Sir John Rennie (1794-1874), the younger son of John Rennie, Civil Engineer, was born in London. He constructed the second London Bridge to his late father’s design and was knighted in 1831 at its opening. In 1825 Rennie and his older brother George became joint Engineers in chief of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. He worked for the Surrey, Sussex, Hants, Wilts and Somerset Railway Company. He was also appointed Engineer for the Direct Independent London and Manchester Railway, which was never completed. In 1852 he sketched out a system of railways for Sweden, and in 1855 a series of unexecuted railways and harbours for Portugal
Rennie followed his father to become an engineer to the Admiralty. He carried out various works at Sheerness, Woolwich, Plymouth, Portsmouth, and Ramsgate. Rennie was primarily a hydraulics engineer, and much of his career was spent in adding to or altering commercial harbours and docks. In Britain these included important docks at Whitehaven and Cardiff; abroad, he built the Ponte Delgada breakwater for orange-trade boats in the Azores. He completed the drainage works in the Lincolnshire fens commenced by his father and, in conjunction with Telford, constructed the Nene outfall near Wisbech (1826–31). He also restored the harbour of Boston (Lincolnshire) in 1827–8. Rennie also contributed to J. and G. Rennie shipbuilding yard in Greenwich.
Rennie was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1823 and of the Zoological Society in 1825. He joined the Institution of Civil Engineers only in 1844 and was its president in 1845–8. He retired about 1863 and died at Bengeo, near Hertford.
Thomas Russell Crampton was born August 6 1816 in Broadstairs, Kent. He received a private education and from May 183 to 1839 he was articled to John Hauge, of Cable Street, Greenwich, London. He was a fellow pupil of Sir Fredrick Bramwell.
Between 1839 and 1844 Crampton was an assistant to the elder Brunel, Marc, and subsequently to Sir Daniel Gooch. It was under Gooch’s direction that he prepared the drawings for the first locomotive for the Great Western Railway. Crampton sought to improve current developments with the steam locomotive with regards to instability issues, and as a result he patented an engine in 1843.
Crampton spent four years (1844-1848) with John and George Rennie for whom he carried out several important works, and in 1848 he started his own business as a civil engineer.
Between 1842 and 1847 Crampton perfected the type locomotive bearing his name, in which a long boiler, outside cylinders and a low centre of gravity were the essential and distinguishing features. In 1846 two locomotives were constructed from Crampton’s designs for the Namur-Liege railway in Belgium.
In 1848 another of Crampton’s designs was constructed - named “Liverpool” - for the London and North Western Railway (LNWR). It was reputed to have been the most powerful locomotive of its day. It gained a gold medal at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
Crampton’s ideas were successful in France in the late 19th century. Using La Machine, Crampton hauled many of the lighter express trains on the northern and eastern railways of France. His designs were also built in Belgium and Germany.
Besides his career as a locomotive engineer, he played a pivotal role in laying the first successful submarine telegraph cable in 1851 between Dover and Calais. He was also responsible for inventing a rotary powered-fuel furnace, brick-making machinery and a hydraulic tunnel-boring machine, which was designed with the channel tunnel in mind.
Crampton was a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers, as an associate in 1846 and as a member from 1854. He joined the Institution of Medical Engineers in 1847, was a member of the council in 1879, and vice president in 1883.
He died at the age of 71 on April 19 1888 at his home in Westminster.
Date
December 1845
Scope and ContentFor work between Leeds and Grassington. Addressed to Mr Scott to 14 Stamford Street, Blackfriars
