REN 



334 



REN 



Rennet, pulation of which is about 30,000. West Long. 1 36', 

 Rennie. North Lat. 48 7'. 



RENNET. See DAIRY, Vol. VII. p. 550. 

 RENNIE, JOHN, a celebrated civil engineer, was 

 the youngest son of a respectable farmer at Phan- 

 tassie, in the parish of Prestonkirk, and county of 

 East Lothian, and was born there on the 7th June, 

 1761. He had the misfortune to lose his father at 

 the early age of five, but his education was carried on 

 at the parish school by his surviving relatives. The 

 peculiar talents of young Rennie seem to have been 

 called forth and fostered by his proximity to the work- 

 shop of the celebrated mechanic, Andrew Meikle, the 

 inventor or improver of the thrashing machine, and in 

 his frequent visits to that scene of mechanism, he was 

 constantly occupied in using, and perhaps as often in 

 abusing the tools that fell in his way. As he advanced 

 in years, however, he began to imitate at home the 

 models of machinery which he had seen, and at the 

 early age of ten he had made the model of a windmill, 

 a steam engine, and a pile engine, the last of which 

 ' is said to exhibit much practical dexterity. 



In the year 1773, Rennie left the school at Preston- 

 kirk, in consequence of some misunderstanding with 

 the schoolmaster, whom he had conceived to be inca- 

 pable of advancing him in his studies ; and he entered 

 into the employment of Andrew Meikle, with whom 

 he continued till 1775. Finding, however, that he was 

 still far behind in his education, he went to Dunbar to 

 study mathematics under Mr. Gibson, and in 1777 he 

 returned to work with Mr. Meikle, with considerable 

 addition to his former stock of knowledge. 



Mr. Gibson having, about this time, been elected 

 Master of the Academy of Perth, recommended Ren- 

 nie as his successor at Dunbar ; but though he taught 

 the school for some weeks, to oblige his friend, he 

 never thought of continuing it as a profession ; and he 

 accordingly renewed his mechanical labours under Mr. 

 Meikle, employing his leisure hours in modelling and 

 drawing machinery. Before he had reached the age 

 of eighteen, he had erected two or three corn mills in 

 his native parish ; but the first undertaking which he 

 executed on his own account was the rebuilding of the 

 flour mills at Invergowrie near Dundee. 



By zealously prosecuting his professional labours in 

 summer, he was enabled to visit Edinburgh in the 

 winter season, when he attended the lectures of Dr. 

 Robison on Natural Philosophy, and those of Dr. 

 Black on Chemistry, and thus to fit himself for the pro- 

 fession of a civil engineer, to which he seems now to 

 have aspired. Dr. Robison recommended him to 

 Messrs. Bolton and Watt at Soho, and on his way to 

 that place, he examined the aqueduct bridge at Lan- 

 caster, the docks at Liverpool, and the interesting 

 works on the Bridgewater canal. After remaining 

 some months at Soho, Mr. Rennie made a tour through 

 the manufacturing districts of Yorkshire, and then 

 settled in London. 



The erection of the Albion Mills in London about 

 this time may be considered as an epoch in the history 

 of the great practical establishments of Britain. Messrs. 

 Bolton and Watt, and Mr. Wyatt, who planned this 

 scheme, and were the principal proprietors of it, 

 had the millwork and machinery executed and put up 

 under the direction of Mr. Rennie ; and Mr. Watt has 



himself recorded the valuable assistance which had been Rennie. 

 derived from his friend in this great work.* The fine V -*^Y-*. 

 establishment of the Albion Mills, completed in 1786 

 or 1787-9* and which was an honour to our country, 

 was abused by the learned as well as by the ignorant 

 mob of the day, as a monopoly injurious to the pub- 

 lic good, whereas, it cannot be doubted that they great- 

 ly reduced the price of flour while they continued at 

 work. The destruction of these mills in 1791 by fire, 

 which was certainly the result of design ; and the loss 

 of all the machinery which they contained, will be 

 ranked among those disgraceful outrages against indi- 

 vidual property which have cast a stain upon our na- 

 tional character. " The Albion Mills," says Mr. Watt, 

 (loc. oil.) " consisted of two engines, each of fifty 

 horses power, and twenty pairs of millstones, of which, 

 twelve or more pairs, with the requisite machinery for 

 dressing the flour and for other purposes, were gene- 

 rally kept at work. In place of wooden wheels, always 

 subject to frequent derangement, wheels of cast-iron, 

 with the teeth truly formed and finished, and properly 

 proportioned to the work, were here employed, and 

 other machinery which used to be made of wood, was 

 made of cast-iron in improved forms ; and I believe 

 the work executed here may be said to form the com- 

 mencement of that system of millwork which has prov- 

 ed so useful to this country. 



In the construction of that millwork and machinery, 

 Bolton and Watt derived most valuable assistance from 

 that able mechanician and engineer Mr. John Rennie, 

 then just entering into business, who assisted in plann- 

 ing them, and under whose direction they were exe- 

 cuted. The engines and millwork were contained 

 in a commodious and elegant building, designed and 

 executed under the direction of the late Mr. Samuel 

 Wyatt." f 



The mechanism of the Albion Mills introduced Mr. 

 Rennie most favourably to the notice of the public ; 

 and he soon obtained very extensive employment in 

 constructing numerous sugar mills for the West India 

 planters. Mr. Rennie was also employed to construct 

 the machinery of the powder mill at Tunbridge, the 

 flax mill of Wandsworth, the rolling and triturating 

 mills of the Mint in London, and the machinery of va- 

 rious breweries and distilleries. 



In all the millwork erected by Mr. Rennie, there was 

 one striking improvement which he mentioned to the 

 writer of this notice, as introduced by himself. It was 

 formerly usual to place the vertical axis of the running 

 millstone in a bush, placed in the middle of the horizon- 

 tal bridgetree, which was supported only at its two ex- 

 tremities. The effect of this was that the bridgetree 

 yielded to the variations of pressure arising from the 

 greater or less quantity of grain which was admitted 

 between the millstones, which was conceived to be an 

 useful effect. Mr. Rennie, however, made the bridge- 

 tree perfectly immoveable, and thus freed the machi- 

 nery from that irregular play which sooner or later 

 proves fatal to every kind of mechanism. 



Mr. Rennie was no less celebrated in the architectu- 

 ral than he was in the mechanical branch of his profes- 

 sion. We are not correctly acquainted with the pre- 

 cise share which Mr. Rennie had in the design of the 

 aqueduct bridge over the Lune at Lancaster, which 

 has been ascribed to him; but the stone bridges of Kelso, 



* Robison's Elements of Mechanical Philosophy, vol. ii. p. 137. Note. 



t Mr. Watt, in the work just quoted, has engraven one of the Albion Mill eijgines, which was a double one, with the grinding 

 machinery which it put in motion. 



