338 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[NOVEMBEB, 



genios appeared at so early an age. Ilis playthings were not those of chil- 

 dren, but the tools which men employ. Before he was six years of age, he 

 was discovered on the top of his father's barn, fixing up what he called a 

 \YiridniiIl, of bis own construction ; and at another time, while he was about 

 the same age, be attended some men fixing a pump, and observing that they 

 cut off a piece of the bored pipe, lie procured it, and actu:dly made a pump 

 with it, which raised water. When he was under 15 years of age, he made 

 an engine for turning, and worked several things in ivory and wood, which 

 lie presented to his friends. A part of every day was occupied in forming 

 some ingenious piece of mechanism. In 17ol he began a course of experi- 

 ments to try a machine of his own invention, to measure a ship's way at 

 sea, and made two voyages to try the effect of it, and also to make experi- 

 ments upon a compass of his construction. In 1753, he was elected a fellow 

 of the Koyal Society, and the number of papers he published in their Trans- 

 actions will show how highly he deserved the honour of being enrolled a 

 niembcr of that useful and important body: in 1759 he received the gold 

 medal. In 1/55, the Eddystone Lighthouse was burned down, and Mr. Smea- 

 lon being recommended to the proprietors of that building as an engineer in 

 every way calculated to rebuild it, he undertook the work, which was com- 

 pleted in 1759. To this work I shall allude more particularly when instruct- 

 ing you in the building of lighthouses, as the practice of building then 

 adopted has been continued to this day. But the part of Mr. Smeaton's 

 life I would more particularly draw your attention to is this. During many 

 years he was a frequent attendant upon Parliament, his opinion upon various 

 works begun or projected being continually called for; and in these cases 

 Ms strength of judgment and perspicuity of expression had the fullest scope. 

 It was his constant custom, when applied to to plan or support any raea- 

 Bure, to make himself fully master of the subject, to understand its merits 

 and probable defects, before he would engage in it. By this caution, added 

 to the clearness of his expression, and the integrity of his heart, he seldom 

 failed to obtain for the bill which he supported the sanction of parliament. 

 No one was ever heard with more attention, nor had any one ever more con- 

 fidence placed in bis testimony. lu the courts of law he had several com- 

 pliments paid him from the bench, by Lord Mansfield and other judges, for 

 the new light he always threw on difficult subjects. Mr. Smeaton died in 

 1792, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. 



John Uennie, to whom England is indebted for some of her noblest en- 

 gineering works, was born on the 7th of June, 1761, at Phairtassie, in the 

 parish of Prestonkirk, in the county of East Lothian. His father, a highly 

 respectable farmer, died in 1766, leaving n widow and nine children, of whom 

 John was the youngest. The first rudiments of his education were acquired 

 at the village school. It so happened that he had to cross a brook on the 

 way, which, when flooded, obliged him to make use of a boat kept in the 

 workshop of Mr. Andrew Meikle, an ingenious mechanic, well known in 

 Scotland as the inventor of the thrashing machine. In passing so frequently 

 through this workshop, young Ronnie's attention was diiected to the various 

 operations in which the men were engaged ; and they, noticing the interest 

 be took in their labours, were in the habit of lending bim tools and showing 

 him their use. In the evenings he amused himself with endeavouring to 

 imitate the models he liad seen at the shop ; and it is related that, at little 

 more than ten years of age, he had completed the models of a windmill, a 

 pile-engine, aud a steam-engine. Renuie continued at the Preston school 

 till twelve years of age, when, having had a quarrel with his master, he en- 

 treated to be allowed to leave, and, at his own request, was placed for two 

 years with Mr. Meikle. At the end of that time, feeling that a constant ap- 

 plication to manual labour was likely to retard his mental improvement, he 

 determined to become a pupil of Mr. Gibson, an able mathematical teacher 

 at Dunbar. Here he soon attained great proficiency, and in less than two 

 years returned to Mr. Meikle with a mind well stored with mathematical and 

 physical science. His first essay in practical mechanics was the repairing of 

 a corn-mill in his native village ; and before he was eighteen years of age 

 he had erected several others. During this time he occasionally visited 

 Edinburgh, to pursue his studies in physical science under Professors Robin- 

 son and Black. The former of these gentlemen may perhaps have laid the 

 foundation of his future fortune, by introducing him to Messrs. Boulton and 

 Matt, of Soho. Deeming the capital the proper theatre to try the strength 

 of bis own powers, Rennie settled in London, after having been a few months 

 only with Boulton and Watt, who had confided to him the superintendence 

 of the mill-work of the Albion Mills then erecting. Mr. Rennie was thus 

 led to study hydraulic engineering, in which he became so celebrated as, 

 after the death of Smeaton, to have no rival. Amongst the most celebrated 

 works of this great engineer must he mentioned — besides numerous mills, 

 hridges, canals, &c. — Waterloo and Southwark bridges, the Lancaster Canal, 

 with the aqueduct over the Lune, the breakwater in Plymouth Sound, 

 and the improvements in the dockyards at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Chatham, 

 and Sheerncss. The industry of Mr. Rennie was so great, that he never suf- 

 fered amusement of any kind to interfere with his business, which fre- 

 quently occupied him twelve, and sometimes fifteen hours in the day. He 

 was clear in his mode of communicating information to others, and pleased 

 when he found that information was desired. He was never actuated by 

 professional jealousy, or selfish feehngs, but was always kind and conde- 

 scending to the more humble members of his profession. Mr. Rennie died 

 on the 16th of October, 1821, in the sixtieth year of his age, and was 

 buried in St. Paul's, where his remains repose near to those of Sir Cbrisio- 

 plier Wren. 



Thomas Telfokd was born in 1757, and commenced life as a shepherd 



boy in Eskdale j but his early and eager love of knowledge led him to seek 

 abroad an occupation more suited to his inclinations. He first repaired to 

 Edinburgh, where he studied architecture with unremitting application, al- 

 though he must have earned his daily bread by the labour of his hands. In 

 1782 he was emboldened to try his fortune in London, and was (as he states 

 in his life, written by himself) fortunate enough to employed at the quad- 

 rangle at Somerset-place, where he acquired much practical information, 

 both in the useful and ornamental branches of architecture. After a resi- 

 dence of two years in London, he was engaged in superintending the build- 

 ing of a house in the Portsmouth dockyard. " During the three years," he 

 remarks, "that I attended the building of the commissioner's house, and of a 

 new chapel in the dockyard, I had an opportunity of observing the various 

 operations necessary in the foundation and construction of graving docks, 

 wharf-walls, and similar works, which afterwards became my chief occu- 

 pation." When he left Portsmouth, he was appointed surveyor to the 

 county of Salop, and to this, and the connections formed at this time, he 

 was indebted for a very favourable opening of his career as a civil engineer. 

 His chief attention was devoted to building and repairing bridges and other 

 works, but he also built several churches and other architectural edifices. 

 Telford's progress in his professional career, though not rapid, was steady 

 and certain, and every new opportunity of exercising his talents contributed 

 to extend a reputation which at length became unrivalled — not to his talents 

 alone though, be it said, but by downright hard work united with them. To 

 enumerate all his works would take a long time ; but his principal ones are 

 the Holyhead-road, (upon which he himself set higher value than any other), 

 the Pont-y-Casylte aqueduct, and the Menai bridge, the most imperishable 

 monument of Telford's fame. The defects of his early education he had 

 endeavoured to remedy in his maturer years. He taught himself Latin, 

 French, German, and mathematics, in which he was a proficient, but relied 

 more for the dimensions of his works upon practical experiment than upon 

 calculation ; but his reason for this preference may have been, and most 

 likely was, his distrust of the data furnished him by mathematical experi- 

 menters in those days; but now that we have Barlow and Hodgkinson, cal- 

 culation from the results of their labours may be safely relied on. Telford 

 was the first President of the Institution' of Civil Engineers, and died still 

 holding that office in 1834, aged seventy-seven years. 



I shall conclude these sketches with a few remarks upon the life of an 

 engineer not less eminent than those already mentioned — the late George 

 Stephenson. He was born in 1781, at Wylam, a colliery village on Tyne- 

 side, near Newcastle. His father was a poor pitman, and he himself com- 

 menced his career of labour, when only seven years old, as a "trapper," and 

 advanced in the quality of his employment with bis years : became a "picker" 

 at five shillings a-week wages; then, the driver of a "gin;" then, a "breaks- 

 man," attending the engine while drawing up coals from the pit — and it was 

 at this time that he thought himself a "made man" for life, because his pay 

 was twelve shillings a-week. When about 23 years of age he began to learn 

 to read, for he had already felt the disadvantages of his early want of ele- 

 mentary education; and in his after years, he never omitted an opportunity 

 of urging young men to avail themselves of every means of education offered 

 to them. While at Killingworth colliery, he perhaps first felt aspirations for 

 higher things rising up within him. He was attentive, assiduous, and active- 

 minded; and he studied the engine at which be worked, so that in time he 

 came to understand it thoroughly. Not contented with merely understand- 

 ing it — he sought how to improve it, and added so many useful contrivances, 

 that he was at length called upon to do the work of an engineer. He never 

 made a false step, and every year found him higher up upon the ladder of 

 life. He was never idle, either in body or mind. He invented the safety- 

 lamp, and so greatly improved the locomotive engine, that that also may be 

 called hit invention. — What George Stephenson did for railways all know. 



From these few instances in the lives of men devoted to science and to 

 art, the student will learn the necessity of study, exertion, and self- 

 dependence. An architect or an engineer taking up his work as a task, or 

 merely with the business-l.ke view of earning a livelihood, will never excel. 

 In the days when men of science were comparatively scarce, great persever- 

 ance was necessary to get into notice and rise to fame ; but double exertions 

 are now necessary; an aspirant to professional honour will find himself 

 jostled and hard set by competitors at every step of his progress. But this 

 must raise up within him a determined spirit of emulation, a spirit not to be 

 daunted or cast down by failures, but one that will become more buoyant by 

 pressure, and he must walk with steady stride and upright head along the 

 steep and difficult path which leads to fortune. 



I have said that both architects and engineers must possess a knowledge 

 of the strength and nature of the materials with whieh they have to work. 

 This I think is self-evident, for the means or money to be expended is always 

 one great element lo their calculations | and the quantity of material that 

 can be usefully employed can only be ascertained by calculations based upon 

 an intimate knowledge of the strains and forces they will have to resist, and 

 the capabilities of the timber, the stone, the iron, or other substance that 

 may be employed to resist them. Both Tredgold and Barlow have furnished 

 us with admirable works from which the theoretical knowledge of the pro- 

 perties of all the materials used in building can be learned. There is no 

 excuse, therefore, for failures of work arising from actual want of strength ; 

 but failures do sometimes occur, notwithstanding every precaution may have 

 been taken to give the materials, both theoretically and practically, their 

 proper size and form, and proper distribution in the work. In engineering 

 especially, circumiitances are occurring every day, features constantly present 



