity, as well as untiring perseverance and indomitable courage. Following the model of the Eddystone, which he greatly revered, he yet made some important improvements in framing his own design, and in particular he succeeded in converting the floors of the apartments, whose outward disruptive thrust, Smeaton had contrived to counteract by an ingenious expedient, into really conservative bonds or ties for the whole edifice. He also greatly improved the optical and mechanical arrangements of the lighthouses, and added some valuable distinctions, especially the flashing and intermittent lights, for enabling the mariner to identify the lights on a coast.

In the course of his general practice as a civil engineer, he designed and executed many important works in various parts of the United Kingdom, and among others bridges at Glasgow and Stirling. The fine approach to the city of Edinburgh by the Calton Hill was also designed by him and formed under his eye. He traced and designed the lines of many canals and railways, which have since been executed much in accordance with the recommendations in his numerous printed reports. There is scarcely a harbour or navigable river in Britain about which his advice, which was often also called for in Ireland, was not at some time given. His printed reports and other contributions to the knowledge of engineering extend, when collected, to five thick quarto volumes.

He was not naturally of a scheming turn of mind, yet he occasionally assumed the character of an inventor, as in the case of his ingenious suggestion of a new form of suspension-bridge for small spans, in which, by passing the chains under the roadway, the necessity for tall piers is avoided. Several bridges have been executed on this plan. For timber bridges, also, he proposed a simple and beautiful construction of arch, in which the ring course consists of layers of thin planks bent to the circular form, and stiffened by means of the vertical frame-work supporting the horizontal beams on which the level roadway rests. This kind of bridge has come into very general use on railways. He is, moreover, entitled to the merit of first having pointed out the advantage of using malleable iron for the rails of our iron ways. He also first called attention to the interesting fact which he first detected at the mouth of the Dee, in Aberdeenshire, that even in the case of our small rivers the fresh water they bring down floats for some distance on the surface of the sea before mingling with the salt water. This fact he demonstrated by the use of an instrument which enabled him to take water from any depth and draw it to the surface, unmixed with any of the intermediate fluid.

Robert Stevenson possessed great sagacity, buoyant fortitude, and untiring perseverance; and he was early remarkable for scrupulous punctuality in all his engagements. In private life he was a man of sterling worth, and full, even in his last years, of that genial unselfishness and generosity which in so many men do not outlive their boyhood. His whole mind was elevated by habitual and unobtrusive piety. The remembrance of his early struggles never left him, but seemed to influence him much in his unwearied efforts to forward the progress of young men through life, a duty which he considered as sacred and in which he greatly delighted, and from the prosecution of which no personal inconvenience ever made him swerve. Towards himself he practised something like the old Roman self-denial; and up to the close of his long and laborious life, he would never permit his age to be pleaded as a reason for shrinking from the calls of duty.