Autobiography of Sir John Rennie, F.R.S 41
The same year I took a trip to Austria and the south of Germany, and
attended the meetings of the scientific society, the Natur Geforsches,
then being held at Vienna. I was well received, and made a member
of the society; and there I made acquaintance with some of the most
distinguished professors of Germany, and a most sociable set of gentlemen
they were. The assemblage consisted of about three hundred; we dined
every day together, and received much gratification and instruction. I
attended the sections regularly, and there I saw the Austrian archdukes,
distinguished for their scientific acquirements, who took part, and no
mean one, in the discussions, without the least pretension, precisely
upon the same footing as the other members; foremost amongst the rest
was the celebrated Prince Metternich, then in the height of his power
and consequence, as Prime Minister of Austria. He certainly was a
very remarkable man; of the middle size, extremely good-looking, with
an aquiline nose, sharp, intelligent eyes, a firmly compressed lip,
a thoroughly gentlemanlike manner, a dignified appearance, complete
self-command, and altogether impressing you with the idea that he was the
great grandee and sovereign minister of the ancient and then all-powerful
empire of Austria. Notwithstanding his high position, he attended
sections in the most unassuming manner, like the most insignificant
member present. He attended the different sections daily, and always sat
amongst the crowd, not on the bench near the president, and took his
share in the discussions as if he was a simple citizen, and any point
that he happened to take up he well maintained. Having heard so much
of the all-powerful Prince Metternich, I was rather astonished to see
him act so amiable and distinguished a part in such a society. I was
introduced to him, and was very kindly received. He opened his palace,
and he and his distinguished and handsome consort, the Princess, received
the whole of the members and their ladies with the greatest cordiality.
I also was invited amongst the rest, and remarked that, although princes
of the imperial family and the most distinguished nobles were present, I
did not observe many of their ladies; and I was told by a friend, that
as the ladies of the German professors could not afford to dress in the
splendid style of the great Austrian ladies, these latter were excluded
for fear of their eclipsing in dress the German professors’ wives. The
Emperor Francis gave the Association a most magnificent entertainment
at one of his palaces, Laxembourg, about 12 miles from Vienna. His
Imperial Majesty sent sixty-five royal carriages, with outriders in
uniform, to conduct the association to Laxembourg; and when we arrived
there, we found sixty-five other imperial carriages, with servants in
the imperial livery, to take us to the palace, and drive us about the
park and environs to show us everything worth seeing. At three o’clock
dinner was announced in the palace, and a most imperial dinner it was.
Several of the archdukes, and Prince and Princess Metternich were there,
with all the members and their ladies; and before sitting down to dinner
the Prince said that His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Francis intended
to have been present to receive the Association, but unfortunately His
Majesty was very unwell, and was unable to attend; he therefore requested
the Prince to apologise to them for his absence; His Majesty hoped
that we would excuse his absence, and make ourselves as comfortable as
if we were at home, which we certainly did, and a splendid affair it
was. A magnificent band played during dinner, Tokay champagne flowed
in abundance, and at five o’clock we started on our return to Vienna,
conveyed in the same royal carriages and accompanied by the same escort
of imperial servants that brought us to Laxembourg in the morning; in
fact, it was impossible that anything could have been better done, or
that royalty could have shown more respect or deference to science than
was done to us.
On the following Sunday, the municipality of Baden, a place some miles
from Vienna, invited us to another banquet, and sent comfortable
carriages to take us there and back. The burgomaster and councillors
received us on our arrival, and gave us a most excellent entertainment,
accompanied by the greatest cordiality and kindness. When we arrived it
wanted about two hours to dinner; and a friend of mine, high in office,
asked me if I should like to be introduced to the celebrated Archduke
Charles, the Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian armies, and who was
the first general who defeated the great Emperor Buonaparte, viz. at
Aspern. The proposition was quite unexpected, and I eagerly accepted
it. We accordingly went to the Archduke’s palace, where, on account of
ill-health, His Imperial Highness was living very quietly, taking the
baths. Upon arriving, we were shown into an ante-room furnished in the
most simple manner. After waiting a few minutes, a chamberlain made his
appearance, and ushered us into the Archduke’s presence, when we were
formally introduced to His Imperial Highness--a most simple, unaffected,
dignified gentleman, characterized strongly by the features of the
imperial family, at the same time possessing all the dignity and command
of a great soldier. He received us with great courtesy, and after bidding
us be seated, entered into conversation with us in the most easy and
familiar manner. He addressed me very kindly in French, asked after the
Duke of Wellington in particular (whom fortunately I had the honour of
knowing), and expressed in the highest terms his admiration of him as a
soldier and statesman, and said that England owed much to him. He then
entered into a general conversation about England, her great importance
and power, saying that she was the saviour of Europe, and expressed an
ardent wish that she might long retain her present influence. He said
that he should have been most happy to have dined with the municipality,
to meet us there, but unfortunately his health would not permit. After an
excellent dinner the Association returned in the evening to Vienna, much
gratified with their entertainment.
CHAPTER VI.
Ship Canal from Portsmouth to London--Machinery and
Engine Making--Screw Steam Ships--Hartlepool and Coquet
Harbours--Railways round London--Railway Mania--South-Eastern
Railway--London, Chatham, and Dover Railway.
Railways had by this time made rapid progress, and had been completely
established as the future means of conveyance for goods and passengers.
The Manchester and Liverpool and the Stockton and Darlington had been
completed with the most successful results. The Grand Junction between
Liverpool and Birmingham, the London and Birmingham, and Great Western,
were making rapid progress towards completion, and numerous other lines
were either projected or about being carried into effect. Still the
canals were not altogether supplanted; and it was proposed to make a
ship canal from London to Portsmouth, by means of which the dangerous,
tedious, and expensive navigation between those places would be avoided.
The late Mr. Horace Twiss, M.P. for Wootton-Bassett, and afterwards Under
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, took the greatest interest in
this undertaking; and from calculations which he had carefully made from
official returns, he stated that a clear revenue of 1,000,000_l._ per
annum might be derived from it. The first Lord Ashburton, then Alexander
Baring, with whom I had a long conversation on the subject, said that, if
practicable at reasonable cost, it would be a valuable national work.
During the height of the great revolutionary war with France, long before
the public had been accustomed to the vast sums which have been raised
and expended upon great works in modern times, a canal between London
and Portsmouth had been considered as a very desirable and profitable
work. My father made a plan for it in 1807, and the then Earl of Egremont
offered to subscribe largely to it: a money crisis however occurred, and
it was abandoned for the time. A canal, however, upon a much smaller
scale was afterwards made by Mr. Josias Jessop, between the Wey and Arun,
and from thence through Chichester and Longston harbours to Portsmouth.
It was upon too small and imperfect a scale, and therefore did not answer.
A ship canal, however, capable of transporting a 74-gun ship and Indiamen
of the largest class, was afterwards contemplated. A very influential
committee requested me to investigate the subject thoroughly; firstly, as
to its practicability; secondly, what was the best time for such a canal;
and thirdly, what would be the cost. I accordingly, with the assistance
of the late Mr. Francis Giles, who took the levels and surveys, explored
and examined the three lines which were most practicable--the first by
the Merstham, the second by the Dorking, and the third by the Guildford
valley. The last was decidedly the best line, having the least height,
the easiest route, and the best supply of water for the lockage. It
commenced at the Thames, and continued up the valley of the Wey to
Guildford, where it crossed the summit, descended into the vale of the
Arun, which it crossed by an aqueduct, and thence along the base of the
hills to Portsmouth Harbour.
The canal was to have been 100 yards wide at the top, and 24 feet deep.
At the summit there were to have been ample reservoirs, and capacious
basins or docks at each end. The voyage from London to Portsmouth would
have been made in two days--that is to say, by common haulage--but
steam tugs would have reduced it to twenty-four hours. The estimate
was 7,000,000_l._, which was considered so large at the time, that all
idea of prosecuting the undertaking further was at once abandoned. The
world had not then been accustomed to the enormous sums since spent upon
railways, and then they would never have believed that 16,000,000_l._
would be spent upon the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway, only the same
length as the proposed canal, or that a similar amount would be spent in
the same county upon the South-Eastern Railway.
That the canal is perfectly practicable there can be no doubt, and it
would have been of great public advantage; but whether, after all, it
would have yielded a reasonable profit for the capital expended, is a
question which I will not undertake to determine.
One part of my father’s business was the making of machinery, of which he
was very fond, being a first-rate theoretical and practical mechanic; but
the machinery department formed only a very small part of his extensive
business, although he constructed several important works, such as the
Albion Flour Mills near Blackfriars Bridge, afterwards destroyed by
fire, and where he subsequently had his own works, which still exist.
This is admitted to have been one of the best pieces of that class of
engineering ever constructed, either before or since, and performed a
quantity of work in proportion to the power employed, such as has never
been surpassed. He also designed and constructed the rolling mills in the
Royal Mint, which have been in full work for more than half a century,
and are still in as efficient a state as ever. The diving bell may almost
be said to have been an invention of his, for he effected such great
improvements in it that he was enabled to apply it to building under
water at Ramsgate Harbour for the first time in 1813. It was worked
from a scaffold above water, to which were attached movable trucks with
windlasses, working upon a rack-and-pinion railway, so that the diving
bell and the apparatus for raising and lowering the bell, together
with the stones, could be worked, and the building carried on
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