Stevenson, Robert (1772-1850), was a Scottish civil engineer noted as a builder of lighthouses. He built 23 lighthouses along the coast of Britain and invented a flashing light with which they guided ships. His most noted work is the Bell Rock Lighthouse, which he designed and built with John Rennie. The poet Robert Southey immortalized Bell Rock in his “Inchcape Rock.” The lighthouse stands in the North Sea 11 miles (18 kilometers) from Dundee, Scotland. Stevenson was born in Glasgow. The author Robert Louis Stevenson was his grandson.
