b. June 3, 1810 and d. November 5, 1881

British engineer and seismologist. He raised and sustained the roof of St. George’s Church, Dublin. In 1836 he built swivel bridges over the Shannon, and 1845-1848 many terminal railway stations, engine sheds and workshops, beside the Nore viaduct. The Fastnet Rock lighthouse was built by him in 1848-’49. He is well known as the inventor of the buckle-plate, patented 1852. These plates form a good flooring.

Earthquakes, Nature’s agonizing pangs,
Oft shake the astonish’d isles; the Solfaterre
Or sends forth thick, blue, suffocating steams,
Or shoots to temporary flames.
Can the poor brittle tenements of man
Withstand the dread convulsion! Their dear homes
Which shaking, tottering, crashing, bursting, fall.
The mountain waves, passing their custom’d bounds,
Make direful loud incursions on the land,
All overwhelming; sudden they retreat,
With their whole troubled waters; but anon
Sudden return, with louder, mightier force;
The black rocks whiten the vext shores resound;
And yet, more rapid, distant they retire.

—Eruption of Volcano in Sea, near Azores: Grainger

284 B. C.—The first lighthouse was the Pharos, built at Alexandria.

1750—An earthquake occurred at London.