(FORTH & CLYDE CANAL) SMEATON, John The report of John Smeaton Engineer, and F.R.S. concerning the practicability and expence of joining the Rivers Forth and Clyde by a navigable canal, and thereby to join the East Sea and the West. Edinburgh, for John Balfour 1768. 2nd edn.
Very small folio. (ii) + 39 + (1)pp, 2 folding engraved plans, hand coloured. Orig. marbled wrappers, spine a little dog-eared but a good copy of a scarce work. Skempton No. 1313. The Forth & Clyde Canal, Smeaton’s largest project, was one of the largest civil engineering undertakings of the 18th century. Work began in 1768 and was completed between Grangemouth and Glasgow in 1777. In 1786-90 it was extended to Bowling on the Clyde by Whitworth. Interest in building the canal began in 1762 with a favourable survey carried out by Robert Mackell and James Murray, as a result of which the Trustees for Fisheries, Manufactures, and Improvements in Scotland asked Smeaton to prepare this detailed report. In it, Smeaton proposes building a canal large enough to allow for the passage of sea-going ships via the valleys of the Carron, Bonny and Kelvin rivers with a tunnel, which, if built, would have been the first large-bore tunnel in the world after Malpas on the Canal du Midi. This 17th century French canal was the only comparable project and Smeaton includes an appendix demonstrating similarities and differences between it and his own scheme. As built, the Forth & Clyde canal followed a similar route to that proposed here but with different terminations, a branch to Glasgow, and no tunnel (but an extra aqueduct). Despite these modifications, the report nevertheless lays out “a comprehensive plan for Britain’s first watershed canal” (Charles Hadfield). The report was written in 1764 but the project was delayed and it was not printed until 1767. This second, unchanged, edition followed in early 1768 and it is known that 250 copies of it were printed.
£650
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