Henry Beighton (c. 20 August 1687 – 9 October 1743) was an English engineer and surveyor. He was born at

Chilvers Coton Chilvers Coton is an area of the town of Nuneaton in Warwickshire, England, around one mile south of the town centre. Chilvers Coton was historically a village and civil parish in its own right and was mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086 as � ...

near Nuneaton,

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Av ...

and worked in the neighbouring village of

Griff Griff may refer to: People * Griff (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Griff (singer), stage name of English singer and songwriter Sarah Faith Griffiths (born 2001) * Nickname of Guy Griffiths (1915–1999), British Second ...

. In 1717, he published an engraving of the

Newcomen engine The atmospheric engine was invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, and is often referred to as the Newcomen fire engine (see below) or simply as a Newcomen engine. The engine was operated by condensing steam drawn into the cylinder, thereby creati ...

erected there in 1714 by

Thomas Newcomen Thomas Newcomen (; February 1664 – 5 August 1729) was an English inventor who created the atmospheric engine, the first practical fuel-burning engine in 1712. He was an ironmonger by trade and a Baptist lay preacher by calling. He ...

. In 1718 he erected one at Oxclose colliery at Washington, County Durham. By measuring the work done by the Griff engine, he was able to compile a table of quantity of water that could be raised by an engine with a six-foot stroke working at 16 strokes per minute. He published this table in The Ladies' Diary which he edited at the time. On his return to his native county he made a

plane table A plane table (plain table prior to 1830) is a device used in surveying site mapping, exploration mapping, coastal navigation mapping, and related disciplines to provide a solid and level surface on which to make field drawings, charts and maps. ...

and prepared a map of the county, which was published in 1728 at a scale of one inch to one mile. He was elected as a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

in 1720 and contributed four papers to the ''

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society'' is a scientific journal published by the Royal Society. In its earliest days, it was a private venture of the Royal Society's secretary. It was established in 1665, making it the first journa ...

'', including a description of his plane table, and of

George Sorocold George Sorocold (c. 1668 – c. 1738) was an English civil engineer of the eighteenth century notable for pioneering work on water supplies and hydraulic power systems around Great Britain. Biography Sorocold was born in Lancashire in 1666, t ...

's waterworks at London Bridge. His interest in the working of the Griff engine brought him into contact with J. T. Desaguliers and contributed details and illustrations of hydraulic machines for the second volume of the latter's ''Course of Experimental Philosophy'', eventually published in 1744. This included a description by Beighton of an overshot mill, with an engraving of a

corn mill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separate ...

by the abbey in Nuneaton. This is the earliest illustration of a mill where a single waterwheel drove more than one set of machinery.Desaguliers, 449-453. His outstanding county map of Warwickshire was one of the first soundly based on trigonometrical survey methods. A remarkably wide range of features is depicted on the map, reflecting the whole life and economy of the county: Parish churches, chapels, depopulated places, seats of nobility, chases, parks, king's houses, monasteries, castles, Roman ways, etc. Beighton's map was well ahead of its time.

References

*A. W. Skempton, 'Henry Beighton, FRS' in A. W. Skempton ''et al.'', ''Biographical Dictionary of Civil Engineers: 1 1500-1830'', 49. * J. T. Desaguliers, ''A Course of Experimental Philosophy'' II (1744; 1763 edition). *Alan G. Hodgkiss, ''Discovering Antique Maps'', Shire Publications Limited, 2007

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beighton, Henry 1687 births 1743 deaths English engineers People from Nuneaton Fellows of the Royal Society