Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 53.djvu/96

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Nollekens, who appointed him co-executor of his will with Sir William Beechey and Francis Douce. A new edition, with an introduction by Mr. Edmund Gosse, appeared in 1894. After Smith's death there appeared his ‘Cries of London’ (1839), with plates etched by himself, edited by John Bowyer Nichols [q. v.]; his entertaining and discursive ‘Book for a Rainy Day’ (1845, new edit. by W. Whitten, 1905); and his ‘Antiquarian Ramble in the Streets of London’ (1846), edited by Charles Mackay [q. v.]

Smith died at 22 University Street, Tottenham Court Road, London, from inflammation of the lungs, on 8 March 1833, and was buried in St. George's burial-ground in the Bayswater Road.

A three-quarter portrait was painted by John Jackson, R.A. A drawing by the same artist was engraved by William Skelton [q. v.] and prefixed to the ‘Cries of London,’ 1839.

[Smith's Book for a Rainy Day, 1828; Memoir by John Bowyer Nichols, prefixed to Smith's Cries of London, 1839; Short Account, by Edmund Gosse, prefixed to Smith's Nollekens and his Times, 1894; Gent. Mag. 1833, i. 641–4; Redgrave's Dictionary of Artists of the English School, 1878; Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. Graves and Armstrong, 1886–9, ii. 508.]

R. E. G.


SMITH, JOHN THOMAS (1805–1882), colonel royal engineers, second son of George Smith of Edwalton, Nottinghamshire, and afterwards of Foëlallt, Cardiganshire, by his wife Eliza Margaret, daughter of Welham Davis, elder brother of the Trinity House, was born at Foëlallt on 16 April 1805. He was educated at Repton and at the high school, Edinburgh, entered the military college of the East India Company at Addiscombe in 1822, and received a commission as second lieutenant in the Madras engineers on 17 June 1824. He was promoted to be first lieutenant on the following day, and went to Chatham for a course of instruction in professional subjects. Smith left Chatham on 4 Feb. 1825, and arrived at Madras on 2 Sept. of the same year.

On 28 April 1826 Smith was appointed acting superintending engineer in the public works department for the northern division of the presidency, and on 2 May 1828 he was confirmed in the appointment. He thereupon began a series of investigations in reference to lighthouse-lanterns, devising a reciprocating light. Smith suggested to government the improvement of the lighthouse at Hope's Island, off Coringa, and at the end of 1833 his services were placed at the disposal of the marine board, with a view to the improvement of the lighthouse at Madras. On 11 Feb. 1834 ill-health compelled Smith to sail for England on leave of absence. Before his departure the governor in council informed him in very complimentary terms that the marine board had adopted his plans for remodelling the lighthouses both at Madras and at Hope's Island. He was promoted to be captain on 5 March 1835.

Smith remained in England until 28 July 1837, and in the same year he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. He was given an extension of furlough to superintend the manufacture of apparatus for the Madras lighthouse. He employed his leisure in the translation of J. L. Vicat's valuable treatise on mortars and cements, to which he added the results of many original experiments, and saw the work through the press before leaving for India. It appeared as ‘A Practical and Scientific Treatise on Calcareous Mortars and Cements, Artificial and Natural, with Additions,’ 8vo, London, 1837. On his return to Madras on 13 Dec. 1837 he was appointed to the command of the Madras sappers and miners, but remained at Madras on special duty. On 20 March 1838 he was appointed to the first division of the public works department, comprising the districts of Ganjam, Rajamandry, and Vizagapatam, and on 24 April he took charge of the office of the chief engineer. He served on a committee to inspect and report upon the state of the Red-hill railroad and canal, and he surveyed the Ennore and Pulicat lakes, to ascertain the practicability and cost of keeping open the bar of the Kuam river by artificially closing that of the Ennore river; thereby the whole of the waters collected in the Pulicat lake would be turned into the Kuam, a measure which he considered would afford peculiar facilities for cleansing the Black Town, besides improving the water communication between Madras and Sulurpet. Meanwhile he superintended the erection of the Madras lighthouse, which was begun in 1838 and completed in 1839. On 5 April 1839 Smith was appointed to the sixth division of the public works department, and on 7 May to officiate as superintending engineer at Madras.

On 24 Sept. 1839 Smith was relieved from all other duties to enable him to inspect and report upon the machinery of the mint at Madras. On 7 Feb. 1840, the date of the re-establishment of the mint, Smith was appointed mint-master, and by a thorough reformation of the whole establishment soon brought the mint into a high state of efficiency. The satisfactory results obtained by