INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY
Series Two: Papers of John Rennie (1761-1821), Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and related figures from the National Library of Scotland

Part 2: Papers of John Rennie, Thomas Telford and Robert Stevenson

This microfilm collection offers material from two of the most important names of the Industrial Revolution, the Scotsmen John Rennie and Thomas Telford. Both were key figures in the development of the roads, bridges and canals that helped transform the British landscape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The strength and depth of their talent and enthusiasm for engineering is reflected in the wealth of papers that survive them and the National Library of Scotland is particularly rich in those from their later years.

Part 2 is largely dedicated to the John Rennie papers. The youngest son of a respected farming family, John Rennie was born at Phantassie, East Lothian on 7th June 1761. Apprenticed to the agricultural engineer Andrew Meikle (inventor of the threshing machine) at the age of twelve, Rennie quickly mastered the methods and tools involved in designing machinery. From 1784 he continued a career in engineering in England and was soon recommended to James Watt, who charged him with installing new steam-powered machinery at the Albion Flour Mill in Blackfriars, London. This led to further mill work and eventually larger scale engineering projects, such as London Bridge, for which he was, ultimately, to become famous.

Rennies prolific career as an engineer is evident in the numerous notebooks, plans and drawings offered in this collection. The following aspects of his work are covered:

 - Bridges: includes correspondence and reports on London, Waterloo, Vauxhall  and Southwark
 - Canals: including Aberdeen, Grand Junction and Grand Western
 - Fens: papers on all drainage work in Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire
 - Harbours: includes plans for Aberdeen, Belfast, Bristol, and various London docks
 - Lights: consists largely of letters written by Robert Stevenson regarding the Bell Rock Lighthouse, of which he was site engineer
 - Mills: including street plans, notes and calculations for the construction of the Albion Mill
 - Overseas operations: details of sugar mills, harbours, waterworks, and other projects in locations such as the West Indies, Bombay, Capetown, and St Petersburg

This material offers a variety of information on different aspects of Rennies projects from technical data regarding quantities and types of materials to be used, to more general information about the practicalities of dealing with contractors and schedules,

The committee for conducting the affairs of the Southwark Bridge Company have nearly completed a contract for the building of the bridge and making the centres for the last arches. The contractors offer to do the whole of the stonework and centres in the course of two years from this date provided you would undertake to have the ironwork done in time so as not to retard their proceedings which would be a most important advantage to the concern
MS.19775 Extract of letter from John Rennie to Joshua Walker and Co., of Rotherham, who supplied the iron for the Southwark Bridge (c.1815).

These papers also include a large amount of correspondence between Rennie and other leading industrialists of the time, including other members of his family. MS.19932-19933 are letters written to John Rennie from his sons George and William, and his uncle, also John. This collection of Rennies personal papers continues with miscellaneous material relating to his life and career, including his own memorandum on some of his major works (MS.19934).

Part 2 also includes papers relating to the life and work of the engineer Thomas Telford, consisting of business correspondence, draft reports, accounts and details of his professional activities for the last ten years of his life. Telfords Scottish projects are a particular focus of this collection, including information on the Broomielaw Bridge in Glasgow, the Aire and Calder Canal and the Aberdeen Harbour.  Also present are drafts and letters relating to the Life of Thomas Telford Civil Engineer, written by himself, edited and published in 1838 by John Rickman, the statistician, whose family preserved this collection of papers. 

Included in this microfilm project are related items from the National Library of Scotland that place the Rennie papers in the wider context of the Industrial Revolution. Of particular interest are letters written to Robert Stevenson from Sir Walter Scott and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, and correspondence from Scottish engineer John McAdam. This strong body of material enables scholars to examine a significant period in British history from the records created by some of its main protagonists and complements other Industrial Revolution collections, such as that at Birmingham Central Library.