1017 



RENDEL, JAMES MEADOWS. 



RIGAUD, STEPHEN PETER, M.A. 



1013 



discovering the latent talents of the young engineer, then scarcely 

 twenty-three years of age, shortly afterwards confided to him, with 

 the approval of Mr. Telford, the construction of a cast-iron bridge 

 across the Lary, an arm of the sea within the harbour of Plymouth, 

 over which his lordship was proprietor of an ancient ferry, for which 

 it was desirable to substitute a bridge, tho south bank of the Lary at 

 Saltratn being his property. This bridge, consisting of five elliptical 

 arches, was, with the exception of that of South wark, the largest cast- 

 iron structure of the kind in the kingdom. Mr. Rendel was engaged in 

 its construction from 1824 to 1827. For his account of this work the 

 Telford medal of tho Institution of Civil Engineers was awarded to 

 him. About this period he designed and executed the Boucombe 

 bridge, where hydraulic power was for the first time applied to tho 

 machinery for working swing bridges. Soon after the completion of 

 the Lary bridge, Mr. Rendel settled in Plymouth, and there exercised 

 his profession with great activity, Toeing engaged in surveying and 

 reporting upon nearly all the harbours in the south-west of England, 

 and executing the works at a great number of places, acquiring that 

 mastery over hydraulic engineering on which his fame will chiefly rest. 

 In 1831 he introduced a new system of crossing rivers by means of 

 floating bridges worked by steam-power ; they were applied at Saltash 

 and at Torpoint on the river Tamar, and subsequently at Southampton 

 and Portsmouth; but the rapid progress of the railway system pre- 

 vented the further development of this useful invention, for which 

 the Telford medal was awarded. Descriptions of the structure of 

 these bridges, as well as of that over the Lary, were published in the 

 ' Transactions of the Institution of Civil Engineers.' Particulars of 

 the construction of the latter were also communicated by Mr. Rendel, 

 in 1829, to the Plymouth Institution, of which he was a member, and 

 published in the following year in the only volume that has hitherto 

 appeared of its ' Transactions.' 



The 'repairs of the Montrose suspension bridge, after its fall, were 

 confided to him, and he there introduced the system of imparting that 

 rigidity to the platform of the roadway which is now admitted to be 

 so essential to the safety of the structure. 



In 1838 Mr. Rendel removed to London, where he was soon con- 

 sulted upon many important works, and was engaged in the chief 

 parliamentary contests of thaft remarkable period in the history of 

 engineering. About this time he designed the pier at Millbay, where 

 he introduced the system of construction since employed with so much 

 success at the harbours of Holyhead and Portland. Engagements 

 poured in fast upon him, and bis career was for the next few years one 

 of unceasing activity, chiefly in the construction of harbours and 

 docks, and the improvement of rivers and estuaries. In the year 

 1843, the projected construction of docks at Birkenhead, in Cheshire, 

 of such an extent as to create a formidable rival to Liverpool, brought 

 him very prominently before the world ; and the protracted contests on 

 this subject will be long remembered in the history of parliamentary 

 committees, for the ability with which he defended his positions ; and 

 the evidence given by him and other engineers, as now collected, forms 

 a valuable record of the state of engineering practice. The .almost 

 incessant labour, and the mental anxiety inseparable from this under- 

 taking, were more than even his powerful constitution could support, 

 and it is feared that they tended to shorten his life. 



The daring project of constructing a dock at Great Grimsby, by pro- 

 jecting the works far out upon the mud-banks of the Humber, was 

 next successfully accomplished; and he commenced tho two great 

 works which alone suffice to hand down his name to posterity, beside 

 those of Smeaton, Rennie, and Telford, the harbours of refuge of 

 Holyhead and Portland. Both these works were conceived with the 

 largest views, and have been carried on with great rapidity. In both 

 cases the system was adopted of establishing timber stages over the line 

 of the jetties and depositing the large and small stones together, as 

 they came from the quarries, by dropping them vertically from railway 

 waggons into their positions, thus bringing up the mass simultaneously 

 to above the level of the sea. These two great works are advancing 

 very satisfactorily; and it is worthy of remark, in evidence of the 

 engineer's sagacity in the adoption of this system, although the severe 

 storms which have repeatedly occurred on the exposed coasts where 

 they are situated, have done some injury to portions of the stages, f.nd 

 of the temporary works, at Holyhead where the piles were not shod 

 with Mitchell's screws, which proved so successful at Portland not a 

 Btone would appear to have been carried away from the jetties ; and 

 the success of the system may be said to be complete, in spite of the 

 sinister predictions which prevailed before it was tried. Among the 

 other works upon which Mr. Rendel was engaged, should also be 

 mentioned the constructions on the River Lea, and the improvements of 

 the Nene River. He was also employed by the Exchequer Loan Com- 

 missioners to report upon the drainage and other public works in 

 Ireland. 



He was less engaged in railways than hydraulic works; but in 

 England he executed the Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire 

 Junction Line, and he had the direction of the "East Indian" and the 

 " Madras" railways in India, the former projected by Mr. (now Sir 

 Rowland) Macdonald Stevenson, as the first of the vast system now in 

 progress, which will doubtless exert a mighty influence on the future 

 destiny of our Indian Empire. The Ceylon line and that of Pernam- 

 buco in Brazil were also under his charge. 



There was scarcely a harbour or a river of importance in the king- 

 dom with which Mr. Rendel was not connected in some capacity. 

 His advice was also sought by foreign countries ; and he was engaged 

 to report upon works for the Brazilian, tho Prussian, and the Sardi- 

 nian governments, and was nominated by tho Viceroy of Egypt a 

 member of the International Commission for considering tho con- 

 struction of the proposed canal across the Isthmus of Suez. 



In consequence of the danger which threatens the port, and there- 

 fore tho city and republic, of Hamburg with ruin, from the rapid 

 accumulation of sand in the bed of the Elbe, the Senate, in 1855, 

 invited Mr. Reudel to examine the state of the navigation of that river, 

 and make proposals for averting the danger. A commission of such 

 importance could not have been intrusted to more able hands. He 

 spent some months in studying on the spot the nature of the difficul- 

 ties to be overcome. Towards the end of the year he sent in a moat 

 able report, with a detailed account of his plan for remedying the 

 navigation, and preventing any future recurrence of the deposit of 

 sand and formation of a bar in the river. This report was printed 

 and laid before the Burgerschaft, or representative body of the 

 citizens, but down to a very recent period the requisite works had 

 not been commenced, or even determined upon, notwithstanding the 

 rapid increase of tho evil. Mr. Rendel proposed to construct a lon- 

 gitudinal dam or dyke in the middle of the Elbe, beginning at the 

 island of Finkenwerder, a few miles below Hamburg, and extending 

 down the stream for a distance of nearly forty milee. This would 

 contract the main body of the river into about half its natural limits, 

 and the constant rush of the ebb and flood tides would not only sweep 

 away the present sand-banks and other existing obstacles, but prevent 

 them from ever forming again, deepen the channel, and constantly 

 keep clean the bed of the river. The time he allotted for the execu- 

 tion of this great work was seven years, and his estimate of the 

 expense amounted to 680,000. 



In the words of the ' Proceedings of the Royal Society," from which, 

 with some omissions and corrections, the present article is principally, 

 though not wholly, derived, the subject of it "was a man of great energy, 

 clear perception and correct judgment; his practical knowledge was well 

 directed, and he knew how to make good use of the scientific acquire- 

 ments and skill of all whose services he engaged. His evidence before 

 parliamentary committees was lucid and convincing, seldom failing in 

 carrying his point ; and his reports on engineering works are distin- 

 guished by the clearness and correctness of his views, and the fearless 

 expression of his opinion." 



Mr. Rendel was a very early member of the Institution of Civil 

 Engineers, having joined it in 1824. His professional character, admi- 

 nistrative ability, and scientific knowledge, conspired to give him a 

 seat in the council as Member and Vice-President for the sixteen 

 years preceding his death ; and he was elected president in 1852 and 

 1853. He had become a Fellow of the Royal Society on the 23rd of 

 February 1843; and, agreeably to the system which has of late pre- 

 vailed of adding to the representatives of science in the council of 

 that body, those of other scientific establishments, during the years 

 for which he was president of the Institution of Civil Engineers, he 

 was also chosen upon the council of the Royal Society. Mr. Rendel 

 was as amiable and kind in private life as he was energetic and firm in 

 public, and his decease, which occurred on the 21et of November 1856, 

 cast a gloom over tho whole of the profession of which he was a 

 brilliant ornament. 



RIGAUD, STEPHEN PETER, M.A, F.R.S., Savilian Professor of 

 Astronomy in the University of Oxford, was born at Richmond, 

 Surrey, in tho year 1774, and was descended from a French family of 

 consideration who fled to a foreign land on the revocation of the edict 

 of Nantes. His maternal grandfather and his father had the care of 

 the observatory of king George III. at Kew (now the electrical, 

 magnetical, and meteorological establishment of the British Asso- 

 ciation), an appointment which probably influenced the early 

 tastes and predilections of the son, on whom it was afterwards con- 

 ferred. He was admitted a member of Exeter College, in 1791, at 

 the early age of sixteen, and continued to reside there as fellow and 

 tutor, holding also in succession many university offices, until 1810, 

 when he became Savilian Professor of Geometry, and also reader in 

 Experimental Philosophy, which latter appointment he retained 

 through his life. He had been chosen a Fellow of the Royal Society 

 on the 30th of May 1805. Professor Rigaud succeeded in 1827 to the 

 care of the Radclifie Observatory at Oxford; and the noble suite 

 of instruments by Bird [BIRD, JOHN] with which it is furnished, 

 was augmented, on his recommendation, by a new transit-instrument 

 and circle, so as to fit it for the most refined purposes of modern 

 practical astronomy. He became at the same time, Savilian Professor 

 of Astronomy, relinquishing the chair of Geometry. 



The original observations made by Dr. Bradley [BBADLET, JAMES] 

 at Kew and at Wanstead, with the zenith sector, and the records of 

 the progress of his celebrated discoveries of the aberration of light and 

 the nutation of the earth's axis, had long been considered a deside- 

 ratum in the history of astronomy. The principal part of these 

 valuable documents (all which had been presented to the University 

 of Oxford), had been apparently lost ; having been lost sight of for 

 upwards of seventy years, but were discovered by the diligent search 

 of Professor Rigaud, amongst the papers of the deceased Rev. Dr. 



