The first modern civil engineer in Great Britain was John Smeaton (1724 1792); his life work was memorialised in 1994 by the dedication of a plaque in the north aisle of Westminster Abbey. Windows above commemorate Sir Benjamin Baker (the Forth Bridge), Parsons (the steam turbine), Lord Kelvin and Sir Henry Royce; nearby are memorials to Thomas Telford, James Watt, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and George and Robert Stephenson; this is the Engineers Corner of the Abbey. Close at hand are architects (Sir George Gilbert Scott, Sir Charles Barry, John Pearson) and scientists and mathematicians the monument to Newton is justly magnificent.

It is right that architects, engineers, scientists and mathematicians should be grouped together. Some activities involve all four of the professions, and, in particular, it is sometimes hard to distinguish between the work of engineers and scientists. Engineers use Newton's mathematics and Faraday's physical laws; engineers and scientists have a common technical language to describe the tools at their disposal. However, there is a difference in the way those tools are deployed. Scientists use the tools to deepen understanding of their own subject, while engineers use the same tools in order to do something, whether it be to design a turbine blade, an electronic circuit, or a radio telescope; to drive a tunnel under the Channel; or to create a great building a Gothic cathedral or a steel-framed skyscraper.

Smeaton's scientific work, recognised by his election to the Royal Society at the early age of 28, resulted directly from his need to...