Editing John Smeaton (section)

==Law and physics==
Smeaton was born in [[Austhorpe]], [[Leeds]], England. After studying at [[Leeds Grammar School]] he joined his father's law firm, but left to become a mathematical instrument maker (working with [[Henry Hindley]]), developing, among other instruments, a [[pyrometer]] to study material expansion.  In 1750, his premises were in the [[Great Turnstile]] in Holborn.<ref>{{citation |title=Great Men of Great Britain |editor-first=Elihu |editor-last=Rich |publisher=D. Appleton |year=1866 |page=276}}</ref>
[[File:John Smeaton by George Romney, 1779, National Portrait Gallery, London.JPG|thumb|left|John Smeaton by [[George Romney (painter)|George Romney]], 1779 (detail), [[National Portrait Gallery, London]]|alt=]]
He was elected a [[Fellow of the Royal Society]] in 1753 and in 1759 won the [[Copley Medal]] for his research into the mechanics of [[waterwheel]]s and [[windmill]]s.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Knowles|first1=Eleanor|title=Engineer Biography: John Smeaton, water wheels and mill works|url=http://www.engineering-timelines.com/who/Smeaton_J/smeatonJohn6.asp|website=Engineering Timelines|access-date=31 January 2017}}</ref> His 1759 paper "An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills and Other Machines Depending on Circular Motion"<ref name="Phil. Trans. 1759 51:100-174; doi:10.1098/rstl.1759.0019">{{cite journal|last=Smeaton|first=Mr J.|title=An Experimental Enquiry concerning the Natural Powers of Water and Wind to Turn Mills, and Other Machines, Depending on a Circular Motion.|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society|volume=51|year=1759|pages=100–174|doi=10.1098/rstl.1759.0019|doi-access=free}}</ref> addressed the relationship between pressure and velocity for objects moving in air (Smeaton noted that the table doing so was actually contributed by "my friend Mr Rouse" "an ingenious gentleman of Harborough, Leicestershire" and calculated on the basis of Rouse's experiments), and his concepts were subsequently developed to devise the 'Smeaton Coefficient'.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.centennialofflight.net/essay/Dictionary/Smeaton/DI75.htm |title=Centennial of flight: Smeaton's Coefficient |publisher=centennialofflight.net |access-date=31 May 2010}}</ref> Smeaton's [[water wheel]] experiments were conducted on a small scale model with which he tested various configurations over a period of seven years.<ref>
{{cite book
|title=The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry and Invention
|last1=Rosen
|first1=William
|year= 2012 |publisher = University of Chicago Press
|isbn= 978-0226726342 |page=127
}}
</ref> The resultant increase in efficiency in water power contributed to the [[Industrial Revolution]].{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}

Over the period 1759–1782 he performed a series of further experiments and measurements on water wheels that led him to support and champion the ''[[vis viva]]'' theory of German [[Gottfried Leibniz]], an early formulation of [[conservation of energy]]. This led him into conflict with members of the academic establishment who rejected Leibniz's theory, believing it inconsistent with Sir [[Isaac Newton]]'s [[conservation of momentum]].{{citation needed|date=February 2023}}