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Drawn by H. Coxbouta. Erg from a Bust by T. Chaxirey FA and Engraved by Iu." Thomson.

Published by Henry Fisher. Caxton, London. Dec.1.1821.

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Memoir of the Life of John Rennie.

MEMOIR OF THE
LIFE OF JOHN RENNIE, ESQ. F. R. S.

With a Portrait.

THERE is a tribute of respect due to the memory of every man, who has enriched his country by the efforts of his genius.

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rarely to be found without a wheel, or some section of one, in his pocket.

Prior to this period his countryman Mr. Watt had formed a connection with Mr. Bolton, and fame and fortune were beginning to reward his ingenuity with honours and with wealth. In 1783, Mr. Rennie having attained his 22d year, on learning that Bolton and Watt were applying their steam engines to millwork, and that the Albion mill, at Blackfriars' Bridge, had been projected, applied to them for employment; and on being accepted at the fixed salary of one guinea per week, he shut up his trade, and immediately repaired to London, to try his fortune under the auspices of Bolton and Watt. Shortly after his arrival, the Albion mill was undertaken; and as his employers were unacquainted with its management, and particularly so with the grinding department, which Mr. Rennie perfectly understood, the superintendence of the whole devolved on his integrity, attention, and abilities; and it was finally completed by him to the satisfaction of his employers.

On quitting his master, he commenced business on his own account; but finding that Scotland afforded no inviting prospect to a mere practical millwright, his eyes were turned in various directions to watch the movements of science; and his ambition Mr. John Rennie was born near prompted him to seize the first favourLinton, in the county of East Lothian, able opportunity that should present Scotland, in the year 1760. His fa- itself, in which he might display his ther, George Rennie, who was a re- talents, and procure a more ample spectable farmer in that neighbour-reward for his labours, than Scotland hood, and whose family consisted of at that time could promise. three sons, of whom John was the youngest, died when he was about seven years old, in consequence of which his early education devolved on his mother and his elder brother George. After some time, he was sent to a neighbouring village school, where he merely learned the rudiments of arithmetic, in connection with reading and writing, nothing higher being professed by the master. Contiguous to Mr. Rennie's farm, was a house, which for many years had been occupied by Mr. Andrew Meicle, an ingenious millwright, to whom that branch of machinery is indebted for many important improvements. Mr. Meicle, who had long been intimate with the family of Rennie, on finding the children deprived of their father, to evince his attachment, undertook to instruct the younger son in a knowledge of his profession. Whether the lad at this time manifested any dawnings of superior genius, which attracted the attention of Mr. Meicle, we have not been informed. Be this, however, as it may, the offer was deemed advantageous, as Mr. Meicle was at this time in the zenith of his popularity, and was considered as one of the first practical millwrights that either England or Scotland could produce. A bargain being made, young Rennie entered on his employment, and continued with his master about six years, during which time he applied himself with so much assiduity, that on the expiration of the term, he was completely master of his trade. In addition to this, as modelling was taught by Mr. Meicle, young Rennie had also made a considerable proficiency in this branch; and so ardent was his desire to obtain a complete knowledge of its scientific principles, that he was

Shortly after the Albion mills were finished, the machinery of Whitbred's Brewery was undertaken, and finished also under Mr. Rennie's direction. These works gained him a considerable degree of fame; and as his reputation was now becoming somewhat established, he thought this a favourable moment to commence business for himself in the metropolis of the British empire.

To render this crisis the more inviting, several circumstances at this time concurred; among which, the recent death of Mr. Smeaton, the celebrated engineer, was one of much importance, his death having left a vacancy in this department of science. A new power had also been just discovered, and applied to machinery; but being in its infancy, the extent of its influ

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Memoir of the Life of John Rennie.

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ence was at present unknown. Mr. | testimony to the greatness of his mind, Rennie was connected with the pa- and to the success of his perseverance, tentee, and under his immediate pro- in each of which he may be said to tection; he was therefore surrounded have stood without a rival. with the prospect of advantages which might never again occur, and under their combined auspices he announced his intentions to the public. It was also much about this time that he formed an acquaintance with Mr. Robert Grazier, by whom he was instructed in the canal business, and taught the method of introducing and carrying through Parliament, bills for the cutting of canals, and the constructing of bridges.

At the age of twenty-five, Mr. Rennie married a Miss Mackintosh, by whom, in process of time, he had nine children, six of whom have survived their parents, Mrs. Rennie dying a few years since; and it is probable that two of them will succeed their father in his business, and fill that station in the ranks of public utility, in which he acquired such distinguished honours.

In the year 1794, Mr. Rennie took his stand at the head of the civil engineers of this country, which station he | continued to occupy until the day of his death. During this interval, scarcely any work of magnitude and importance was undertaken, in which he was not engaged; and it is to his genius and persevering application that England is indebted for those scientific labours, in which it claims a decided superiority over those of other countries. Canals, bridges, harbours, wet docks, and machines of almost every description, came within the range of his powers, which at the same time gave directions to several workmen who were constantly employed in the more immediate line of his profession, as a mill-wright.

Among his public works, Ramsgate harbour, the London docks, Waterloo and Southwark bridges, and the breakwater at Plymouth, will hand his name to posterity. But the Bell Rock | light-house, constructed on the same principle as the Eddystone Lighthouse by Mr. Smeaton, will, perhaps, be considered as the greatest effort of his masterly genius. Although these works form only a small part of his labours, they are sufficient monuments of his glory, to crown him with immortality among his fellow men. Various parts of the kingdom bear

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If we compare the works of Mr. Rennie with the greatest exploits of the best French engineers, his fame will acquire new lustre from the comparison. What are the Cassoons of Cherburg, when placed in competition with the breakwater of Plymouth? What is the canal of the Ourke, when measured with any one cut under his direction? And what is the bridge of Neuilly, when compared with that of Waterloo? The decided superiority of Mr. Rennie's works is acknowledged by every liberal Frenchman.

It was reserved for the genius of Mr. Rennie to contend with, and to bind in chains, the elements of nature. The violence of rapid torrents he confined within specific boundaries; the violence of the most boisterous seas he has subdued; and on the frontiers of harbours, which were previously dangerous, he has planted safety. Districts of fruitful land he has rescued from the incursions of the ocean; and by draining bogs, he has driven pestilence from the once stagnant marsh. He has levelled hills in some places, and in others tied them together by aqueducts and arches, and thus rendered the wild elements of nature subservient to the conveniencies of man.

To the various works in which he was engaged, he applied all his talents; and as his labours were for posterity, he disdained to avail himself of those mean artifices by which too many make dishonourable fortunes, by giv ing an imposing exterior to his labours which the most rigorous scrutiny of the concealed parts would not most amply justify. This was the line of conduct which he pursued in all his private concerns, and on public works which were placed under his direction, he compelled those whom he employed to adhere to the same principle. An enforcement of this, in connection with his various avocations, so fully occupied his time, that on his visiting France for a short period in the year 1816, he declared it to be the first relaxation from unremitting labour he had taken for nearly thirty years.

Accustomed to rise early, he frequently made appointments at five in the morning, and it was very rarely that he became disengaged from busi

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ness until nine at night. In all his un- immediate friends and family connecdertakings, punctuality, order, and tions, between twenty and thirty indiregularity, were his invariable maxims, | viduals, distinguished in the various which were not merely adopted in the-walks of science for their illustrious ory, but exemplified in his practice. As a master, he was obeyed by all in his employment, from an acknowledgment of his superior talents, and this was accompanied with a respect that always enforced submission.

acquirements and scientific abilities, attended on the solemn occasion.

Proceeding to St. Paul's cathedral, where the interment took place, the corpse was taken from the hearse at the bottom of the steps, and, followed by sixty mourners, was carried into the little chapel on the north side of the

at the east end, and on the south side of the building, near the tomb of the late Lord Collingwood.

It has sometimes been said, that in his estimates he was generally too low for the gigantic works which he under-church, and finally interred in a vault took and accomplished, especially, as in the execution of his designs, he spared no labour or expense. Some who have thus blamed him, would no doubt have pursued a different mode of conduct, but Mr. Rennie found no occasion to resort to such expedients to amass wealth, for by his own prudential maxims, and practical economy, he contrived to realize a consider-rated into a gloomy reserve. able fortune, which he has left to an accomplished family to enjoy.

Engaged in business which allowed no intermission, Mr. Rennie had no time to devote to literature. He has therefore left no memoirs behind him, nor any documents by which his talents in the departments of letters may be estimated. He was, however, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and no doubt, had he been ambitious of farther honours, he might easily have obtained them, from his talents, and commanding connections.

Mr. Rennie, in his person, was tall and well made, possessing an agreeable countenance and an affable address. Advancing in years, this affability settled into a serious habit, but his native cheerfulness never degene

In all

his dealings, uprightness and integrity marked his conduct; nor was he ever known to resort to dishonourable expedients, to induce his employers to undertake works of importance. On such occasions he always set before them a full view of the various obstacles they would have to surmount, and the difficulties they must encounter.

Mr. Rennie cultivated his art with the most enthusiastic ardour, but instead of being a mere theorist, he prepared himself for practical efficiency by visiting, and minutely inspecting in Raised from a comparatively hum- every country all works of magnitude ble situation, by his own intrinsic merit that bore any similitude to those in and persevering industry, to the which he was engaged, or might prohighest eminence in the scientific pro-bably be called on to construct. Hence fession which he pursued, he was always ready to assist by his superior talents every effort of genius struggling with adversity in humble life, without betraying those jealousies and suspicions which characterize ignoble minds.

Mr. Rennie, after a long illness, from which he had partially recovered, suffering an unexpected relapse, paid the debt of nature at his house in Stamford-street, Blackfriars, on the 4th of October, 1821, in his 61st year.

His funeral was attended with considerable pomp. A hearse drawn by sixhorses, sixteen mourning coaches, and nineteen private carriages, several of which were drawn by four shores, graced the procession. Among those who honoured the funeral with their presence, in addition to his own

his library abounds in a richer collection of scientific writings, than that of any other individual.

As a millwright, society is indebted to him for showing how the power of water may be most advantageously applied. He has given an increase of energy to the natural fall of streams by their specific gravity, and made his mills equal to four-fold the produce of those, which before his time depended solely on the impetuosity of the current. His mills of the greatest magnitude work as smoothly as clock work, and by the alternate contact of wood and iron, the machinery is less liable to take fire from friction.

Mr. John Rennie may justly be ranked among the benefactors of mankind; and as such, his death must be considered as a national calamity.

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