John Rennie
Books
- Eleven Miles Out Robert Stevenson, John Rennie, and the Building of the Bell Rock Lighthouse · Liszt Think
Eleven miles off the Scottish coast, a reef lies submerged for twenty hours a day. In the early nineteenth century, raising a granite tower on this treacherous foundation seemed impossible.
- The Rock and the Reckoning…er than upon a platform of timber and stone). He estimated costs, working seasons, the number of men required. Then he sent his proposal to John Rennie, the most celebrated civil engineer in Britain. Rennie approved Stevenson’s design and cost estimate. This approval carried weight with the…
- The Engineer’s Apprenticeship…rd almost unprecedented in public works. The commissioners noted it. The shipowners noted it. And a more distant observer noted it as well: John Rennie, the most celebrated civil engineer in Britain, whose bridges and docks and canals had made him the arbiter of technical reputation. Rennie…
- A Ship Moored Over the Reef…a visible tension between confidence and vigilance. The method had to be proved. The men had to be kept alive. The Board in Edinburgh, and John Rennie in London, had to be kept informed. Rennie’s role was consulting engineer, a title that would later generate dispute but that in 1807 meant…