Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S. 25

Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S. 25

I may here relate a curious anecdote in connection with the death of Mr.

Perceval. Messrs. Fox, Williams, and Co., the great mining contractors in

Cornwall, took the first contract for blasting the rock and depositing

the stones on the breakwater. In 1815 Mr. John Fox, a Quaker, having

come to town on business, breakfasted with my father and several others,

including myself. The conversation happened to turn on the death of Mr.

Perceval. Mr. Fox said in a simple, unaffected manner, “I remember it

very well; it is a curious story, and now I will tell it you. I was then

visiting my friend Williams at Redruth. I went to bed as usual, and awoke

in a most restless state, having had an extraordinary dream. I dreamed

that I went to the House of Commons, where I had never been before, and

having no admission into the interior of the House, I sat down quietly

on one of the benches in the lobby, expecting a Cornish member who

had promised when I came to London to give me a ticket of admission

to hear the debates. Beside me on the bench sat a tall, muscular man

(describing Bellingham most exactly), who appeared to be very restless,

and continually asking whether Mr. Perceval had come to the House, and

every now and then putting his right hand into his left breast pocket.

At length, after waiting some minutes, there was a bustle, and several

persons near me said that Mr. Perceval was coming; and shortly after

Mr. Perceval made his appearance (Mr. Fox describing the exact dress

he wore, namely, a blue coat with gilt metal buttons, white cravat and

waistcoat, with nankeen shorts, white stockings, and shoes, according to

his usual attire in the summer). Immediately after Mr. Perceval made his

appearance, the man who sat next to me got up, and, advancing close to

Mr. Perceval, drew a pistol from his left breast pocket, fired, and Mr.

Perceval fell at his feet. This occasioned great commotion. The man who

fired the pistol was at once seized, and I rushed out and asked what

had happened, and the bystanders told me that Mr. Perceval had been shot

by a man named Bellingham, who was the identical individual who had been

a few minutes before sitting by my side. When my dream had come to this

point I awoke in the greatest agitation. I could not account for it. I

had never seen Mr. Perceval, nor his murderer, Bellingham; I had never

been in the lobby of the House, and I had been in no way connected with

Mr. Perceval, either by correspondence or otherwise, still I was so much

affected by the dream that I felt convinced that Mr. Perceval had been

murdered. I passed the remainder of the night in great restlessness. I

could not sleep, but was always thinking of the dream, being thoroughly

convinced that it was true. I came down to breakfast at the usual hour,

in the most anxious and nervous state, which I in vain endeavoured to

conceal as much as possible; but my friend and partner Williams and his

whole family observed it, and said that I looked very ill, and kindly

asked me to explain the cause. After much pressing, I told my story.

Friend Williams and the whole of his amiable family said that it was

nonsense; that I had been unwell, and still was so, and said that they

would send for their family doctor. I said no; I felt perfectly convinced

that my dream would, unfortunately, prove but too true, and that the

mail, which would arrive in the evening, would bring a confirmation of

it. They tried to laugh me out of it, but nothing would do; I therefore

went about with my friend Williams, transacting our mining business,

being convinced that the arrival of the mail in the evening would confirm

the truth of my dream in all particulars. We returned to dinner at five

o’clock; at nine the mail arrived, and confirmed every particular of my

dream. I was afterwards taken to the House of Commons, where I had never

been before, and I correctly pointed out the whole particulars of the

melancholy transaction exactly as they occurred, to the astonishment of

my friends and the bystanders. The whole story seems so strange that I

cannot account for it. I relate it to you just as it occurred to me.”[2]

 

This is certainly one of those marvellous instances of foresight

which baffles all comprehension. John Fox was generally considered

by his numerous friends and acquaintance to be a most honest, plain,

straightforward, business man, and incapable of stating anything but what

he believed to be true. I heard him relate the dream, and my father and

all present believed it. The curious part of the story is how he should

have dreamed such a thing, being in no way connected with it.

 

About this time (1825) the several victualling departments of the navy

at Plymouth were very inefficient, and divided into three or four

establishments--one at Southdown, opposite to Devonport, another at

Cremill Point, near Stonehouse, a third at Plymouth, and the fourth in

Plymouth town--being several miles from each other, so that the extra

expense and delay in provisioning vessels of war was considerable. Upon

this being represented to the Admiralty by the Victualling Board, of

which the late General Stapleton was the chairman, they determined to

make an entirely new victualling establishment, concentrating the whole

of the several departments into one, upon a well-organized plan, so that

every operation should be carried out with the greatest dispatch and

economy.

 

After much discussion Cremill Point, being nearest to the dockyard at

Devonport, and being in other respects, as to depth of water, &c.,

possessed of peculiar advantages, was finally selected as the best place

for the new establishment, and I was ordered by the Victualling Board to

prepare the necessary plans, specifications, and estimates, and to see

them carried into effect.

 

Whilst these works were proceeding, a proposal was made to the Admiralty

to apply the Cornish system of engines to the Admiralty steam-vessels. Up

to this time steam, according to the principle of Watt, not exceeding 5

lb. pressure upon the square inch, was only used, whereas in the Cornish

condensing engines steam of the pressure of 37 lb. per square inch was

then usual, with much greater effect and economy. I was accordingly sent

by the Admiralty to Cornwall to investigate their scheme. I took with

me my principal assistant, the late Mr. William Lewin, a very zealous,

able, practical engineer. We examined the whole system very carefully

at different mines, measured the actual work done and the quantity of

fuel consumed, and came to the conclusion that the Cornish system of

high-pressure condensing might be applied to the navy with the greatest

advantage, and reported the same to the Admiralty. It was not adopted

at the time, although high-pressure condensing engines have since been

introduced into the navy; at the present time the pressure has advanced

to 27 and 28 lb. per square inch, and in the non-condensing engines to

100 and 120 lb. Watt, although he had tried steam at every temperature,

yet generally preferred low pressure; his reason for this must have been

the imperfect means then at command for controlling it, and perhaps

he was right at the time, for the manufacture of wrought iron had not

then made sufficient progress to render it capable of resisting with

safety the great power of high-pressure steam. He pointed out the

way, and others, through the improvements in the manufacture of iron,

have profited by his discoveries. I must not omit, in justice to the

very talented Mr. Perkins, his views as to the value of high-pressure

steam, upon which he made numerous experiments; amongst other things,

he proposed to use it as a destructive power in war, by means of his

celebrated steam gun, which created much sensation at the time; and it

is rather singular that this has not been taken up in modern times, when

every invention which can add to the methods of destruction is most

greedily adopted. There can be no doubt that the “_steam gun_” may be

used with the most terrible effect in fixed batteries either for musketry

or artillery, and probably the day will come when we shall see batteries

worked by steam, with a great diminution of manual agency; and the men

employed to work them will be so protected as to render the destruction

of human life comparatively trifling.

 

Amongst the other legacies which my dear father had left to me, was

that of building London Bridge. He had shown, to the satisfaction of

the Committee of the House of Commons, the impracticability of keeping

up the old bridge by any amount of repair or alteration; that it could

not be rendered fit for the improvement of the river Thames, nor for the

continually increasing traffic which must pass over it, at any reasonable

expense, and that therefore an entirely new bridge would be by far the

most satisfactory. The House of Commons was so fully convinced by his

arguments that it unanimously condemned the old bridge, and refused to

comply with the recommendation of the City of London that it should be

altered, but resolved that a new bridge should be built according to the

design made by my father. An Act of Parliament was accordingly passed

to this effect, the late talented and energetic Mr. Holme Sumner being

the leading member of the Committee. The Corporation demurred to this,

saying that there were other engineers equal to Mr. Rennie, and demanding

a public competition. The advertisement for designs was accordingly

issued, and a great number were sent in and referred to the Committee of

the House of Commons and the Government, according to the previous Act.

After considering the various rival plans, it was finally decided that

that of my father was the only one which complied with all the required

conditions, and it was therefore adopted. At this resolution great

discontent was manifested by the different competitors. The Corporation

of London also objected to this decision, as they considered that they

ought to have been the sole judges. But finding that the Government

adhered to its decision, they submitted, at the same time urging that

they, who were to pay the expense of the new bridge, ought to select the

engineer that was to execute the work. The Government agreed to this,

subject to their approval; and finally the Committee appointed by the

Corporation to carry into effect my father’s design, fixed upon me as the

engineer-in-chief; Mr. Richard Lambert Jones was appointed the chairman

of the executive committee of the Corporation. A very able and efficient

chairman he was, and conducted the whole to a conclusion, to the great

satisfaction of the Corporation and of the Government.

 

The design, as I have already observed, was made by my father, but no

detailed working drawings, specification, or estimate, had been prepared

by him; it fell to my lot, therefore, to do this. As I had acted under my

father during the construction of the Waterloo and Southwark bridges, I

had become so thoroughly acquainted with his system, that I had no very

great difficulty about it.