" In the construction of that millwork and machinery, Bolton and Watt derived most valuable assistance from that able mechanician and engineer Mr. John then just entering into business, who assisted in plan ning them, and under whose direction they were exe cuted. The engines and millwo k were contained in a commodious and elegant building, designed and executed under the direction of the late Mr. Samuel Wyatt."1 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. Mu-. Rennie was also employed to construct the machinery of the powder mill at Tunbridge, the flex 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 hu:izni tal bridgetree, which was supported only at its two ex tremities The effect of this was that the bridgeirce 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 t•ee perfectly immoveable, and thus freed the machi nery front that irregular play which sooner or tater 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 Mt. 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, Leeds, Musselburgh, Newton Stewart, Boston, and New Galloway, testify sufficiently his judgment and taste in the art of bridge building. The first of these bridges, which was completed between 1799 and 1 F03, is thrown over the Tweed, immediately below its junc tion with the Tiviot, and consists of a level roadway resting on five elliptical arches, each of which has a span of seventy-three feet, and a rise of twenty-one feet. Its character is peculiarly suited to the fine scenery which surrounds it, and it is perhaps one of the most beautiful specimens of the art which is to be seen.
The writer of this article, when he first had the pleasure of being introduced to Mr. Rennie, stated to him this high opinion of the superiority of Kelso bridge, without being aware that it had been designed by himself. Mr. Rennie was highly gratified by this honest testimony to his talents, and the more so, as he considered the de sign of Kelso bridge as one of the very best which he ever made.
We may here mention an anecdote respecting the bridge of Musselburgh, with which Mr. Rennie him self was much entertained. When he was taking that work off the hands of the contractor, one of the magis trates who was present took an opportunity of asking a countryman who was passing at the time with his cart, how he liked the new bridge. " Brig," replied the man, "it's me brig ava ; ye neither ken whan ye gang on't or whan ye come aff 't." The old bridge has a very precipitous roadway, and being in this and in other respects the very counterpart of the new one, the homely opinion given above may be considered as one of the highest compliments that could have been paid to the engineer.
Mr. Rennie's celebrity as a bridge builder, however, must always be attached to the Waterloo bridge over the Thames, one of the grandest monuments of archi tectural skill, and of British enterprise. This stupen dons work, completed in 1817, has not altered more than five inches from a straight line on any one part of it.* One of the best designs of Mr. Rennie was that of a stone bridge over the Thames, on the site of the present London bridge. It was selected by the committee as the best of at least thirty plans, and is to be executed in Aberdeen granite, of five arches, the middle one of which is to have a span of 150 feet.
The principal iron bridges designed and constructed by Mr Rennie, are a small one over the Witham at Bos ton, which has been engraven in our article BRIDGE, and Plate XCIV.; and the great one at Somhwark4 which, notwithstanding the yin ions prophecies against its sta bility, has stood unaffected by the summer's beat or the winter's cold. Mr Rennie likewise designed'another of three arches, of ninety, eighty, and seventy feet span, for the river Goomty at Lucknow, but the Nabob of Oude would not allow it to be erected, after it was sent out by the East India Company.