John Rennie Biography

Dromo's Den

Rennie, John (1761-1821). A British civil engineer. He was born at Phantassie, Haddinatonshire, June 7, 1761, and obtained his preliminary education at the parish school of Prestonkirk and supplemented it by two years at Dunbar, where he studied pure mathematics. After serving as a workman he studied at Edinburgh, and in 1784 secured employment at the works of Boulton and Watt at Soho, near Birmingham. Here his mechanical genius soon displayed itself; and so highly did Watt esteem Rennie that he gave him, in 1789, the sole direction of the construction and fitting up of the machinery of the Albion Mills, London; and the ingenious improvements effected in the wheelwork, shafting, and frames were so striking that Rennie at once rose into general notice as an engineer of great promise, starting as a mechanical engineer on his own account in 1791. To this mill engineering he added, about 1799, the construction of bridges, and in this branch also his talent and ingenuity were manifest. The elegance and solidity of his constructions, the chief examples of which were at Kelso, Leeds, Musselburgh, Newton- Stewart, Boston, and New Galloway, were universally admired. Rennie's greatest work of this kind was Waterloo Bridge, over the Thames at London. Another of his works was Southwark Bridge, built on a new principle, with cast-iron arches resting on stone piers. He also drew up the plan for London Bridge, which, however, was not commenced until after his death. He superintended the execution of much canal work, and the London Docks, the East and West India Docks at Blackwall, as well as many others, were all designed and executed under his superintendence. He also planned many improvements of harbors and on the dockyards of Portsmouth, Chatham, Sheerness, and Plymouth, beginning at the last-mentioned port the most remarkable of all his naval works, the celebrated breakwater. Rennie died Oct. 16, 1821, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

His sons GEORGE (1791-1866) and JOHN (1794-1874) carried on their father's work, having studied under him and been associated with him in important undertakings. George built the Dwarf, the first screw vessel in the British navy, and from 1845 to 1848 was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. John was knighted in 1831 upon the completion of London Bridge after his father's plans. Succeeding his father as engineer to the Admiralty, he completed the Plymouth breakwater, about which he wrote in 1848. He published also Theory, Formation, and Construction, of British and Foreign Harbors (1851-54). Consult Samuel Smiles, Lives of the Engineers (London, 1861-62; new ed., 1904), and the Autobiography of Sir John Rennie (ib., 1875).

The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XIX (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 697-698.