J. and G. Rennie

Last updated

J. and G. Rennie
Industry Engineering
Founded1821
Defunct1890
Fate Wound up
Headquarters Millwall, London
Key people
 George Rennie
Products Marine steam engines

J. and G. Rennie was a British engineering company based in Millwall, London, England. They were involved in manufacture of marine engines, and some complete ships, as well as other diverse onshore engineering projects. An association with railway engines is usually attributed to G. and J. Rennie, which may suggest they used a second company to keep the books separate, and there was also George Rennie & Sons, which is associated with the development and patents of the steam disc engine. All three companies appear to have been in existence at the same time.

Contents

History

The company was founded by John Rennie and his brother George Rennie after the death of their father John Rennie (senior) in 1821, who at that time was engaged in the building of London Bridge, an activity which the younger John Rennie took over, and on completion in 1831 he was knighted. George Rennie was an equally distinguished civil engineer with many academic publications, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1822. Both brothers continued their civil and hydraulic engineering interests, with their joint company participating in diverse ways. Their hydraulic engineering interest involved them with work on docks, canals and bridges, and apart from civil engineering the company specialised in building marine steam engines such as those for the SS Archimedes in 1838, which was the world's first steamship driven by screw propeller. This side of the business being a particular interest of George Rennie.

Apart from marine engines, Messrs Rennie were listed with Boulton and Watt as one of two suppliers commissioned in 1845 to make engines to create the vacuum for the South Devon atmospheric railway. [1]

Colombo (1865) Colombo1865.jpg
Colombo (1865)

In an advert of 1882 [2] the company listed the following among their products :

HMS Bacchante (1876) HMS Bacchante (1876).jpg
HMS Bacchante (1876)

More of the products of the Rennie company can be deduced from a catalogue of exhibits from the 1876 exhibition at the South Kensington Museum, [3] which records a number of models exhibited :

Development of the Screw Propeller

The brothers' involvement in the support for the screw propeller was significant, as the British Admiralty was reluctant to change away from paddle wheels, believing the pitching of a ship would lift the propeller clear of the water in heavy seas causing the engine stress and rendering the vessel hard to control. Francis Pettit Smith and Captain John Ericsson had been trying to demonstrate the potential of the propeller for five years, and eventually it was Smith who formed a company to finance the building of the Archimedes (107 ft length) fitted with a Rennie single cylinder engine and 5 ft 9in screw propeller. It was her successful trials that began in 1839 that led to the admiralty purchasing the Mermaid in 1842 (130 ft length), which was built and engined by Rennie, and fitted with the Rennie's patent propeller of 5 ft 8in diameter. [4] This was followed by the Admiralty fitting a 10-foot diameter Smith's propeller to the unfinished sailing sloop Ardent, which was launched in April 1843 renamed HMS Rattler. [5] The Archimedes was also loaned to Brunel and resulted in him changing the design of the SS Great Britain to screw propulsion, even though the paddle wheels were part constructed, setting back the project by 9 months.

The Disc Steam Engine

The nutating disc engine was an unusual development, based on a design that dated back to the 1820s. In this engine the normal piston and cylinder was replaced by an oscillating disc. In 1849 Rennie employed George Daniell Bishopp as a foreman at their works, and he held an 1848 patent regarding this form of engine. Although the engines appear to have worked sufficiently well for several full scale trials, they had an inherent problem with their seals, and this appears to have been the main reason they were not a success.

A Rennie disc engine, with 27 inch disc, was fitted in HMS Minx in 1849, but as a supplementary engine, the original engines still being in situ. A working model of the Rennie disc engine was exhibited by George and John Rennie at the 1851 Great exhibition.

Rail Locomotives

In addition to the stationary engines to create the vacuum for the South Devon atmospheric railway, the company had other involvement with the railways. John Rennie was involved with the surveying of a route for the London and Brighton Railway (L&BR), which was in competition with a route by Stephenson. Among the engines purchased by the railway are several listed as supplied by G. and J. Rennie (as opposed to J. and G. Rennie). It appears the brothers formed a separate company for this activity to keep the books separate.

Five 2-2-2 locomotives were built for the London and Southampton Railway:

Problems were experienced and all of them were sent to William Fairbairn & Sons in February 1841 for reconstruction. [6] [7]

Rennie supplied two 2-2-2 locomotives to the London and Croydon Railway (L&CR):

In May 1842, both were transferred to the Croydon & Dover Joint Committee (C&DJC), which was a co-operation of the L&CR and the South Eastern Railway (SER) to pool rolling stock; the L&BR joined the pool in March 1844, when it became the Brighton, Croydon and Dover Joint Committee (BC&DJC). At the end of January 1846, the BC&DJC was dissolved, and both were transferred to the SER. Throughout these changes of ownership, the numbers 2 and 6 were retained. [8]

The three 2-2-2 locomotives supplied to the L&BR were: [9] [10]

The only broad-gauge locomotives built by Rennie were two of the GWR Firefly Class: [11]

Two more standard-gauge 2-2-2 locomotives were supplied to the C&DJC:

Other locomotives were built for railways in Germany. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Atmospheric Railway Engines, The Practical Mechanic and Engineer's magazine, February 1845, p139
  2. ↑ J. & G. Rennie, Advert 1882
  3. ↑ Catalogue of the Special Loan Collection of Scientific Apparatus at the South Kensington Museum 1876, Cambridge Univ Press, ISBN   1108042414, 9781108042413
  4. ↑ "Table of Steam Vessels", The Practical Mechanic and Engineer's Magazine, June 1845, pp245-247
  5. ↑ "The introduction of the ironclad warship", James P Baxter, Naval Institute Press, 2000
  6. 1 2 Lowe, James W. (19 June 2014) [1975]. British Steam Locomotive Builders. Pen & Sword Books. pp. 545–6. ISBN   1473822890.
  7. ↑ Bradley, D.L. (1965). Locomotives of the L.S.W.R.: Part 1. Kenilworth: RCTS. pp. 33–34, 36. ISBN   0-901115-08-8.
  8. ↑ Bradley, D.L. (September 1985) [1963]. The Locomotive History of the South Eastern Railway (2nd ed.). London: RCTS. pp. 23–25, 45–46. ISBN   0-901115-48-7. OCLC   642415860.
  9. ↑ Bradley 1985 , pp. 34, 36–39
  10. ↑ Bradley, D.L. (June 1969). Locomotives of the L.B.&S.C.R.: Part 1. London: RCTS. pp. 30–31, 36. ISBN   0-901115-03-7. OCLC   119571.
  11. ↑ Reed, P.J.T. (February 1953). White, D.E. (ed.). The Locomotives of the Great Western Railway, part two: Broad Gauge. Kenilworth: RCTS. p. B14. ISBN   0-901115-32-0. OCLC   650490992.{{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
  12. ↑ Bradley 1985 , pp. 27, 31–32
  13. ↑ Bradley 1969 , pp. 30, 36
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